Project

Evaluation of crime prevention at the Yverdon-les-Bains railway station

Customer satisfaction is a major concern for Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). One factor that can have a profound impact on overall customer satisfaction is railway-station safety. Working on behalf of SBB Real Estate, EBP evaluated the need for crime-prevention measures at the Yverdon-les-Bains Railway Station.

In the interest of improving the degree to which its customers feel safe at the Yverdon-les-Bains Railway Station, SBB Real Estate commissioned EBP to evaluate the safety situation at the station and to draft any measures that could be expected to make a significant contribution to safety. In carrying out our evaluation, we made use of a method we developed together with crime-prevention experts.

Urban crime prevention

Experts in urban crime prevention focus on structural, design and organizational measures to improve degrees of objective safety and subjective perceptions of safety. EBP organized a workshop to give twenty individuals (including SBB employees, members of the local police force and other city agencies, as well as members of local businesses and public-interest groups) an opportunity to analyze the safety situation in and around the Yverdon-les-Bains Railway Station.

Crime mapping markers

Using crime mapping markers, the workshop participants identified specific locations at the railway station that had frequently been scenes of crime and other locations where SBB customers and other railway station visitors felt uncomfortable. The possible causes for the feelings of unease or even a sense of danger were numerous, and encompassed, for instance, people loitering and poorly illuminated or soiled spaces. Using the identified locations as a reference, EBP sat down with the workshop participants to develop measures to improve the safety situation.
The result of the analysis included 30 proposed measures for increasing the appeal of the Yverdon-les-Bains Railway Station and preventing both unwanted and criminal behavior.

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