Public Transport Victoria is responsible for providing, coordinating, and promoting major public transportation across the state.
Part of their responsibility includes ensuring the operations of our populated train stations- where so much can, and does, go wrong.
Our PTV train stations are a prized part of living in Melbourne, providing easy and efficient access within the city as well as regionally.

These stations are being used by all walks of life every day, so many of which include vulnerable people in a space with a great deal of potential hazards.

Following a close family member suffering a cardiac arrest at a PTV train station at a busy, staffed time, the metro staff was unable to provide any First-Aid or CPR, also unable to source a defibrillator. This resulted in a horrific ordeal of hospital visits and decisions that no family should have to make, he passed away very soon after.                     
Had First-Aid support been available, his chance of survival would have been exponentially greater.

 
I was shocked to find that there is no legislation in place, let alone a company policy mandating PTV staff to have First-Aid training. Any retail store I have worked at has had policy in place to ensure the safety of their staff and patrons, by ensuring there is a minimum of 1 person fully First-Aid trained at all times.  Up until now I was under the impression that this was mandated by law- not company. 
Out of all places this training would be most important in a train station where outside access is usually limited, there are many hazards including- steep hills, uneven ground, unpredictable people, obstacles caused by people’s belongings and most importantly- trains.

PTV has a responsibility to their passengers and staff to ensure a safe environment. In the event of an emergency, or any sort of accident or injury they are severely underprepared and heavily reliant on a healthcare system that will never beat the effect immediate attention to a medical emergency does. 

It is unacceptable that after all the funding received by PTV they have remained unable to provide basic safety measures for our community’s health. If this continues, this will mean that traumatic events that could be prevented can continue to destroy families, any sort of injury will be dealt with a ‘luck’ based system and everyone’s health will continue to be neglected.

The solution to this is simple- it is just the straightforward addition to mandate First-Aid training for our PTV staff.

This training takes less than a day to complete, it is an easy, inexpensive solution that benefits everyone- Staff, travellers and our whole community so we can continue to safely enjoy our transport services we invest so much into.