Brisbane passengers trapped on train for 3 hours
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“[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 <a href="http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/brisbane-train-nightmare-passengers-stuck-twoandahalf-hours-on-ferny-grove-line/news-story/2da6029fb1be06dc97f7f5646b021444" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">news.com.au</span></strong></a>. “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.”</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
