Train stranded Ferny Grove Line Friday 11th August 2017

[techblitz]

http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/brisbane-train-passengers-left-in-the-dark-after-five-minute-trip-becomes-three-hour-ordeal/ar-AApUpeD?li=AAavLaF&ocid=spartanntp

[ozbob]

Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo  ...

MSN --> Brisbane train passengers left in the dark after five-minute trip becomes three-hour ordeal

What should have been a five-minute trip between two Brisbane train stations turned into a near three-hour ordeal for passengers left stuck on a Queensland Rail (QR) train following a power issue.

A six-carriage train carrying about 60 people on the Ferny Grove line making the trip between Windsor and Bowen Hills came to a stop about 6:15pm on Friday and did not move until close to 9:00pm.

A QR spokeswoman said the drama was caused by a flying fox getting caught in the pantograph, the part that connects the train to the overhead power lines.

Angry passengers told ABC News they were left in the dark — both figuratively and literally — when the power went out.

Ferny Hills teenager Christian Berndt was trying to get to Fortitude Valley for a concert when the train stopped.

He said frustration among passengers turned to anger as the wait grew longer and longer.

"By the end everyone was done. People were pacing up and down the carriage and just wanting to absolutely give it to every Queensland Rail staff that [sic] was on that train," Mr Berndt said. He said a group of Broncos supporters missed out on the night's game at Lang Park.

"$300 worth of tickets sitting on a train waiting to see a game that they're not actually going to get there on time for. So these people were not real happy at all," Mr Berndt said.

He said he had received a phone call this morning offering $1.95 refund and a verbal apology.

"I'm not real happy with that to be honest. I definitely think there should be some more compensation, definitely for those people going to the Broncos game they should get their tickets refunded," Mr Berndt said.

"Obviously I was late and missed almost all of my concert. I wouldn't mind the refund of my concert tickets back.

"I definitely think it could have been handled a lot better"

Another passenger, Steve Hansen from Newmarket, was on his way to Fortitude Valley for dinner when the train came to a halt.

He described QR's actions as "average at best".

"There just didn't seem to be a real understanding of what the plan was going to be," Mr Hansen said.

He said the air conditioning was on for about half an hour of the three-hour stoppage.

"If it happened in summer it would have been a nightmare," he said.

"God knows what would have happened if there was actually something serious happening. Imagine if it was stopped inside the underground in the Valley there. It beggars belief. "

Children played hide-and-seek in dark carriages

Another passenger Deanna May, 34, who was on her way to the Broncos game at Lang Park with a friend, said most of the time in the train was spent in complete darkness.

"It was distressing at the time because we didn't know what was going on and people were worried there was a really serious problem," Ms May said.

"I was just pleased to get out of there at the end ... it was pretty distressing. "You get a bit claustrophobic wondering whether they can't physically open the doors."

Ms May said young children in her carriage made the most of the event by playing hide-and-seek for the times when the power was off.

"Towards the end there was one lady who started sharing her packets of chips to hungry people .... we were following the [Broncos] game on our phone, people got a bit more chatty as time went on," she said.

"I was just glad it wasn't a catastrophe and everyone was safe." Palaszczuk Government MP Steven Miles said Friday's problems were unrelated to wider problems with Queensland Rail services.

"All we would says to people who were on that train is that we're sorry that occurred and they should contact TransLink, who will organise a full refund of their fare," Mr Miles said.

"This is an unfortunate incident but it's unconnected to other events and the concerns with regard to QR."

Earlier this week a report looking at QR's operations found Queensland's problem-plagued new trains still have "deficiencies" including door and braking issues and it is likely they will not be ready for the Commonwealth Games.

"We are working hard to get these new trains fit for our train network and of course getting these new trains on the network will relieve these kinds of sporadic faults."

The QR spokeswoman said the number one priority was passenger safety.

"The focus last night was to ensure it was safe for our customers to disembark," the spokeswoman said.

"We acknowledge this took considerable time. We would like to sincerely apologise to the customers affected for the experience they had and the inconvenience to their evening. "We have started to make contact with customers who have provided their contact details. We encourage others customers impacted to please contact TransLink for a fare refund on 13 12 30."

[ozbob]

 

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Brisbane train nightmare: Passengers stuck two-and-a-half hours on Ferny Grove line

DISTRESSED passengers were trapped on a train for almost three hours in a horror trip that left scared children "bawling" to be let off and forced some travellers to urinate in open carriages.

The passengers, who included young children, sat in total darkness for about one-third of the ordeal after their Brisbane train broke down between stations at about 6pm on Friday.

