Empty baby pram fell on tracks at strathfield station, no injuries. Should we have gates at train stations?

I’m in Tokyo right now, it’s really impressive the amount of gates on platforms they have. Would love to see it on every platform in Sydney

Was it abandoned or a careless parent?

As a society we keep putting bubble wrap up to protect people from stupid behavior.

There are signs and announcements at every station to have your pram facing 90 degrees away from the platform edge, always engage the prom brakes and to keep hold of your pram.

I know it was empty, but poor driver who for a few minutes thought they drive over a baby.

Different rolling stock means there is no standard door space for platform screen doors (PSDs).

Curved platforms bring further complications into an already complicated picture.

The only other solution would be for curtains that are drawn up along the length of the platform. Also known as rope screen doors, these provide a small relief from passenger and material ingress. But they are nowhere near as solid as PSDs, and their usage increases dwell time. Hardly ideal for stations such as Town Hall or Strathfield.

I kind of wish there was a fence with automatic doors about a metre away from the edge of the platform, like there sometimes is during events. The doors then wouldn’t need to align with the doors of the trains. But if the angle was awkward, it would still probably be really difficult to get a pram or wheelchair through. And it would probably limit space on the platforms which would be a bit painful when things are crowded.

Still, maybe the edge of the platform could have a short slope attatched to it at the mind the gap bit, so that things which are rolling don’t keep rolling? (high end at the edge, low edge towards the platform). That would be less expensive, and if it’s not super steep, it wouldn’t prevent wheelchairs or prams from being pushed into the trains. But if something is rolling, it would at least make it less likely that it rolls onto the tracks. I feel like it might be cheaper than a complete rennovation of some of the platforms that already slope and prams roll off more often.

There was internal talk in the weeks after the Carlton accident that they were going to put PSDs on the T4 line. Its a lot easier for that line since its all Tangaras and segregated from the rest of the network, though I imagine they would not add them at Hurstville, Sutherland or any Waterfall line stations since the Mariyungs will be stopping there.

Not sure how far thats progressed, its probably a medium term plan but one guy said it would be not that long. It does corroborate what the leaked medium term vision of the network discussed with transferring the Waterfall line to SCO and having T4 be a metro-style all stops from Cronulla to Bondi Junction.

Nah people and items just need to stay off the tracks.

Stay behind the yellow lines

Maybe if fuckheads didn’t insist on standing on the yellow line (here’s a hint- it says BEHIND) which would allow for a free flow of traffic to stop crowding. But nah, gotta be first in front of those doors every time 🙄

Given the massive cost o rerun with the Bankstown line conversion (which is certainly more than just PSDs) I don’t think the government would be game to try it on another line.

How much would this cost, and how many lives could they save. Could investing this money in screening or early intervention programs save more lives?

Yea we need to idiot proof everything

This question comes up a lot and often people say we can’t have gates. But I think we’re letting perfect be the enemy of good.

They don’t have to perfectly align with the doors. There’s plenty of systems out there that have gates that can handle a mix of rolling stock, and our electrics are broadly consistent at lest on some lines.

It doesn’t need to be fully automated. Some systems just have the train guard control the doors using controls at the back of the platform. We already have guards operating doors.

Even then, if it only works on half of the platfoms, that’s still a huge improvement. If it’s impossible on the platfoms that get the diesel regional trains, having them just on the suburban platfoms is better than nothing.

And worse case, it doesn’t even need have gates. I’ve seen overseas they just have a fence with gaps for where the doors line up. Is it perfect? No. But it’s cheap and easy, and it could catch many accidental trips and falls.

Rather than waiting for someone to come up with a perfect automated system that works for every train and every platform, we can still make some reasonable improvements today.

No people just need to pay more attention

Ex Sydney bus driver here, I was sitting at the lights near Central station when a woman in the park stopped to do something and didn’t see her pram roll away, it came rolling down the hill and stopped right in front of my back tyres, by this time people were screaming on the bus to get my attention but unbeknown to them I saw the whole thing unfolding in real time and wasn’t going to move, even as a bus driver with about 20 years experience at the time it shook me up thinking about what may have happened if I did not see it happening and the lights changed to green, can only imagine how the passengers felt not knowing if I was about to take off or not.