Onehunga stabbing: More transport safety officers deployed to deadly bus route

With a community on edge after the stabbing of a woman on a bus in Auckland this week, extra transport officers have been deployed to the fatal route.

Police say while the alleged attacker was known to them, the incident was random and there was no altercation before the attack between the man and the victim.

Flowers lay near the site where the attack took place. Photo/RNZ

Kael Leona has been charged with the murder of Bernice Louise Marychurch who was travelling on the bus when she was knifed by him on Wednesday.

Police said Marychurch suffered multiple stab wounds while on the moving bus on Church Street. She died at the scene.

Leona, 37, appeared in the Auckland District Court on Friday.

He handed himself to police on the North Shore on Wednesday after a search through Onehunga and Mount Wellington.

Extra transport officers have been deployed on the Onehunga route. Photo/Auckland Transport

Police said Marychurch was riding the number 74 bus through Church St in Onehunga when she was attacked.

Auckland Transport has announced that extra transport officers have been deployed to the route the bus was taking when the incident unfolded.

AT officials met with the police and Transport ministers on Friday to discuss safety improvements.

AT's public transport director, Stacey van der Putten, praised the bus driver for trying to help the woman and other passengers.

While all buses are equipped with CCTV cameras, GPS trackers, and driver-panic buttons, this bus did not have a perspex barrier to protect drivers.

Staff at the bus depot can respond to driver-panic alerts, see what is happening on the bus, and dispatch police to the driver's location.

In the Onehunga incident, the CCTV footage provided police with leads in the investigation.

Auckland Tranport's Stacey van der Putten addresses journalists following the Onehunga bus attack. Photo/RNZ

Van der Putten told media Auckland Transport aims to have 80 per cent of buses equipped with the barriers in the next two years.

Concerns have been raised about the safety of travellers on public transport.

Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board chair Maria Meredith says the Onehunga community has been on edge since a killing in August.

She says there has been some relief since a man handed himself to police.

Auckland's transport network has 54 safety officers, a "limited number", given the size of the network they cover, van der Putten said.

There are eight officers in training but there is no budget for further training, she added.

Transport safety officers wear body cameras and are trained in de-escalation situations. However, they do not have stab-proof vests and have limited powers to intervene.

Van der Putten said people concerned about the unruly behaviour on public transport should report it.

Police presence will continue at transport hubs across Auckland this labour long weekend, Acting Detective Inspector Alisse Robertson said.

Police are urging members of the public who witnessed the attack to call them.

Leona will return to the Auckland High Court on 13 November on the murder charge and three other charges - burglary, strangulation, and threatening to kill - that are unrelated to the bus stabbing.

Leona did not apply for name suppression and will also appear in the Auckland District Court on 15 November on two breaches of release conditions and two charges of obstructing police.

Kael Leona has been charged over the death of a passenger on a bus in Onehunga. Photo/RNZ