It is the latest rail fail to hit the network and comes more than six months after an independent inquiry recommended better communications to "restore public confidence" in Queensland Rail.

QR has been in the spotlight since late last year, following the bungled opening of its Redcliffe line, an ongoing driver shortage that triggered the collapse of its Citytrain timetable and serious delays in rolling out new trains under a $4.4 billion New Generation Rollingstock program.

Christian Berndt, 18, of Ferny Hills was headed to a concert when he became trapped on board the Ferny Grove line train when it suddenly stopped between Windsor and Bowen Hills stations.

He said with no toilets on board, one trapped passenger had no choice but to relieve himself in the corner of one of the carriages, while a young boy had to urinate in a bottle.

"His grandparents drank all of the water in the bottle so the four-year-old could pee in the bottle," he said. "They turned all the power off and we went black for almost an hour.

"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.

"We were told we were going to be evacuated, which was meant to happen after an hour-and-a-half. This never ended up happening," he said.

"They decided on a few other plans, which didn't work. The announcements were horrible. 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 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."

Ashgrove childcare worker Jess Robeck, 27, was heading to a Broncos game, when she heard a loud bang.

"By the two and a half-hour mark there was a lot of crying," she said of the child passengers.

She said one woman was in "quite a lot of pain" from holding her bladder.

"She had tears in her eyes because she was in so much pain," she said. "We just kept getting told 'five more minutes' but it would never happen."

A QR spokeswoman said the train was stopped for two and a half hours and QR apologised for the "considerable time" passengers waited.

She said the incident was caused by a flying fox becoming caught in equipment connected to overhead power lines.

"We will be undertaking a full review of the incident and refunding customers impacted," she said.

Been given the ' treatment ' in the Sunday Mail .. 

[ozbob]

We have suggested this before.  All guard compartments could have a small stockpile of these for emergency use.

http://www.traveljohn.com/products/disposabale-urinal/traveljohn-disposable-urinal/

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

13th August 2017

Equip trains with disposable urinal kits

Good Morning,

Unfortunate incident for passengers who were caught on a failed train for hours on Friday evening.

MSN --> Brisbane train passengers left in the dark after five-minute trip becomes three-hour ordeal

Couriermail --> Brisbane train nightmare: Passengers stuck two-and-a-half hours on Ferny Grove line

We have suggested in the past that each guard compartment be stocked with a small number of disposable urinal kits for when passengers are stuck on a train for hours.  It is very distressing for passengers under those circumstances.  There are plenty of such kits available.

Example:  TravelJohn Disposable Urinal  http://www.traveljohn.com/products/disposabale-urinal/traveljohn-disposable-urinal/



Many passengers are placed in great discomfort if they cannot go to the toilet under such circumstances.  It makes sense to equip our trains with a small supply of disposable urinal kits.

Best wishes,
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track https://backontrack.org

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/896436479966105600

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/896495240051179520

  -->

[#Metro]

What did I just read?

I can understand a bat got caught in the electricals, but what stopped the pax being evacuated earlier?

Did QR decide not to let passengers out unless they are at a station platform?

So then the fault would have to be fixed (hours) before the train could move?

In any case, not a good look. "Think like a customer" I guess. 

[HappyTrainGuy]

What did I just read?

I can understand a bat got caught in the electricals, but what stopped the pax being evacuated earlier?

Did QR decide not to let passengers out unless they are at a station platform?

So then the fault would have to be fixed (hours) before the train could move?

In any case, not a good look. "Think like a customer" I guess. 

Hahahaha what a beat up by the courier mail. "Passengers" urinated in corner of carriage. One bloke took a p%ss and suddenly its passengers??? Anything to sell papers

No. QR was going by the rules put in place under the zero harm policy. It a shame that some people were inconvenienced but it was for their safety. The 19 year old might have been okay running along the tracks in his sneakers but what about the grandparents with their grandchildren walking along a pitch black railway corridor?? Or the 20 something year old in high heels??? If it was during the day I suspect that they would have escorted them off the train and along the corridor but since it was night, on an elevated section with no access roads it would have been best to leave them on the train.

It depends where the train stopped and what the crew thought the fault actually was at the time. The crew would have gone though their problem solving and restart procedures thinking they could fix the issue and get the train going again. Finding and getting a recovery train to tow it to the next station for passengers to disembark (if there is a panto problem you better hope you can get it into the down position otherwise the train isn't going anywhere because you risk bringing down the overheads) should they not be able to get it to limp into the next station. A location for where the hirail vehicles could access the corridor. De-energising the overheads. Reenergising the overheads. Inspecting the overheads to make sure there was no damage. Communication about what was actually happening between the track crews and train staff etc etc. Remember at night its very difficult to walk along a railway corridor as there are many tripping and slipping hazards. Especially on the suburban network. Better to keep everyone on the train than have someone trip over, hurt themselves and then sue. Inconveniencing a few people for a short time is better than dealing with a large lawsuit because someone slipped on some grease near a crossover and broke their wrist landing on the track.

