Tracks of Terror

Genevieve Wright
Jul 29, 2019
2 min read

In case of emergency…press for help

There is growing concern over passenger safety on Sydney’s new driverless trains

Sydney commuters fear that automated technology won’t protect them on the new driverless metros.

21-year-old, Tutti McLagan, is one of thousands of passengers whose daily journey from Epping to Macquarie University now relies on the new North West metro.

“Travelling home late at night, if I ever felt uncomfortable or my safety was threatened I would just sit up the driver’s end. But when guards aren’t there, what do I do now?”

The new $7 billion driverless metros are equipped with 38 security cameras and 30 audio help points inside each train. Several video help points are also located at each station.

A spokesperson from Transport for NSW said that, “all trains are constantly monitored by expert train controllers at the state-of-the-art operations control centre.”

However, Catharine Pruscino, Respect.Now.Always (RNA) Program Manager at the University of Technology Sydney, argues that there is still a gap that needs to be bridged between being harassed and feeling confident enough to press for help.

“It takes a lot of courage to press a button and speak to a hole in the wall connecting you to a train controller who’s kilometres away, when you and your harasser are the only ones on-board.”

The new metro trains are designed around an open single floor corridor which Transport NSW argues will increase the ability for “passive surveillance”.

However, Ms McLagan suggests the new design makes it harder to avoid harassers.

“Once we were on a train where a man was masturbating and looking at us…so my friends and I moved to a new carriage. Now that these metros have no doors…there’s a greater likelihood that they could follow.”

Ms Pruscino agrees that although this open space does increase the number of witnesses, it doesn’t necessarily mean people will help.

“Bystander culture is unfortunately a reality. The risk is the greater number of people that are present in this situation, the fewer who will actually stand up and side with the person who is experiencing the harassment.”

Lead Passenger Organiser for the Rail, Train, Bus Union, Bob Newham, has had 33 years of experience as a train driver fears that as passengers become more aware that there isn’t a human authority presence on a train, their behaviour will change.

“CCTV is a wonderful post-event tool but it doesn’t prevent anything. If someone’s serious about committing a crime they will commit it whether they’re on camera or not. They’ll just disguise themselves.”