Teen Critically Injured in Fall From Train on Sydney Harbour Bridge

A 17-year-old boy is in critical condition after falling from the outside of a train onto the tracks of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Thursday, New South Wales police said. Investigators believe he was likely train surfing, the dangerous practice of riding on the outside of a moving train, according to The Guardian and ABC News in Australia.

The fall briefly halted trains on part of the T1 North Shore line and caused delays across parts of the network.

What happened on the bridge

Emergency services were called to the rail corridor between Wynyard and Milsons Point stations at about 11:30 a.m., the Guardian reported, after someone fell from a northbound Tangara train. A rescue helicopter with a medical team landed at nearby Bradfield Park. The Guardian said paramedics treated the teenager on the bridge and then carried him 400 meters to safety.

He was taken by road to Royal North Shore Hospital. The hospital said he was being treated for multiple injuries, including to his head, chest and pelvis, and that he remained in critical condition on Thursday afternoon.

Police Inspector Luke Barrett of the Transport Command said the boy was with two other people and was hanging off the side of the train before he fell. Those two were helping police with inquiries and had not been arrested, according to the Guardian. Barrett said the boy was not trapped under the train, and the extrication was relatively straightforward. Police said inquiries would continue over the coming days.

Barrett said CCTV footage and witnesses on board indicated the boy was riding on the outside of the train. The two outlets quoted him using different names for the activity: ABC reported he called it upper riding, while the Guardian reported he called it buffer riding.

Police and rail officials point to social media

Barrett urged people not to get caught up in online videos that glorify the practice. He said it carries an extreme level of risk and can lead to very serious injuries or death. He said train surfing, especially on the rear carriages, has been rising, particularly during school holidays and the warmer months.

Jas Tumber, the acting chief executive of Sydney Trains, said social media is fueling the trend. He called the stunt not worth the five seconds of social media fame, and said people should not play with a 400-tonne train. He urged children and parents to step in and stop the activity. Tumber also said a number of young people are repeat offenders, and that the network works with police to track them down and keep them off trains.

What the numbers show

The Guardian reported that there have been 12 serious injuries in New South Wales in the past five years, including a 13-year-old boy who fell from a train at Caringbah last September. Tumber said the network recorded about 600 incidents of train surfing in 2025 and close to 150 so far this year, which he described as a large reduction. He added that each incident carries a significant amount of risk and that preventing it remains a challenge.

What authorities have done to stop it

In September, passengers were barred from the rear carriages of Tangara trains, also known as T set trains, to stop people riding on the back. The Guardian said the rule had applied in a limited way to select weekend and night services, and was extended to every Tangara train for the school holiday period. The trains run on the eastern suburbs, Illawarra, north shore, western and northern lines, including between Wynyard and Milsons Point.

The New South Wales government announced in November last year that new safety devices would be installed across the fleet. These specially designed nose cone attachments block access to the tread plate between carriages, the area that train surfers use to cling to moving trains while filming videos. Tumber said Transport for NSW is also working to install CCTV across all Tangara trains, with a goal of finishing by the end of next year.

Why it matters for commuters and families

For riders on the North Shore and Northern lines, the incident meant delays, with some services running 90 minutes behind schedule, according to ABC. The T9 Northern Line was also affected. For families, officials say the message is that the stunts can cause life-changing injuries, and that parents have a role in stopping them. Rail officials describe the rise of online videos as a driver of the problem, and they say rear-carriage restrictions, physical barriers and cameras are meant to make it harder to try.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by ABC News (Australia), The Guardian

Cover photo: JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped