queensland rail travel with care

For bookings call 1800 577 245 in Australia +61 7 4231 9045 outside Australia

Travelling with a carer

Queensland Rail Travel's policy allows a carer to travel for free on our services when accompanying a customer with a disability who requires their assistance. 

The free carers seat is near the customer being cared for.

Definition of a carer

A carer provides personal care, support, and assistance to a customer because of disability, frailty, chronic illness or pain. A customer that requires assistance with everyday tasks travels with a carer.

Responsibilities of a carer

A carer travelling with a customer on our services must provide the following assistance to the person they are caring for where required:

• The operation of their mobility device (wheelchairs and mobility scooters)
• The moving of their mobility device, including lifting, carrying it or pushing* it up and down boarding ramps
• Assistance with carry-on luggage or mobility aids (over 7kg)
• Assistance with food and beverage consumption
• Giving injections or administering medication
• Personal care such as emptying colostomy bags, urine bottles or similar equipment. If assistance of this nature is required, please arrange for a carer or companion to travel also.

*Important note: Should you require assistance with pushing a mobility device up and down boarding ramps, we are unable to guarantee that our team members available on the day can safely provide this assistance. It is recommended that you arrange for someone to provide this assistance.

If you are unable to arrange for someone to provide this assistance, please let us know in advance so that we can review your request and advise if it is possible to arrange this assistance.

For more information on the type of assistance our team can provide, please visit Assistance available .

Carer eligibility for free travel

If the customer requiring a carer holds a Companion Card (Australian residents), the card can be used to access carer's fares.

International visitors requiring a carer and in possession of a companion/carers card equivalent to the Companion Card issued to Australian residents can also access carer’s fares.​

The following conditions apply to the above:

• Travel for carers must be in the same carriage and journey as the accompanying customer they are providing care for.
• If there is a requirement for more than one carer to accompany the customer, this must be supported by a recommendation from a doctor. The recommendation should state there is a requirement for an additional carer due to the level of personal care, support and assistance required for a customer with a disability.

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General accessibility information

Accessible travel options

Travelling with a guide, hearing or assistance animal

Passenger Rail , Operations and Maintenance , Safety and Standards

Queensland rail urges travel with care.

From bumps and bruises to serious hospitalisations, an upward trend in customer-related injuries has prompted Queensland Rail to launch a campaign pleading with passengers to Travel with Care .

In a bid to help quell risk-taking behaviour, the rail operator has released shocking footage showing customers rushing for their train, skateboarding on the platform and the consequences of not using lifts for large or bulky items.

Queensland Rail acting general manager of station customer service, Drew Brock, said the organisation was deeply concerned after more than 600 preventable injuries to South East Queensland (SEQ) customers were recorded since January 2021.

“In 2022 there were 216 people who slipped, tripped or fell while catching trains and these types of injuries account for three quarters of incidents on the SEQ network,” he said.

“While overall 2022 figures were slightly down from the year prior, the way we’re trending in 2023, we’re dangerously close to another spike—­with 130 customer injuries in SEQ between January and May.

“Usually people are hurting themselves because they’re rushing to make a train, distracted by their phones or trying to beat closing doors, so we’ve released these videos to drive home what happens when you’re not careful.”

Brock said since 2021 there were 138 customers in SEQ who had been injured so badly, they required hospital treatment.

“Injuries on the network can range from a scrape and a bruised ego to hospitalisation. That’s a sobering thought given most of the incidents are entirely preventable,” he said.

“During peak the next train will be along in a matter of minutes, so please, allow plenty of time to catch your train, pay attention to where you are going and hold the handrail when using the escalators and stairs.

“We’re also seeing a lot of incidents involving luggage on the escalators—so remember, taking the lift with luggage is best.

“Our station staff are on hand to help you get on and off the train and around the station so don’t hesitate to ask.”

Brock said Queensland Rail’s new campaign, Travel with Care,  tugged on the heart strings of customers.

“We care about our customers’ safety so in this new campaign we’re speaking from the heart,” he said.

“Queensland Rail is also investing in a range of engineering solutions including accessibility upgrades to stations, raising individual platforms to reduce the step up to the train, increasing safety signage and staying on top of spot mopping during wet weather conditions.

“We love all of our customers, and we want them to arrive at their destination, safely.”

Customers will see targeted messaging at injury hot spots around the network, like Roma Street and Central Station, on train display screens as well as across Queensland Rail’s social media channels.

More information on the  Travel with Care  campaign can be  found here.

Travelling with Children

Travelling with children and Infants

Unaccompanied children.

Travelling when Pregnant

Sharing sleepers with children, entertainment.

Rise in referrals, new FIFO services bring critical health care to regional and rural Queensland

At 72, Darrell Ziebell can't make the two-hour drive to his closest major hospital for specialist heart check-ups.

He has Parkinson's disease and is not allowed to drive long distances.

"I can only drive a certain distance from home, which means I can't even reach Rockhampton for services," he said.

Mr Ziebell's heart condition was picked up by specialists on the Heart of Australia bus a few years ago when it arrived in his hometown of Moura in central Queensland.

The mobile clinics travel around the state providing cardiology and other specialty healthcare checks and regularly saves lives.

"We rely on services like this in the country," Mr Ziebell said.

"You've got a lot of people out here that are ticking time bombs … but as they are referred to one of these buses, that may very well pick up the hairy condition."

The service has been running for a decade but in the past year has seen a 34 per cent increase in referrals.

It has gone from three specialists to 33 to include not just cardiologists but endocrinologists, gastroenterologists, neurologists and more.

Founder and cardiologist Rolf Gomes said as regional populations aged, these services would become more important.

"The more we can bring the services to the doorstep, the more we can just cater to those aging populations," he said.