From what I've briefly heard when the flying fox hit the panto a trip was detected and the train stopped. They tried to restart the train and fix the panto multiple times but kept getting trips and after 20 minutes needed a rescue. When there is random damage to the panto you have to consider that there has been a dewirement so anyone getting off the train wasn't going to happen until they got the okay from track crews. The overheads were deenergised, grounded and checked first to make sure that there was no risk to anyone working near the train in the area. No chance of a rescue train as no power from the overheads. The panto had to be inspected as well before the train could get the okay to go to Bowen Hills. I think a couple guys from Mayne went over to inspect it as well to see if it could continue by itself or if it needed to be lowered manually and rescued.

[ozbob]

Thanks for that overview HTG.   

[James]

Hahahaha what a beat up by the courier mail. "Passengers" urinated in corner of carriage. One bloke took a p%ss and suddenly its passengers??? Anything to sell papers

No. QR was going by the rules put in place under the zero harm policy. It a shame that some people were inconvenienced but it was for their safety. The 19 year old might have been okay running along the tracks in his sneakers but what about the grandparents with their grandchildren walking along a pitch black railway corridor?? Or the 20 something year old in high heels??? If it was during the day I suspect that they would have escorted them off the train and along the corridor but since it was night, on an elevated section with no access roads it would have been best to leave them on the train.

<snip>

"For your safety"

We hear this statement all the time. We just want to fuking go home. If the twenty something is able to get out, why not let him? Yes, if I decide to climb the overheads or walk right on the track I'm going to have a bad time, but if I exhibit some common sense, I will find the nearest exit to the rail corridor, or station, and go from there. In a car, at least if somebody blows up Coro Dr (e.g Kim Jong Un having a bad day) you can still try alternate routes, or simply get out of your car and walk. In a train, QR just holds you hostage to a variety of "safe working" and "zero harm" procedures.

People do not want to face the prospect of being stranded in a train for 3 hours+ due to "freaks of nature". If such an incident occurs, there should be some kind of contingency to allow those who are able, or who have a desperate need to do so, to get off the train, walk to the nearest exit, and find their own way from there. I was once stranded on a train for 3+ hours due to a "police incident". No water, no food, fortunately it was an IMU, so there were toilets.

In America there is a rule that an airline must return a plane to the terminal after 3 hours of waiting on the ground - Link here. In other words, passengers must be provided with the option of getting off the plane after 3 hours. This is a metal tube with air conditioning, working toilets, food & water! The fines are quite sizeable for breaches too - hundreds of thousands of dollars. I think a similar rule should be applied to QR, but the limit reduced to 90 minutes. After 90 minutes? All passengers given monetary compensation for any losses they suffered if they are not given the option to detrain.

[verbatim9]

I was on a metro train in Melbourne stuck between Balaclava and Ripponlea (Sandringham Line) They let us get off after about 15-20 mins and we walked along the track back to Balaclava station.

Why can't it happen here? QR and Translink should compensate people especially for tickets to concerts and footy games.

But wait all the money is going into Train Driver wages and the NGR debacle.

(Bet the train driver was compensated for sitting idle in the cab for 3 hours) and the guard too!

[techblitz]

Seriously whats the risk to reward ratio for buses vs trains at the moment?...Flying foxes now?How many flying foxes can take out a bus lol.
I would put it at about 20 reasons not to use a QR train over about 5 for a BCC bus.....and we really sit here and wonder why people don't like giving up their BT rocket to the city?

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Premier slams Queensland Rail after passengers stuck on train for almost three hours

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is calling for Queensland Rail to apologise to every passenger left trapped on a train for almost three hours but stopped short of calling for heads to roll.

Dozens of people could do nothing but sit and wait, mostly in the dark, on Friday night as their train on the Ferny Grove line came to a standstill between stations.

Passengers vented their anger about their ordeal on social media and reported some on board had resorted to urinating in the carriage because of the wait.

Queensland Rail blamed the fault on a flying fox that had come into contact with the overhead lines.

The incident comes just two weeks after a possum caused a fault that delayed trains across the south-east rail network.

Ms Palaszczuk said the reports of stranded passengers forced to urinate in the carriage were "horrific".

