“Many vent their anger”
The Frankfurt public transport company is now increasingly checking compliance with the mask requirement and the tickets. The people in action need a thick skin.
When Rachid D., Dilyet Y., Saray G. and Souad J. carry out checks on behalf of Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt (VGF), they don’t just wear their uniforms, they also wear thick skins. Like 106 other Wisag employees, they are used as service and inspection staff on the railways.
“Since Corona, aggressiveness has increased,” says Souad, who is one of the 15 percent of women who work as inspectors. Their last names remain anonymous because of the aggression. “As a woman, you’re not taken seriously at first,” she says with a friendly smile. “But people don’t get so loud with women.” With a practiced eye, she and her three colleagues get on the subway. Some passengers quickly pull the mask over their mouth and nose, others get out very quickly. A young man with a shirt and suit on the dry-cleaner has “forgotten his ticket” and is given a long ticket for 60 euros “increased fare”. He says “thank you” because he is told that he only has to pay a processing fee of seven euros if he subsequently delivers the valid ticket.
A woman without a ticket and a mask gets rough. “I want the police to come,” she says venomously on the platform, holding her stomach in annoyance. They won’t show any papers so that control can issue her the tickets. The police are informed, and some security staff are also at a distance from the platform they were asked to be on. After brief discussions with the inspectors, a fresh mask and a bottle of water for the lady, she changes her mind. The police are canceled again, the whole thing costs the woman 110 euros.
“Dealing with passengers is a tightrope walk,” says Sven Heller, Group Manager for Quality Assurance at VGF. “On the one hand, service is top priority, on the other hand, we punish people who don’t have tickets with them or don’t wear a mask. You need a sure instinct for that.”
The four die confirm that. “You can quickly see who is rushing to the track and briefly forgets to put on the mask,” says Saray. “In such cases, a show of hands is enough, and then we don’t collect either. And if we are insulted, we don’t take it personally.” During the six-week training, two to three days are devoted exclusively to de-escalation and dealing with difficult situations.
A slumped woman is sitting on a pillar on the platform. Two inspectors speak to her, give her water and call an ambulance. “We do that about 80 times a month. Even more often now that it’s so hot,” they report and stay with the woman until help arrives. Meanwhile, Rachid and Dilyet have boarded the next train – all passengers are wearing masks and everyone has valid tickets. “That’s rare.” The underground and trams from and to the main station are particularly difficult, because there are some people on the tram who have excuses and have to pay.
Alone, none of the quartet would want to control. The four are also happy that Wisag security people are on duty at all stations for the VGF. They wear vests with yellow stripes. “A vest weighs eight kilos,” says one of the security guards. He’s tall, muscular, and has piercing blue eyes. “The safety vests are important,” he says. Two weeks ago, during the lunch break at the constable’s station, he and his colleagues knocked down a man who had injured another man in the upper arm with a machete; the police take the perpetrator away.
Two young people without a mask and without a ticket are sitting in an underground train from the main station; they are sent off the train. The man reportedly had no papers with him. “Watch out, he’s speeding away,” whispers an inspector to his colleagues. The aggressive man, clearly drugged, runs up the stairs. The woman shows her papers, receives the bill as her companion slowly comes back down the stairs. “I fucked your mother,” he scolds Rachid and Saray. They don’t show if they feel hurt. “It’s much worse in the evening,” says Souad. “There’s a whole lot of people venting all their anger and getting really bold.”
The worst are adolescents in puberty and those who refuse to wear masks. People who are just dying for riots and aggression. But if passengers make a riot, the security service is there very quickly.