Teenager critical after falling from outside of train on Sydney Harbour Bridge in suspected train surfing

A 17-year-old boy has been seriously injured after falling from the outside of a moving train on Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia. New South Wales police say the boy was likely train surfing. He is being treated at Royal North Shore hospital, which confirmed on Thursday afternoon that he was in a critical condition.

At about 11.30am local time on Thursday, emergency services were called to the railway corridor between Wynyard and Milsons Point stations after reports that someone had fallen from a northbound Tangara train onto the tracks on the bridge.

A multi-agency operation followed. A Careflight helicopter landed at Bradfield Park with a medical team, and New South Wales ambulance paramedics treated the teenager on the bridge before carrying him 400 metres to safety. He was then taken by road to Royal North Shore hospital with multiple injuries to his head, chest and pelvis.

Luke Barrett, an inspector with the police transport command, said the boy had been hanging off the outside of the train and it was 'likely' he was train surfing at the time. He was with two other people, who were assisting police with inquiries on Thursday afternoon but had not been arrested.

Barrett said initial inquiries, a review of CCTV footage and speaking to witnesses on board indicated the boy had been riding on the outside of the train, an activity commonly referred to as 'buffer riding'.

He warned people not to get caught up in the social media hype around such videos, saying the activity is highly dangerous, carries an extreme level of risk, and can result in very serious injury or death when something goes wrong, as appears to have happened here.

Barrett said train surfing, particularly on the rear carriages, had been increasing, especially during school holidays and the warmer months. He said the boy had not become trapped under the train when he fell, making it a relatively straightforward extrication, and that inquiries would continue over the coming days.

In September, passengers were barred from using the rear carriages of Tangara, or 'T set', trains, which run on the eastern suburbs, Illawarra, north shore, western and northern lines, including between Wynyard and Milsons Point. The policy was initially in force in a limited way for select weekend and night-time services, but was extended to every Tangara train for the school holiday period.

In November last year, the New South Wales government announced new safety devices would be installed across the fleet to physically prevent people from accessing the back of trains. The specially designed 'nose cone' attachments block access to the tread plate between carriages, the area used by 'buffer riders' or 'train surfers' who cling to the outside of moving trains to film social media videos.

There have been 12 serious injuries in New South Wales in the past five years from such activity, including a 13-year-old boy who fell from a train at Caringbah last September.

The acting chief executive of Sydney Trains, Jas Tumbler, described it as a 'really tragic incident' and said his thoughts were with the boy, his family and friends. He said it had also been a difficult situation for first responders, who had to move the boy several hundred metres to safety. 'You just don't mess or play with a 400-tonne train; there will always be significant consequences and these are life-changing events that occur,' he said.

Tumbler said there had been around 600 incidents of train surfing in 2025 and close to 150 so far this year, a large reduction, but added that each incident carries a significant amount of risk. 'It's just not worth the five seconds of social media fame that you're looking for,' he said. Transport for NSW is still working to install CCTV across all Tangara trains, which it hopes to complete by the end of next year.