"I would hope that Queensland Rail will personally write to every single passenger on that train and apologise for the inconvenience," Ms Palaszczuk said on Sunday.

Ms Palaszczuk said "from time to time" faults on the network did happen but it was poor communication not letting people know what was going on.

Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls said it beggared belief QR believed the stranding was an important issue when it had given no apology and offered a measly $1.50 refund tickets.

"It's just another rail fail debacle," Mr Nicholls said.

"Little kids having to pee in water bottles is just beyond belief but that is the standard that Queensland Rail and this government now accepts."

[ozbob]

Updated:

Couriermail --> Brisbane train nightmare: Passengers stuck two-and-a-half hours on Ferny Grove line

DISTRESSED passengers were trapped on a train for almost three hours in a horror trip that left scared children "bawling" to be let off and forced some travellers to urinate in open carriages.

The passengers, who included young children, sat in total darkness for about one-third of the ordeal after their Brisbane train broke down between stations at about 6pm on Friday.

It is the latest rail fail to hit the network and comes more than six months after an independent inquiry recommended better communications to "restore public confidence" in Queensland Rail.

QR has been in the spotlight since late last year, following the bungled opening of its Redcliffe line, an ongoing driver shortage that triggered the collapse of its Citytrain timetable and serious delays in rolling out new trains under a $4.4 billion New Generation Rollingstock program.

Christian Berndt, 18, of Ferny Hills was headed to a concert when he became trapped on board the Ferny Grove line train when it suddenly stopped between Windsor and Bowen Hills stations.

He said with no toilets on board, one trapped passenger had no choice but to relieve himself in the corner of one of the carriages, while a young boy had to urinate in a bottle.

"His grandparents drank all of the water in the bottle so the four-year-old could pee in the bottle," he said. "They turned all the power off and we went black for almost an hour.

"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.

"We were told we were going to be evacuated, which was meant to happen after an hour-and-a-half. This never ended up happening," he said.

"They decided on a few other plans, which didn't work. The announcements were horrible. 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 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."

Ashgrove childcare worker Jess Robeck, 27, was heading to a Broncos game, when she heard a loud bang.

"By the two and a half-hour mark there was a lot of crying," she said of the child passengers.

She said one woman was in "quite a lot of pain" from holding her bladder.

"She had tears in her eyes because she was in so much pain," she said. "We just kept getting told 'five more minutes' but it would never happen."

A QR spokeswoman said the train was stopped for two and a half hours and QR apologised for the "considerable time" passengers waited.

She said the incident was caused by a flying fox becoming caught in equipment connected to overhead power lines.

"We will be undertaking a full review of the incident and refunding customers impacted," she said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has called on Queensland Rail to personally apologise to passengers stranded on Friday night thanks to a fault caused by a flying fox.

"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," Ms Palaszczuk said.

But she stopped short of saying heads would roll.

"I understand that was a fault on the network ... and from time to time these things happen."

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/896642123788832768

[techblitz]

one of the comments from that CM article...

QR passenger services is run mostly by middle aged Baby Boomer men who drink XXXX long-neck bottled beer with their steak & kidney pie evening meal..yeah I jest, but in reality QR today remains totally archaic in nature & culture; this includes all its operation processes & policies, 99.8% of the rolling stock and supporting infrastructure. Unless some serious money is invested in all areas of QR passenger services it will remain a basket case et infinitum.Trust me I speak from experience..a couple of years ago after retiring from working 20 yrs in private industry, I took a temporary 6 week project job at QR, boy was that an eye opener to the warped world of a state government run, union controlled public transport industry!!! Unfortunately most of the forward thinking staff I met while employed there were shunted to the rear by management and their protector staff who were self obsessed with maintaining their status quo of mediocrity, not to mention a vice like grip on their continued employment.Thankfully on completion of my project I was able to walk away from that truly depressing institution equipped with the knowledge to never use QR again unless I wish to be transported back to the early 50's just for fun.   

[ozbob]

The CEO of Queensland Rail Mr Nick Easy and the Executive General Manager Citytrain Mr Nick King might have a busy Monday?

Unfortunately incidents do happen that will strand trains.  The real test is how it is handled from that point.  There has been no forward public campaign by Queensland Rail to explain the circumstances and why the passengers were left on the train.

I hope they do now carry some TravelJohns on all trains, even the ones with toilets (as these may be out of action) during a long wait.

There are many in population that have real issues with urination and frequency.  Women, particularly those who have had children.  Children of course, aged men often have issues as well.

I have to plan my travel very carefully with respect to toilet requirements these days too.   I have had to urinate (albiet discreetly) at some stations when confronted with locked toilets.  I would not have survived the episode on Friday night without a wee.  These are just the brutal facts of life these days.

