Queensland Rail urges customers to be careful after 373 injuries last year
Queensland Rail has urged customers to travel with care after 373 customers were injured due to tripping and falling on the network in 2024. It has shared a compilation of footage showing customers losing their balance, often on stairs and escalators in train stations. In one clip, a customer is walking in front of the yellow line and takes a tumble straight onto the tracks. Rushing, distraction and carrying heavy luggage or other large items are common causes of these incidents, Queensland Rail said.
Brisbane Central registered the highest number of customer injuries in 2024 with 57 incidents, followed by Roma Street with 37, Northgate with 13, Caboolture with 11 and Springfield Central with 10.
Iâd imagine they also just tend to be the busiest (or rather, the highest peak loads) - Central and Roma St obviously get slammed every workday morning and evening, the the Valley gets that to a lesser extent + pretty big crowds of drunk people being idiots on Friday and Saturday nights. Not as familiar with the other two but it does seem like their status as interchange stations adds to it, although maybe thatâs just because more people get off/on there?
Probably but, to be perfectly blunt, a lot of the incidents in that video seem to be a result of stupidity on the part of the passenger. Letâs try and shoulder barge our way into the almost closed doors of a train! Or walk our big heavy scooter down the stairs. And donât get me started about old mate who walked clean off the platform.
I honestly think this is one aspect that Brisbane does well (in general, not just in transport). Of course, that doesnât mean that thereâs no room for improvement but still, the trains and the NGR toilets tend to be quite clean, which is very nice
I note with concern the ongoing reckless use of e-scooters in Qld, and worry that it may prompt authorities to apply a blanket ban.
I strongly believe that hired e-scooters (the Lime, Neuron ones around) as well as personal e-scooters are useful tools to address the last-mile issue with public transport, as well as being a bit of a fun transport option for responsible users, so I have been thinking about what options are available to address reckless use, other than fines or bans.
To the more technically minded out there:
Is it feasible to install a âgyroscopeâ or similar device that could, along with software, track reckless use, and associate it with the user?
In my mind, if the technology could track the scooterâs position in space and then record e.g. sudden changes in direction/altitude/speed etc, and with ongoing instances, the account that has hired the scooter at that time could be âdisciplinedâ with speed limits/timeouts/curfews etc.
I think part of the challenge is the rapid increase in personally owned e-bikes/scooters. From what I see the hired ones cause more of a nuisance (left on footpaths etc) where as the reckless behaviour happens more so on private devices - so how would you control them?
Oh yeah youâre right, the privately owned ones have a much higher rate of being involved in crashes/safety issues, I recall the ABCâs 7.30 program mentioning that in a reportâŚ
Well, hopefully the regulators are capable of seeing the difference, and perhaps more importantly that the media is mature enough to do the same
