Passenger Rail, Safety, Standards & Regulation

New Queensland Rail safety campaign for Rail Safety Week

Queensland Rail train. Photo: RailGallery.com.au

Queensland Rail has launched a new safety campaign to coincide with Rail Safety Week, in an effort to raise awareness about the dangerous behaviour on the state’s rail network that has led to numerous incidents and near-misses.

Queensland Rail CEO Nick Easy said that the new campaign would employ humour to drive the important safety message home to passengers.

“Queensland Rail is using light hearted humour to highlight a very serious subject, and encourage train users and the wider community to consider their actions on and around the rail network,” Easy said.

“From simply holding the hand rail and standing behind the yellow line, to being aware of your surroundings and obeying safety measures at level crossings, the campaign will get people thinking about safe behaviours.”

There were 187 near miss incidents in 2016/17 financial year, down from the 248 in 2015/16 – a reduction of almost 25 per cent.

But while this is a significant improvement, Easy said that too many people were still risking injury or death by rushing and not paying attention.

“People are still taking too many unnecessary risks around the rail corridor. They need to remember trains can travel extremely fast and take hundreds of metres to stop.”

Footage has been released showing a number of such near misses on the south-east network. For instance, one clip shows what appears to be a school student running across a crossing just as a train is arriving at the station; another shows a man with a bike crossing while the warning lights are flashing, moments before the passing of a train; several more show individuals rushing across the tracks at undesignated crossing points, with an incoming train visible in the distance.

“These incidents don’t just affect the victim. They can have long lasting psychological effects on staff, customers, and emergency services, and we hope these high visibility safety campaigns will start a conversation about rail safety,” Easy said.

The campaign will form part of the Rail Safety Week initiatives across the state, during which the Queensland Rail community education team will visit schools, stations and the EKKA to raise safety awareness around train stations and rail corridors.