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PRIVACY

Hidden cameras catch cleaners looting Swedish trains

Hidden cameras were used to catch a number of sticky-fingered cleaners red handed stealing from the restaurant cars of Swedish trains.

Hidden cameras catch cleaners looting Swedish trains

The cameras were installed in February after officials from Swedish national rail operator SJ noticed significant shrinkage in the stocks of liquor, beer, food, and candy found on several restaurant cars, the Metro newspaper reports.

The cameras were put in place immediately after the trains were taken out of service and before they were moved to the depot in Hagalund, Solna, but were removed again before the cars were put back in service.

Following the camera’s installation, ten members of the train’s cleaning crews were caught in the act, with one suspect being recorded literally wiping the shelves clean and depositing the booty into a large plastic garbage bag.

“We’re talking about thefts of a significant amount over the course of a year,” SJ spokesperson Dag Rosander told the newspaper.

The ten cleaners have now been reported to the police.

However, union representatives have complained that SJ lacked a permit to install hidden surveillance cameras in the workplace.

Many people unrelated to the investigation were also caught on the nearly 50 hours of footage gathered in SJ’s quest to unmask the restaurant car thieves.

As a result of the union’s privacy violation concerns, Sweden’s Data Inspection Board (Datainspektionen) is set to review the matter.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Swedish rail company SJs site crashes on Christmas tickets release

The booking site of Sweden's state-owned rail company SJ crashed on Tuesday evening after the company released long-awaited tickets for the Christmas period.

Swedish rail company SJs site crashes on Christmas tickets release

The company on Tuesday night released tickets for the period from December 11th to March 12th next year, only to see the site crash under the volume of booking requests. 

“There are enormous amounts of customers who want to buy tickets, even though it’s the middle of the night,” Lina Edström, a press officer for the company said shortly after midnight. “The home page quite simply can’t cope with responding to so many requests at the same time. 

The site started to work again a few hours later, only to crash once again as people woke up and started booking on Wednesday morning. 

“The reports we are getting is that it’s working for some people and not for others. That’s what we’re seeing as Sweden wakes up and more and more people try and get onto the site,” said Jonas Olsson, another press officer at 7.30am. 

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The release of Christmas tickets in Sweden has been severely delayed because of late publication of the Swedish Transport Administration train plan for 2023, which coordinates the times for all passenger and goods trains in Sweden. 

The train plan should have been published at the start of August, giving companies 18 weeks to set tickets from December 10th. It was only released on October 19th. The administration said that it has had problems due to change over to a digital system. 

Many customers have been complaining that they have seen prices for Christmas trips double in the time it has taken them to book a ticket. 

Olsson told the TT newswire that SJ’s pricing system is based on the level of demand. 

“I understand the frustration, and we may well look at this going forward,” he said. “But even if many people have ended up in this situation, there are many others who have been able to buy cheaper tickets.” 

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