1,000 signatures reached
To: The Queensland Government
Stop the Cuts: Protect Our Stations
The Queensland Government and Queensland Rail need to reverse their extreme cuts to station staff and operating hours, which come into effect in May.
Why is this important?
Queensland Rail is trying to force through an extreme cut to stations across South East Queensland, leaving stations without any staff on them after 1 PM on weekdays and on weekends.
Unstaffed stations create environments where passengers feel vulnerable, particularly at night or in quieter periods. Without staff present, incidents of antisocial behaviour, harassment, and crime are harder to prevent and respond to. Vulnerable passengers and school students will have no one to turn to for immediate help.
Students, particularly younger ones, will have no adult railway employee to turn to if something goes wrong, a missed train, a lost go card, a medical issue, or a frightening encounter with another passenger.
School students, especially teenage girls, are disproportionately targeted for harassment on public transport. Staffed stations act as a visible deterrent and provide immediate recourse. Removing that presence during peak student travel times creates environments where harassment is more likely to occur and less likely to be addressed.
Passengers who rely on staff assistance include people with disabilities requiring help with ramps, gap bridging, or navigation; elderly passengers unfamiliar with ticket machines or needing physical assistance; tourists and visitors unfamiliar with the network; and people with low digital literacy who can't self-serve via apps or machines. Cutting weekend and afternoon staff effectively locks these people out of public transport, which is a human rights concern, not just an inconvenience.
Public transport exists to serve the whole community, not just tech-savvy, able-bodied peak-hour commuters. Reducing service quality by removing the human element signals a retreat from that social contract.
Unstaffed stations create environments where passengers feel vulnerable, particularly at night or in quieter periods. Without staff present, incidents of antisocial behaviour, harassment, and crime are harder to prevent and respond to. Vulnerable passengers and school students will have no one to turn to for immediate help.
Students, particularly younger ones, will have no adult railway employee to turn to if something goes wrong, a missed train, a lost go card, a medical issue, or a frightening encounter with another passenger.
School students, especially teenage girls, are disproportionately targeted for harassment on public transport. Staffed stations act as a visible deterrent and provide immediate recourse. Removing that presence during peak student travel times creates environments where harassment is more likely to occur and less likely to be addressed.
Passengers who rely on staff assistance include people with disabilities requiring help with ramps, gap bridging, or navigation; elderly passengers unfamiliar with ticket machines or needing physical assistance; tourists and visitors unfamiliar with the network; and people with low digital literacy who can't self-serve via apps or machines. Cutting weekend and afternoon staff effectively locks these people out of public transport, which is a human rights concern, not just an inconvenience.
Public transport exists to serve the whole community, not just tech-savvy, able-bodied peak-hour commuters. Reducing service quality by removing the human element signals a retreat from that social contract.