Warning: this story contains offensive language.
A man has been traumatised and is scared of catching Newcastle buses after a passenger hurled abuse at him in a racist rant captured on camera.
The man, who asked to remain anonymous for his own safety, has spoken out about the targeted tirade amid continuing reports of trouble on the city's public transport network.
"You take your life into your own hands when you get on a Newcastle bus. It is so scary," the man told the Newcastle Herald.
The shocking footage was taken on Thursday, June 11, just days after a bus driver was allegedly choked and punched.
The man said he was speaking quietly on a call to his mother, who lives with dementia and was upset, through earphones while riding the bus from the CBD to Charlestown just after noon.
He was born and raised in Newcastle after his parents migrated decades ago. As his mother's health has deteriorated, they communicate more in her native Macedonian language.
He said a passenger sitting across from him, a grey-haired man wearing shorts and a red and blue cap, was visibly agitated. He told his mother and partner that he had to go.
"I sensed something was about to happen and I was trying to work out an exit strategy," the man said.
He discreetly started recording as the passenger erupted.
"Talk your f---ing language again mate, you f---ing rude c---," the man could be heard saying.
"This is Australia ... talk English instead of being a rude c---, you f---ing arrogant f---face."
The man continued hurling verbal abuse as his target noticed the bus had stopped on Darby Street at Parkway Avenue and decided to get off. He asked the driver to call the police.
Feeling threatened and in a panic, he passed another woman boarding. The man followed, also pushing past her.
"You think you're something special, don't you," he said on the video.
The yelling man then appeared to walk off, as the other man doubled back to get on the bus and continue onto Charlestown.
In a separate incident on the same bus when it stopped at Kotara, the man said another passenger hurled a homophobic slur at him as she exited.
The man said he was "absolutely shocked and traumatised" by the time he got home, but decided to go public with his experience to call for change.
The man relies on public transport to get around.
"Every single time you enter a Newcastle bus, it is for fear of your life," he said.
"I am just sick of getting on public transport and fearing for my life."
He said people knew what had been going on with the immigration debate in Australia and the rise of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, and there were broader societal issues at play.
"It's not the law we need to speak English in Australia. We are this country where people have come from everywhere," he said.
"This whole conversation about how we interact with each other as a society has devolved into this bearpit of us and them, and [this incident] was an example of that."
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The man said he believed the bus driver should have called the police earlier or tried to de-escalate the situation. He said it made him worry drivers were not given enough safety protections themselves.
The man made reports to Keolis Hunter, Transport for NSW, and was in the process of making an online report to police.
A Keolis Hunter spokesperson said it took incidents of this nature extremely seriously and would ensure CCTV footage was available to NSW Police investigators.
"Keolis Hunter extends its sincere apologies to the passenger involved," they said.
"Providing safe, reliable transport for our passengers and drivers is our absolute top priority, and verbal or physical aggression towards our staff and customers is unacceptable."
They said drivers were trained in de-escalation techniques and all buses were fitted with CCTV, duress alarms and protection screens.
"In this instance, the driver followed the correct protocols - remaining calm, staying in his seat and notifying the Operational Control Centre. We commend him for his professionalism," they said.
All Keolis Hunter buses have alarms that connect to that 24-hour control centre, which has a direct line to police radio and mobile security teams.
It comes after a 32-year-old driver was hospitalised after a passenger allegedly punched and choked him on Sunday night.
A 33-year-old man had become aggressive on a service between Maryland and Merewether so the driver alerted his office and got off the bus. Police allege the passenger assaulted the driver. He was arrested and charged.
The incident followed the alleged stabbing of a bus driver at Charlestown in February and the alleged bashing of a 13-year-old boy wearing pyjamas to get a drink earlier this month at Newcastle Interchange.
