Train-surfer caught on video

   






IMAGES of youths train-surfing on Queensland Rail trains from a home-made video are dramatic proof that some thrill-seeking teenagers are dodging security and risking their lives.

The hour-long train-surfing movie was posted on the internet late last month by a group boasting that they were "reclaiming the streets".

The video, which includes images of youths painting graffiti on rail carriages, has since been watched and downloaded by thousands of people across the globe.

Logos on carriages and stations show it is in Queensland, while the surrounds indicate it is probably the Brisbane suburban network.

The most dramatic scene is when a youth waits for disembarking passengers to leave the platform before jumping on to the back of a train just as it departs the station.

He crouches down and holds on to a thin piece of metal on the back of the train before turning and raising his finger to the cameraman.

The train then speeds out of the station with the youth clinging on for his life.

The footage has shocked QR officials and police, who say they've stepped up efforts to crack down on vandalism and violence on the rail network.

Police Minister Judy Spence said officers were working to identify those in the video and had started to compare the images with others obtained from QR's closed-circuit cameras at various stations.

"Sensationalising this type of behaviour by filming and creating movies sends the wrong message to young people," Ms Spence said.

QR passenger executive general manager Paul Scurrah said train-surfers not only risked falling from a moving locomotive, but could also be electrocuted by the railways' high voltage system.

"QR is horrified by the crazy practice of people riding illegally on the outside of wagons and carriages," he said.

Fatalities in recent times have been linked to train-surfing – a teen on the North Coast line last year fell from the outside of a moving train, and a 20-year-old was found atop a Victorian train, possibly electrocuted.

The DVD, is by a group called the "AEROHOLiCS" and they boast a sequel will be posted online soon. "We'll be back," they say.

But the end of the film suggests they have already tasted tragedy as a line on the credits says: "This movie is dedicated to Jeeps. RIP."