Officers from NSW Police Transport Command will be targeting crime and anti-social behaviour on trains and at transport hubs from Thursday and at the Cootamundra Show this weekend.

Transport Command South/SouthWest Detective Inspector Stuart Owen said officers would also visit Junee and Wagga in coming weeks.

“Myself and three other officers will be travelling by XPT to Cootamundra,” he said,

“It’s a four-day operation, so we will be leaving on Thursday and then we’ll leave Cootamundra on the Sunday.

“The operation will be a targeting the antisocial behavior and crime on the transport network, in particular the rural service, the XPT.”

According to the Riverina Police District, uniformed and plain clothed officers will be deployed to target, property theft, violent crime, and drug offences on the public transport network and support local police in the fight against crime.

During the “’high-visibility police operation’, officers will patrol local transport hubs as well as providing operational support to Cootamundra Police during the Cootamundra Show.

Inspector Owen said the operation at Cootamundra was not the result of specific complaints.

“From the South/SouthWest Sector, we have got deployments coming up in Junee, Nowra, Albury and Wagga,” he said.

“That’s just in the next coming months.

“It’s a good chance for us to do some community engagement.

"We do get some terrific feedback, in particular from people travelling on the rural train networks just to see that police presence on the trains.”

Inspector Owen said part of the operation was to raise awareness of NSW Police’s work on public transport services. 

“If people are travelling on rural train networks, there is the possibility that at any time there could be a police presence on those trains,” Inspector Owen said.

“Out in the country a lot of people are not aware that there is a Police Transport Command, particularly if they don’t use public transport frequently, but we do get out and about a fair bit.”

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