Mind the gap: Hundreds fall between trains and platforms at Sydney stations every year
Hundreds of people fall between trains and the platform at stations across Sydney every year.
Of the roughly 450 falls recorded across the rail network in 2023, 50 of these were at Redfern Station in the inner-city.
"Redfern Station is a major interchange, which sees the second highest rates of falls between the platform and train on the network, with children and elderly passengers most likely to fall and be injured," Sydney Trains executive director of engineering and maintenance Nev Nichols said.
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Every year about 450 people fall between station platforms and the train across Sydney's rail network. 9News
An average of five people fall through the gap at train stations across Sydney every week.
"Parts of the rail network are over 165 years old and unfortunately there is no one easy solution to prevent customer falls," Nichols said.
"Every platform has unique properties such as gradients, curves and varying heights, heritage retrofits and other considerations, and each requires a tailored, engineered approach."
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Children and the elderly are most likely to fall and be injured. 9News
In order to combat this an additional $9 million will be spent on rubber gap fillers at 20 train stations across Sydney.
Among them are accident hotspots Epping, Lidcombe, Strathfield, Blacktown, Hurstville and Sydenham.
The gap fillers have already been rolled out at 13 high-traffic stations such as Circular Quay, Town Hall, Wynyard, Chatswood and Bondi Junction.
Since the installation, no falls have been recorded at any of those train stations.
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