Canberra taxi drivers are calling on the ACT Government to extend its city centre marshalling and security guard program.

The Government has been employing security guards and marshals to supervise the main rank on Alinga Street in Civic on Friday and Saturday nights over the busy summer months.

But the program ends tomorrow.

Canberra Taxi Industry Association chairman John McKeough says taxi drivers coming into the city late at night are already concerned for their safety.

“The drivers have always got concerns on Friday and Saturday night, there are problems out there caused by people being full of alcohol,” he said.

“There seems to be more and more violence and racial abuse, doors kicked in, mirrors smashed on those nights.”

‘Free-for-all’

One taxi driver – known only as Harry – says he is concerned those problems will get worse once the security guards are gone.

“Once that rank is unsupervised it basically becomes a free-for-all,” he said.

“As drivers we come around the corner and all we see is a crowd of people either on the footpath or standing on the road trying to hijack the first car that comes along.

“We’re just concerned that someone is going to get injured at some stage, particularly between the hours of 3:00am and 4:00am.”

He says he has spoken to other taxi drivers who may choose to avoid the rank altogether on busy weekend nights.

“I’ve been told that if the rank in Civic is not supervised they don’t want to risk damage to themselves or their taxis,” he said.

“They would probably not come into that Alinga rank for the fear of being assaulted or having damage done to their taxis.”

‘Subsidising revellers’

The security program on Alinga Street replaced the Government’s Nightlink service which was dumped late last year.

It subsidised maxi-taxis to get large groups of revellers home quickly and ease the pressure on taxi ranks.

Mr McKeough says that failed because the Government did not do enough to promote it.

But ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says Nightlink proved too costly.

“We ended up spending over $200,000 … to subsidise it. It cost the taxpayer $19.40 per passenger,” he said.

“The ratepayers of the ACT were subsidising those late-night revellers.

“I don’t believe that’s sustainable, fair or equitable.”

He says the new security guard program has cost $100,000 over the past four months and would be too expensive to run all year round.

“Our hope is that with the cooling of the weather, people won’t congregate in the city. They’ll be more inclined to move home and there won’t be the same numbers as we move into winter,” he said.

Mr Stanhope says the taxi stand is now monitored by the police using CCTV.