Passengers stuck on a train between two Brisbane stations for nearly three hours on Friday night should have been removed into the rail corridor, Queensland Rail's chief has said.
What should have been a five-minute trip between Windsor and Bowen Hills stations turned into a near three-hour ordeal for about 60 people after a flying fox got caught in the pantograph, the part that connects the train to the overhead power lines.
Angry passengers told ABC News they were left in the dark when the power went out.
QR chief executive Nick Easy apologised and said looking back releasing people from the carriage and onto the track when safe to do so would have been the way to go.
"The one thing I think is really clear is that there is an option for Queensland Rail to consider under those circumstances which is to detrain the passengers in the corridor," Mr Easy said.
"Now that's not something we decide lightly because we also need to do that in a very safe manner.
"I do believe in reviewing this incident, which we do after every incident, we will look at improvement to our decision processes around what is an appropriate length of time before we make a decision to evacuate the passengers and to do that in a very safe manner."
Queensland Rail said it had offered customers refunds and a week of free travel.
Mr Easy did not rule out other compensation.
"We have already made contact with those passengers that we have those details with," he said.
"We have certainly offered our very sincere apology for the inconvenience, the distress that it caused to our passengers."
He admitted while QR staff worked hard to sort the problem there could have been better communication with stranded customers.
"It was a set of difficult circumstances and it wasn't through any lack of effort by our staff," he said.
"But what we have learnt from it already is we need to provide more frequent information, more detailed information, even if that means we're not sure when the matter will be rectified."