[techblitz]

Unfortunately incidents do happen that will strand trains.  The real test is how it is handled from that point.  There has been no forward public campaign by Queensland Rail to explain the circumstances and why the passengers were left on the train

yep this is bugging me as well.

[#Metro]

I hope they do now carry some TravelJohns on all trains, even the ones with toilets (as these may be out of action) during a long wait.

They can carry a few, but how will this scale?

The train had 60 passengers on it, let's say after 3 hours 20% of the passengers had to pee.

They would need to have at least 12 of these things on board.

What if it happened during peak hour and there were 1000 passengers on board? Will each train have 200 of these kits on board?


And what about solids disposal, I cannot even begin to imagine.

It will help but it doesn't scale well and you still have to do it in front of other passengers.

There were electrical safety aspects in this case, but whether it could have been done better? Who knows.

I guess the CRU will have to be called in to investigate then?


There is also the aspect of train toilets at stations. They are locked, and there was one time I was at Ferny Grove (IIRC?) and the toilets

were locked. It would be good if the toilet cubicle was designed to be a single toilet accessible by registered go card. That way it only

fits 1 person and vandalism is reduced.

[ozbob]

The number of people that might have to go would be small. A fully loaded train of say 600 pax, 10 TravelJohns would do.  Passengers could be offered an area in a carriage that is  ' private ' (simply ask people to move).  Far better to have the TravelJohns than people p%ssing in the corners of the carriages.

Due to the fact that the guard is in the rear 3 carriages TravelJohns should be carried in both the guards compartment and in the driving cab. They are relatively small and could be conveniently stowed for when they might be needed during a prolonged train failure.

I would suggest two boxes of 5 would be adequate in both locations.

[#Metro]

Could go along with the 'first aid' stuff.   

[ozbob]

Could go along with the 'first aid' stuff.   

Yep.

[HappyTrainGuy]

"For your safety"

We hear this statement all the time. We just want to fuking go home. If the twenty something is able to get out, why not let him? Yes, if I decide to climb the overheads or walk right on the track I'm going to have a bad time, but if I exhibit some common sense, I will find the nearest exit to the rail corridor, or station, and go from there. In a car, at least if somebody blows up Coro Dr (e.g Kim Jong Un having a bad day) you can still try alternate routes, or simply get out of your car and walk. In a train, QR just holds you hostage to a variety of "safe working" and "zero harm" procedures.

Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just explaining the situation in a bit more detail. 

Well, You can thank these people. Dickheads in Queensland that touch overhead powerlines, climb on the outside of overpasses falling off, getting hit by trains or other stupid stuff (if still alive) end up suing QR. One idiot climbed up the outside of a ped bridge at a station or something, fell off onto the overheads, seriously bad burns and then landed on the rails cracking his skull filed a civil suit for $750,000 because QR didn't have sufficient barriers installed to prevent him from climbing on the outside of it. That was very swiftly followed by all stations, ped crossings and overpasses getting additional fences/anti climbing devices installed. Ages back the family of one kid that died after touching overheads trying to climb ontop of a train attempted to sue QR - not sure if they ended up doing it or not. Old mate tagging the Helensvale sub station got fried and a civil suit was launched for poor/lack of security or something. There's a reason why stations also now have yellow paint on the majority of posts on platforms.

What you define as common sense might not apply to someone else. You can apply common sense in a train crash thinking you are doing the right thing when it can actually be the wrong thing. Take the Cleveland railway station derailment. Passengers were told to remain onboard but some opened the doors and ran from the train despite the wires on the platform still being live. And unlike the Energex tv ads saying don't touch downed powerlines with railway overhead wires you only have to be in the proximity around the wire to be zapped. Jump over them and you could be electrocuted.

In all fairness there wasn't much of a safe exit as it was next to/on the ferny grove flyover. You have a creek below. The line to Windsor is elevated back to Legeyt Street with houses on both sides. Cartwright Street is behind a noise barrier that's to reduce sound and to prevent people from tresspassing into Mayne and on a 2m tall embankment. I can't recall if access is still maintained via Cartwright Street or via that new shared pathway as both sides used to be a place that wooden sleepers were dumped (now moved to the old mayne freight yards). Multiple cross overs and emergency manual cross overs. Some of which are constantly coated in a thick grease to limit wear/noise. No lighting. Closest access point was the ped crossing a few hundred meters back or the mayne yard which is further than the crossing. There could have been spare rails placed in between the two lines or off to one side. Then you have the Mayne balloon loop. As I said if it was during the day they more than likely would have walked people back to the crossing or to another exit but at night with no lighting there are just lots of hazards. They more than likely had the intention to get people off the train but deemed it to hazardous for 60 odd people once the area was inspected and would be better for them to remain on the train.