During a visit to Moura earlier this month, Dr Gomes detected two abnormal results and referred the patients to Brisbane for further testing.

"By the end of today, there'd be a few patients who potentially are very lucky to have walked up those stairs onto this truck and may be very lucky to be alive as a result," he said.

Dr Gomes said he was looking to expand the services to the rest of regional Australia.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, people living in rural and remote areas have higher rates of hospitalisations, death and injury, yet poorer access to healthcare services, than people in major cities.

Health services conducting outreach in regional and rural Queensland is not a new phenomenon, however with an aging population and a decrease in rural GPs, they are becoming more valuable.

FIFO therapists in Queensland

Fly2Health is a service that flies clinicians — including speech pathologists, occupational therapists, dieticians and exercise physiologists — to rural communities.

It launched in Queensland in September and has already expanded its service to around 20 rural communities.

A fortnight ago the team was at Quilpie, and last week held their first clinic in Rockhampton.

Managing director and pilot Tim Gibson said most of the patients had waited years for treatment.

Families living in remote Queensland faced unique challenges, he said, such as running rural properties or having to drive hours to the closest hospital.

"To bring a little bit of help so they don't have to travel to Brisbane, so they can just get the help they need in that moment they need it, just makes a world of difference."

Five years after moving to Australia, UK-born Jos Middleton felt the need for a shake-up from urban Melbourne life.

She said working on a sheep station familiarised her with some of the unique mental health challenges of remote life.

Ms Middleton now manages the mental health service for Royal Flying Doctor Service Queensland's Far North section, overseeing the fly-in, fly-out clinician teams that service more than 200 clients across Cape York Peninsula.

She said the number of people accessing the service almost doubled from December to January following severe flooding events in far north Queensland, adding that isolation from services in rural areas made this face-to-face contact vital.

"There's a massive push for telehealth because it's a cheaper model to cover the distance, but it varies in efficacy and a lot of people that we come across … they want to see somebody, and they want to have that face-to-face yarn."

Deborah Russell, a senior research fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research, said although the FIFO healthcare model was crucial to service delivery in remote Australia, it also came with drawbacks.

"When you have a workforce that comes in for a very short period of time ... it's very difficult to manage complex chronic diseases," Dr Russell said.

Training and up-skilling local people to fill health vacancies was "absolutely where we should be heading", but FIFO models supporting continuity of care were needed in the short term, she added.

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Plan your journey

​​We have the tools to help with planning your journey.

Journey planner

Use the Translink journey planner to find what public transport can take you from your starting point to your destination.

Tickets and fares

Visit the Translink website to view all timetable and fare information on our South East Queensland services.

Visit the Translink​ website to view all South East Queensland train timetables. For services relating to the Travel network, please visit Queensland Rail Travel .

Special event notices

​​​​Visit the Translink website to view timetables for special events.​

Travel conditions

Click to read our travel conditions when travelling on our South East Queensland​ train services.

School rail passes

Queensland Rail offer specially discounted tickets for primary and secondary school students travelling to and from school.

Group bookings

It's so easy to travel with Queensland Rail as a group - and it's cost effective too! We offer special concessions for travelling groups of ten or more.​​

Travelling with your bike

 Find out more about travelling on your bike on the South East Queensland​ train network, and also how to book a bike locker.

Travelling with large items

Find out more about travelling with large items on our network.

Severe weather events and natural disasters stop trains, damage our network and disconnect our customers. Find out more about the best way to prepare for these events.

Queensland Rail Mobile App

Download the free, Queensland Rail Mobile App and have instant access to download report maintenance issues, report lost property, station facility information and access to the Translink journey planner.

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Information about station facilities, customer service hours, contact details, zone and location.

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Queensland premier backs Molly the magpie's reunion with pal

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‘There has to be a way’: Queensland government working to reunite Molly the magpie with family, premier says

Steven Miles says environment department ready to provide training to Instagram-famous magpie’s ‘devastated’ carers

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The Queensland premier has revealed a magpie could be returned to a Gold Coast family weeks after the bird was separated from its carers and their pet bull terrier.

Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen adopted Molly the magpie in 2020 after it fell from the nest.

The bird became Instagram famous, attracting 728,000 followers, for videos showing its friendship with the couple’s dog, Peggy. Dozens of videos captured over the years show the animals playing and sleeping together.

But the department of environment later revealed it was unlawful to care for a magpie without a permit and the couple voluntarily surrendered the bird on 1 March.

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Speaking on the Gold Coast on Thursday, the Queensland premier, Steven Miles , said officers were ready to provide training to Molly’s carers so a family reunion could take place.

“The environment department stands ready to train Molly’s parents to be wildlife carers, to get them that certification so that Molly can be reunited with her family,” Miles said.

“What I’m suggesting now is that we work with the family to get them that permit so that Molly can be reunited with her family.”

Miles said the final decision rested with the department of environment but he felt Molly and her family should be lawfully reunited.

“In this instance, ensuring they can legally take care of Molly is the best outcome for Molly as well as the family,” he said.

“There has to be a way within the rules to see Molly live out a happy life with her family.”

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Molly’s carers said on Tuesday they were “grieving” and “devastated” to lose the bird and had done everything possible to work with the department.

“We are devastated to give you this news and of course these beautiful girls [dogs Peggy and Ruby]; they’ve lost their best friend,” Wells said in a post.

“We did everything in our power to work with the department, including training and also me obtaining my wildlife permit, which, after a period of time, I had to retract my application, as it was a bit of a conflict to our page,” Mortensen said.

The couple’s message went viral and they received an outpouring of love and empathy from the community.

As of Tuesday, more than 65,000 people had signed a petition calling on the department to reunite Peggy and Molly.

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