Brisbane passengers trapped on train for 3 hours
Passengers on Brisbane’s Ferny Grove line on Friday night had no idea of the nightmare that was about to unfold when they stepped onboard. At 6pm, the city-bound train broke down between stations, marking the beginning of an almost three-hour ordeal in which travellers were trapped, part of the time in total darkness.
According to passenger Christian Berndt, 18, who had been heading into the CBD for a concert, the train came to a sudden stop between Windsor and Bowen Hills stations, causing sheer chaos onboard.
Children were “bawling” and begging to be let off, while some commuters were forced to humiliatingly urinate in open carriages after being stuck for two and a half hours.
“[One little boy’s] grandparents drank all of the water in [their water] bottle so the four-year-old could pee in the bottle,” Christian explained to news.com.au. “The four-year-old was so scared that his grandmother had to walk him up and down the train with her phone’s torch. He was visibly distressed. There was also a four-month-old baby in my carriage.”
Passengers were told they would be evacuated after an hour and a half, but that time came and went with no one freed from the train. “The announcements were horrible,” said Christian. “We’d go an hour without hearing anything."
“In the time it took to fix the train and get going again, we all could have gotten off safely, and reached a road to take a taxi, bus, Uber – literally anything would have been better than how it was handled,” Mr Berndt said.
“My compensation for my three hours in the one spot was my $1.95 fare refund and a verbal apology. I’m obviously not too impressed with that.”
A spokesperson for Queensland Rail, which has been in strife since late last year after the messy opening of its Redcliffe line, a driver shortage and massive delays in rolling out new trains, said the operator would be conducting a “full review” of the incident and refunding those affected.
However, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says it’s not enough. “I think that’s pretty horrific. I don’t think anyone would want to be in that situation and I would hope that Queensland Rail will personally write to every single passenger on that train and apologise for the inconvenience.”