Also remember with the manual crossovers in this section it's not a small box like you see at every other set of cross overs. You have the big levers on one side, crosses under the tracks halfway along and lots of other bits and bobs the entire length of the crossover. Its about 60-70m long and is on both sides of the track

[wbj]

Pity there's no tow diesel to move broken down passenger trains to the nearest station.

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Queensland Rail fail: Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk demands apology

PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk is calling for Queensland Rail to apologise to passengers trapped on a train for almost three hours, but stopped short of calling for heads to roll.

Dozens of people sat in the dark on Friday night as their train on the Ferny Grove line came to a standstill. Passengers vented their anger about their ordeal on ­social media and reported some onboard had resorted to urinating in the carriage because of the wait. Queensland Rail blamed the fault on a flying fox that had hit overhead lines.

The incident comes just two weeks after a possum caused a fault that delayed trains across the southeast rail network.

Ms Palaszczuk (pictured) said the reports of stranded passengers forced to urinate in the carriage were "horrific".

"I would hope that Queensland Rail will personally write to every single passenger on that train and apologise," Ms Palaszczuk said yesterday.

Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls said it beggared belief QR believed the stranding was an important issue when it had given no apology and offered a measly $1.50 refund tickets.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/896777765260738561

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/896856520784203776

[tazzer9]

Pity there's no tow diesel to move broken down passenger trains to the nearest station.

Problem is that there is.   There is a crew on standby for this all the time.   Only issue is you need to use a coupler adaptor.  QR send out DEL rescue loco's all the time for PacNat and Aurizon.  Sometimes there is alot of irony and these rescue loco's fail along the way.

[ozbob]

Queensland Times --> RAIL FAIL: Free transport for a week for trapped train users

Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Jackie Trad today acknowledged the wrongdoing, saying Queensland Rail (QR) "could have responded better".

Children were among the trapped passengers who sat in total darkness for about an hour of the three-hour ordeal, with some travellers forced to urinate in open carriages as they couldn't get off.

Ms Trad said she has instructed QR CEO Nick Easy to review all practises when it comes to rail evacuations.

"It was an unfortunate incident but absolutely Queensland Rail could have responded better with more accurate information," she said.

"We need to review our procedures and make an earlier call about evacuation of passengers.

"We know that safety is a big consideration but we also know that probably we need to be making the call a lot earlier."

Around 60 people were stranded on the Ferny Grove line train when it became stuck around 7.30pm on Friday.

Queensland Rail has blamed the outage on a flying fox that hit overhead lines.

Christian Berndt, 18, of Ferny Hills was headed to a concert when he became trapped on board the Ferny Grove line train when it suddenly stopped between Windsor and Bowen Hills stations.

He said with no toilets on board, one trapped passenger had no choice but to relieve himself in the corner of one of the carriages, while a young boy had to urinate in a bottle.

Ms Trad said while it is impossible to prevent such incidents from occurring, it was vital to look at the processes in place following.

"What we know is that we can't prevent these things from happening but we can improve the communication we give commuters and we can improve our procedures to ensure commuters are not inconvenienced for as long as they were on Friday night," she said.

"In terms of communication and what commuters are saying to me is, if we could not have evacuated people earlier, if we didn't know what the problem was, then we needed to honestly say that."

Ms Trad's mea culpa comes just weeks after a possum caused city wide outages across the network.

The State Government has urged anyone who was stranded on Friday night to come forward to QR in order to receive their free transport.

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Free transport for a week for trapped train users

Queensland Rail will review its evacuation procedures and dozens will be given free travel for a week, after an incident on Friday night that saw passengers trapped inside a train for hours.

About 60 people were trapped in a train at a standstill between stations for almost three hours on the Ferny Grove line after a flying fox came into contact with overhead lines.

The incident came just two weeks after a possum caused a fault that delayed trains across the south-east Queensland network.

On Friday, stranded passengers were forced to urinate in the carriages, while waiting mostly in the dark.

Two trains were stuck, but one was removed after about half an hour, while passengers in the second train waited for almost three hours.

Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Jackie Trad apologised to commuters and said QR would be offering personal apologies to those affected.

"It was an unfortunate incident but absolutely Queensland Rail could have responded better with more accurate information," Ms Trad said.

"As the CEO has already said today we need to review our procedures and make an earlier call about evacuation of passengers.

