Escalator incident

The Public Transport Authority is investigating a serious incident at Esplanade train station yesterday that left several passengers injured.

We have obtained CCTV of the incident and early indications are that a group of people stopped at the bottom of the escalator which prevented others from stepping off.

This lead to several passengers falling over one another. The escalator was switched off by a passenger pressing the emergency stop switch within 30 seconds of the incident starting.

There was a reasonable sized crowd of people who appear to have come from an event at the convention centre, but the crowd was no larger than a normal afternoon peak.

It also appears some of the passengers may have been less experienced public transport users and this may have caused them to pause at the bottom of the escalator rather than move down the platform.

We are aware that escalators can represent a risk of injury to the general public but they are a necessary part of any major train system around the world. They have operated on our network for decades with only occasional minor injuries but no major incidents.

Any injury on our system is one too many and as such we have commenced a full and thorough investigation into yesterday’s events.

A full safety check has been carried out on the escalator and no faults have been found. Further, it is worth noting that Transperth escalators are operated at a medium speed which is consistent with Australian Standards – and far slower than many other networks around the world.