Free rein on the train?
Old man shakes fist at clouds as bicycle boys do as they damn well please.
Let’s talk about bicycles on trains.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking. If you have a bicycle, you shouldn’t need to get on a suburban train, you can just ride to wherever it is you want to go.
But apparently there are reasons to take these bulky items on public transport — even, it appears, in peak hour.
But Queensland Rail does have rules and they are highlighted on their website and on signage at stations. Basically, two bicycles at a time can be carried on a train, but only in six-car units and only in the end carriage.
I was vaguely aware of this when I got on my morning commuter train at 7am on Monday, July 1. So, imagine my surprise when I stepped into the end carriage — where I always travel because it’s closest to where I enter the station and is often the least crowded — and I saw five bicycles taking up the space reserved for people with disabilities and blocking entry to the toilet.
They belonged to five boys in their early teens, none of them actually accompanying their bikes, and one of them sprawled over a seat meant for two people.
I decided I’d have to stand for the 25-minute journey into town, until something clicked in my head that this wasn’t right. I approached the sloucher, saying, loudly and firmly that he should sit up properly to let me sit down next to him. Which he did and I did.
Just to recap: that’s five kids with five bicycles — three more bikes than allowed — and none of them staying with their bike, as the policy advises. Not one of them offered me, or any of the other people who were standing during the journey, a seat. I had to insist to be able to use a vacant space.
When the children finally detrained, rearing their bikes up and swinging them around (also contrary to the rules), they left behind some litter for somebody else to clean up.
It was, to my mind, unacceptable behaviour.
So, I wrote a complaint email to Queensland Rail and got a remarkably quick response.
It read:
Thank you for contacting Queensland Rail regarding bicycles on our peak services yesterday.
We’re sorry to hear of you experience and any inconvenience this may have caused. Queensland Rail has a bike and scooter policy in place which can be found on our website here: https://www.queenslandrail.com.au/forcustomers/plan/travelling-with-your-bike.
We also deliver etiquette campaigns along with regular announcements to remind customers of our bicycle policy. Should you experience any future difficulty traveling while bikes are on trains, please bring your concerns to the attention of the train guard who will assist where they are able.
We will continue to monitor these behaviours in our endeavours to provide a comfortable environment for our customers. Thank you again for taking the time to contact us. Your feedback is important to Queensland Rail as it assists us to improve the services we deliver.
It’s all very polite, and it arrived very promptly on Tuesday morning, but basically, it’s saying: We’re sorry that you’re not happy, we have a policy against this kind of thing, and we run campaigns telling people we have a policy against this sort of thing. Should it happen again, you should do something about it by telling a guard who may not be able to do anything to help you.
Then there was the last sentence, which conveys all the sincerity of the inevitable “Your call is important to us” reminder after 45 minutes on hold during a phone call to a bank or government department.
QR did not offer to take any action about the incident I reported — even though I provided details of time, place and carriage number.
Incidentally, I did try to tell the guard, but they were nowhere to be seen when I got off the train. So, I told a member of staff at Central Station, who gave me a card with the email address to which I sent my complaint.
So, I wrote back:
I really appreciate your prompt response to my email.
However, I remain confused as to how such a clear breach of your policy could have occurred – surely station staff and the train guard would have noticed five bicycles being loaded on to the train, and the guard could reasonably be expected to be aware of ongoing bad behaviour by the children during their trip.
Will you be investigating the incident I have described or is it just on me to advise the guard (if that is possible) the next time I observe bad behaviour on a train?
I have given you enough detail for you to at least examine security footage. Will somebody be doing that?
No response, so far. (It’s Thursday evening as I write, so they’ve had almost three working days).
Now, I do not want Queensland Rail to track down these children and lock them up. But I do want them to review security footage from the train and the station where the kids boarded so they can establish if QR staff could or should have done anything at the time.
I would like these kids, and their parents or guardians and teachers, to know how they breached the rules and how that had inconvenienced other people. And that there are penalties for breaking the rules and for antisocial behaviour.
And I’d like to receive an email from somebody at QR telling me they’ve actually done something other than provided a formulaic response, albeit it a prompt and polite one.
Am I being unreasonable? Or am I right to think that Queensland Rail employees knew at the time the boys boarded the train that the rules were being broken and they either decided not to do anything about it or simple didn’t care?
I appreciate it’s a tricky situation, because the welfare of minors is involved. Should train or platform staff have let just two of the kids travel and make the others wait for other trains? Would they be exposing the children to danger if they didn’t let them board? Is the policy inherently unworkable?
Or by doing nothing, have they simply surrendered to the mob? Do these kids now believe that they can do anything they damn well please with no consequences?
Is it too long a bow to draw to think that there is a connection between this kind of minor-level antisocial behaviour and the much-hyped “youth crime epidemic”? After all, once the word goes out that there is no penalty for ignoring the rules, everything becomes possible.
This is not a call for draconian punishment for misdemeanours; it’s a plea for a return to respect for others and an understanding that rules are, for the most part, in place for good reasons.
And in this specific case, I’m saying: There’s no point in Queensland Rail having a policy regarding bikes on trains — or anything else — if staff are not prepared or equipped to enforce it.
Do you agree? Or are these just the idiotic ravings of an old spoilsport?
You want train guard to do their jobs? Next you’ll be expecting airline employees to filter out troublesome drunks at the boarding gates.