"We know that safety is a big consideration but but we also know that we probably need to be making the call much earlier."

Ms Trad said she had asked Mr Easy to contact all the people QR had contact details for to provide them with a written apology.

Commuters who were stuck for several hours in the train on Friday night will also be offered free travel on the network for the next week.

Ms Trad said QR could not prevent wildlife from impacting on the network, but it could improve communication for commuters.

"We know that we can't prevent this stuff from happening but our responses can be better and I've asked Queensland Rail and the CEO to come back to government with how we can improve both communication and evacuation procedures," she said.

Ms Trad said for safety reasons, procedures did not allow people to be evacuated from trains between stations.

"Maybe we need to review that and if it's safe to do so, get passengers off midway between stations and get them onto an alternative piece of transport so they are not inconvenienced for as long as they were on Friday night," she said.

[jesse]

Do we have any clarity into what class train was involved and if they train lost it's pantrogrpahs as a result?

[HappyTrainGuy]

SMU220.

[James]

Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just explaining the situation in a bit more detail. 

My rant was more directed at the QR management, political staffers & media who read this forum in search of stories and so forth.

Well, You can thank these people. Dickheads in Queensland that touch overhead powerlines, climb on the outside of overpasses falling off, getting hit by trains or other stupid stuff (if still alive) end up suing QR. One idiot climbed up the outside of a ped bridge at a station or something, fell off onto the overheads, seriously bad burns and then landed on the rails cracking his skull filed a civil suit for $750,000 because QR didn't have sufficient barriers installed to prevent him from climbing on the outside of it. That was very swiftly followed by all stations, ped crossings and overpasses getting additional fences/anti climbing devices installed. Ages back the family of one kid that died after touching overheads trying to climb ontop of a train attempted to sue QR - not sure if they ended up doing it or not. Old mate tagging the Helensvale sub station got fried and a civil suit was launched for poor/lack of security or something. There's a reason why stations also now have yellow paint on the majority of posts on platforms.

This is our taxes paying for these dickheads, and people complained about Bronwyn Bishop hiring a helicopter to go across town. This is thoroughly rooted if true.

What you define as common sense might not apply to someone else. You can apply common sense in a train crash thinking you are doing the right thing when it can actually be the wrong thing. Take the Cleveland railway station derailment. Passengers were told to remain onboard but some opened the doors and ran from the train despite the wires on the platform still being live. And unlike the Energex tv ads saying don't touch downed powerlines with railway overhead wires you only have to be in the proximity around the wire to be zapped. Jump over them and you could be electrocuted.

I think that is instinct more than anything. Generally crashes which are visible on TV involve vehicles with flammable chemicals in them (cars, trucks, planes, cargo trains), which set on fire quite quickly upon crashing. An electric train won't ignite into a fireball because there's no fuel (petrol) to burn and get a fire going.

In all fairness there wasn't much of a safe exit as it was next to/on the ferny grove flyover. You have a creek below. The line to Windsor is elevated back to Legeyt Street with houses on both sides. Cartwright Street is behind a noise barrier that's to reduce sound and to prevent people from tresspassing into Mayne and on a 2m tall embankment. I can't recall if access is still maintained via Cartwright Street or via that new shared pathway as both sides used to be a place that wooden sleepers were dumped (now moved to the old mayne freight yards). Multiple cross overs and emergency manual cross overs. Some of which are constantly coated in a thick grease to limit wear/noise. No lighting. Closest access point was the ped crossing a few hundred meters back or the mayne yard which is further than the crossing. There could have been spare rails placed in between the two lines or off to one side. Then you have the Mayne balloon loop. As I said if it was during the day they more than likely would have walked people back to the crossing or to another exit but at night with no lighting there are just lots of hazards. They more than likely had the intention to get people off the train but deemed it to hazardous for 60 odd people once the area was inspected and would be better for them to remain on the train.

It's 2017, people have torches & phones with them. There appears to be plenty of room along the northern side of the corridor near Gennon St, enough that if people needed to get off, they could. Sure, for grandma & grandpa with the pre-school aged grandkids, they'll probably prefer to remain on board, but for the man in his 20s who just wants to get from A to B, simply jumping off would be a nice option. I've found myself in a similar situation in the past - stranded on a train for 3 hours due to a "police incident". I would have taken the opportunity to jump off in a heartbeat.

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> QR decides against emergency urinal kits after train breakdown

QUEENSLAND Rail has poured cold water on a proposal to equip trains with emergency urinal kits to avoid a repeat of last week's bladder-busting mid-station train breakdown.

