CALGARY — A Calgary woman says she hopes the city will develop a smartphone app enabling riders to report unsafe situations on transit after witnessing 10 youths making racist comments and harassing a CTrain passenger.

Kathleen Angel said she got on the Saddletowne-bound train at the 4th Street S.W. station around 5 p.m. Tuesday when 10 people in their late teens crammed onto the full train.

Soon after they piled in, they started hassling fellow passengers, making it hard for people to get in and out and physically grabbing at them. The teens eventually zeroed in on a young Muslim woman, Angel said.

“They were saying, ‘Go back to your country,’ ” Angel said, adding the youths also spoke loudly about knives, guns and other weapons.

Newer trains have help strips running along the walls of the cars, and, when pushed, can activate cameras so drivers can assess the situation. But this was an older train and the help button was too far for Angel to reach, she said, adding other riders appeared too fearful to take action.

Finally, when one of the youths started urinating on the floor, a young man yelled at him to stop and someone eventually alerted the driver, she said.

The youths got off at Marlborough station and fled before the driver arrived, Angel said. By then, the young woman who was being harassed had also left.

Angel said she’d like to see an app where people can report such incidents to transit security. Ideally the app would be GPS-loaded so security can see where the train is and where the report is coming from, she added.

She said she also wants Calgary Transit to educate the public about not being tolerant of harassment, racism and other disturbances, and hopes to see signs on trains and buses with numbers to call to report incidents.

Brian Whitelaw, co-ordinator of Calgary Transit public safety and enforcement, said they did not receive “a flood of calls” about this incident and it doesn’t appear a peace officer was dispatched.

He said his department is looking into the incident.

He added he likes Angel’s app suggestion.

“I do like the idea of establishing an app for these types of situations where you’ve got serious, anti-social behaviour,” he said.

These are the types of incidents peace officer are often called to, and he encouraged anyone who witnesses such confrontations to call 911 or Calgary Transit at 403-262-1000.

He said this particular incident sounded serious enough to warrant a 911 call, which would have dispatched police officers and alerted transit security.

Whitelaw recommended that if riders want to make a call for help without drawing attention to themselves, they could get off at the next stop, get onto a different car on the same train, and make the call from there.

“I can appreciate that it can be scary, the risk of drawing attention to themselves — as she identifies — until it becomes so outrageous that more people are motivated (to help),” he said.

He acknowledged that older trains aren’t equipped with the help strips along the walls, but urged people to try to activate the button if possible in case of an emergency. They are located near the doors on older trains.

“The key is the operator of the train. Once they become aware, they are the communication link to our peace officers or to the Calgary Police Service, based on what’s going on.”

Although he does not recommend that people report incidents over Twitter, he said staff monitor Twitter for any incidents. They also monitor all the train platforms and transit stations on a 24-hour basis.

He added staff maintain regular patrols to keep an eye out for incidents like the one Angel described.

“These are the cases we want to essentially reduce if not eliminate,” Whitelaw said.

cho@calgaryherald.com