Railways and Tramways of Australia
17 March
Passengers queue for buses because of train delays caused by a possum in Brisbane on 17 March 2015. Photo: Penny Dahl/Australian Traffic Network, ABC News.
Possum power
A possum caused a massive disruption to Brisbane’s train network on the morning of 17 March 2015.
Bowen Hills station is located in inner-city Brisbane. Shortly before 5.00 am a possum crawled onto power lines near the station, causing 25,000 volts of electricity to arc, which knocked a power line to the ground.
Because the incident occurred on a Tuesday, the train network was moving into the morning peak. All services through the central business district were suspended while investigations took place. Significant disruption to train services followed. Buses replaced trains on part of the Ferny Grove Line.
Electricians located and isolated the problem. Four of six tracks through the city were re-opened. Nevertheless, the flow-on effects continued to cause delays of up to 45 minutes. Trains became overcrowded and passengers were frustrated. There were around 30,000 passenger journeys into Brisbane central business district each morning. It took until 4.00 pm for services to return to normal.
A Queensland Rail executive said that methods of keeping wildlife away from overhead lines had been tested. One method was placing a rotating pipe around power lines, making it difficult for wildlife land on or walk along the lines. The other method was the emission of an electrical charge to deter animals. These were not in place at Bowen Hills when the incident occurred but would be subsequently installed.
Translink said that it would refund commuters for the delay by automatically adding the amount to their Go card.
A similar incident occurred in July 2017 when a possum ran across wires at Roma Street station. The power was cut to all but two of the lines through the station. Congestion and delays were experienced while the problem was fixed.
Possums and power lines are not a good combination.
Bibliography
J Branco, ‘Brisbane train delays: Possum blamed for disruption’, Brisbane Times, 17 March 2015,
March 2026.
J Branco, ‘Brisbane trains: delays after power fault at Roma Street’, Brisbane Times, 27 July 2017,
March 2026.
‘Possum blamed for Brisbane rail disruption’, Railway Digest, vol. 53, no. 5, May 2015, p 17.
P Williams, ‘Brisbane train delays: Possum on power line blamed for morning peak-hour disruptions’, ABC News, 17 March 2015,
www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-17/trains-delayed-into-brisbanes-cbd-with-fallen-power-lines/6324352, accessed 11 March 2026.
Bowen Hills station, 14 January 2018.