Commuter group Rail Back on Track has called on QR to install the disposable bags, pointing out the solution was used in 2011 by Dutch national rail operator NS for emergency situations.

Like Queensland, not all of the Dutch trains have toilets. In the Netherlands this creates problems in winter when snow makes it difficult to evacuate passengers trapped on broken-down trains.

Rail Back on Track's Robert Dow raised the urinal bag suggestion this week after about 60 rail passengers became trapped on board a broken-down train on the Ferny Grove line last Friday night for almost three hours.

QR said a flying fox hitting overhead lines' equipment was to blame.

The train stopped between stations. Passengers can be evacuated in such instances if it is safe.

Most of those on board were looking forward to a night out at the football or a concert.

Instead, they were locked into carriages, spending an hour of the ordeal sitting in the dark without any accurate information about when the train would be fixed.

One passenger was reportedly in "quite a bit of pain" from having to hold her bladder, while a four-year-old boy desperate for a toilet was forced to pee in a water bottle.

Mr Dow said disposable urinal kits would spare passengers a repeat.

"It's better than people weeing on carriages," he said.

"It's a reflection of the service, but let's face it, people do get stuck on trains for hours."

QR says it is not considering the proposal but is reviewing its evacuation procedures.

Chief executive Nick Easy said despite a number of attempts to get the train moving, the passengers were on the train for two-and-a-half hours.

He has flagged changes to make it clearer how long passengers should wait before evacuation.

QR has also apologised to passengers and offered a week of free travel.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/897503330825519105

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/897507532188467200

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/897508323297120256

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/897512693006913538

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

15th August 2017

Rejected: Equip trains with disposable urinal kits

Good Morning,

We note ' customer focused ' Queensland Rail has rejected our suggestion for trains to be equipped with a small number of disposable urinal kits (see article below).  These urinal kits could be stowed in driving/guards compartments and only offered during a pro-longed stranding of a train.  How will mobility impaired passengers be quickly handled? The kits are safe, easy to handle and dispose of.  This video shows the product well >



Women, particularly after childbirth. Children, aged folk - men with prostate issues. All need to go, often frequently! How bad does it have to get before Queensland Rail lifts their game?  Despite promises to review train evacuation procedures there will still be situations when timely evacuation of passengers will not be possible. Today marks 320 days since the onset of rail fail. The first wave of cancellations associated with rail fail happened on 30th September 2016. Public has been suffering cancellations, delays and reduced service since then.

Looks like I, and many others will have to carry our own TravelJohn disposable urinal kits when on Queensland Rail!

Best wishes,
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track https://backontrack.org

[ Attached: https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=12892.msg196549#msg196549 ]

Couriermail --> QR decides against emergency urinal kits after train breakdown

QUEENSLAND Rail has poured cold water on a proposal to equip trains with emergency urinal kits to avoid a repeat of last week's bladder-busting mid-station train breakdown.

Commuter group Rail Back on Track has called on QR to install the disposable bags, pointing out the solution was used in 2011 by Dutch national rail operator NS for emergency situations.

Like Queensland, not all of the Dutch trains have toilets. In the Netherlands this creates problems in winter when snow makes it difficult to evacuate passengers trapped on broken-down trains.

Rail Back on Track's Robert Dow raised the urinal bag suggestion this week after about 60 rail passengers became trapped on board a broken-down train on the Ferny Grove line last Friday night for almost three hours.

QR said a flying fox hitting overhead lines' equipment was to blame.

The train stopped between stations. Passengers can be evacuated in such instances if it is safe.

Most of those on board were looking forward to a night out at the football or a concert.

Instead, they were locked into carriages, spending an hour of the ordeal sitting in the dark without any accurate information about when the train would be fixed.

One passenger was reportedly in "quite a bit of pain" from having to hold her bladder, while a four-year-old boy desperate for a toilet was forced to pee in a water bottle.

Mr Dow said disposable urinal kits would spare passengers a repeat.

"It's better than people weeing on carriages," he said.

"It's a reflection of the service, but let's face it, people do get stuck on trains for hours."

QR says it is not considering the proposal but is reviewing its evacuation procedures.

Chief executive Nick Easy said despite a number of attempts to get the train moving, the passengers were on the train for two-and-a-half hours.

He has flagged changes to make it clearer how long passengers should wait before evacuation.

QR has also apologised to passengers and offered a week of free travel.

[ozbob]

Couriermail 15th August 2017 page 5

QR bags urinal kit plan week after breakdown

[ozbob]

Been booked for interview with Nicole Dyer ABC Gold Coast  and today ABC Brisbane around 8.35am this morning re disposable urinal kits.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/couriermail/status/897598953398644737