Reminder to keep safe around trains

STATE Government staff are reminding Victorians to stay safe around train tracks and level crossings.

Last week was Rail Safety Week which was centred around the theme ‘pause your tunes, look for trains’ and ‘phone down, look up.’

“Rail Safety Week is an important opportunity to remind passengers to keep safe across our public transport network,” said Minister for Public and Active Transport, Gabrielle Williams.

Last year there were 124 near misses on the V/Line train network and 453 across the Metro network.

Near misses require the train driver to take emergency procedures to stop the train quickly, with a locomotive travelling at full speed taking more than 400 metres to come to a stop.

“Trains can come from either direction at any time, so always obey the signs, gates, booms and signals at level crossings, and only ever use authorised crossings,” said V/Line CEO Matt Carrick.

In 2023 there was also more than 3000 incidents of trespassing on the network or more than eight per day.

Trespassers can cause delay to thousands of passengers as operators check the line to ensure it is safe