He has undergone six operations and will probably need more. His brother Paul said he’d been told John may not walk again. CCTV shows John tried to board the train after it had taken off. Even so, Paul said the accident could have been avoided if there had been a guard on the train. "Metro has a moral obligation to take care of the passengers. They take their money," he said. "There are plenty of old, frail people out there struggling to get on trains."

The Roberts family is not alone in calling for guards to be reintroduced after carriage doors separated a mother from her baby in a pram at Southern Cross Station last Friday. Metro Trains has revealed similar incidents in which children are separated from their parents happen about once a fortnight. At Southern Cross Station, the mother rushed to the doors as they were closing but only managed to get the pram carrying her child on board. Passengers took care of the child, and mother and baby were reunited at Flagstaff station minutes later. Luba Grigorovitch from the Rail Tram and Bus Union. Credit:Jason South While passengers sometimes do the wrong thing, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union believes the incident is indicative of a broader safety problem.

The union is calling for Metro to have guards on trains or safety staff on all platforms to tackle problems arising from Melbourne's booming number of commuters and the increased pressure on drivers to stick to timetables. "It’s not enough to continue with business as usual. The safety and reliability of our network demands adequate staffing now," union secretary Luba Grigorovitch said. She said new high-capacity trains being introduced for the Metro Tunnel posed additional risks due to greater length, poorer visibility and more passengers. There have been 23 "passenger boarding" incidents so far this year, compared with 33 in the same period last year. These include incidents involving doors, or the gap between a station platform and a train.

It is not known how many times passengers were at fault, but Metro executive director of safety Tim Maher said the message was simple: "Never try to force open the doors of a departing train." "It's not worth risking serious injury, or worse, in the rush for a train." Tim Haslett and his grandson Winton, whose arm was caught in a train door. Credit:Luis Ascui Tim Haslett wasn't doing the wrong thing. He was simply getting off a train with his wife and two grandchildren at East Richmond last December when his four-year-old grandson Winton’s arm was caught in a carriage door. It happened in a split second. They were slowed getting off the train when the wheel of their pram got stuck in the platform gap. The doors closed around Winton’s limb and didn’t open again.

Mr Haslett was holding Winton’s hand. He pulled hard enough to free him before the train took off. Winton wasn't injured, but Mr Haslett is haunted by what could have easily been a horrendous outcome. "The consequences of my not having got Winton out of the doors ... he would've been dragged along … and eventually he would've come loose and fallen on the tracks. He would've been dead," he said. He would've been dragged along … and eventually he would've come loose and fallen on the tracks. He would've been dead. Tim Haslett A Metro review of the incident seen by The Age confirmed the driver didn’t leave the doors open for an appropriate length of time and the area was not clear when the "door closure procedure" was activated.

Drivers use side mirrors, video monitors and cabin warning lights to ensure passengers are safely on board. If a door is unable to close, the system is programmed to immediately alert the driver and render the train immobile. If a train door is identified as faulty, all passengers have to get off and the empty train has to travel back to the depot. Mr Haslett, a systems theorist who has worked with the Australian Defence Force, said "everyone on Melbourne’s trains will have seen people getting stuck in the doors" and Metro’s response was "not good enough". "I'm 75. I don't think Metro should be saying to me, 'You need to be moving quicker, Tim.' " More than 400 train guards were removed from the network in the early 1990s. V/Line, however, has kept conductors on every train.

Peter Gregory was a guard, driver and trainer of drivers during a 35-year career working on Melbourne trains. He said there was an incident "every single trip" when he was a guard. Drivers faced an unfair burden of responsibility since guards were removed, he said. "You're on your own and if anything happens you have to suffer the consequences on your own." Martin Stewart, who lost his arm and part of a leg in a train accident in 2002. Credit:Joe Armao Blind activist Martin Stewart was one of the first people to campaign against the removal of guards, warning injuries and deaths were an inevitable consequence.

Little did he know, the accident he predicted was his own. Loading It was February 4, 2002. Heading home from work via Richmond station, Mr Stewart reached out with his cane to feel for a door and fell in a gap. His accident occurred exactly where the guard’s carriage used to be. He lost his right arm, half his right leg and part of his left ear. The train driver did not see Mr Stewart fall. Nor did they see the person who ran to the front of the train to warn them not to take off.

Mr Stewart suffered serious friction burns to most of his body as he was dragged under the carriage. The father of four describes train guards as the "lifeguards" of the transport system. He said technology would never replace humans who could hear, see and communicate danger. "You’ve got to have someone whose specific duty is to watch over people on and off the train," he said. "It’s just a commonsense thing to keep people safe."

Mr Stewart met NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance last year before the state ruled out its own introduction of driver-only trains. Loading Mr Constance instead agreed to permanently roster two staff on each inter-city train, "to help people with disabilities, parents with prams, or the elderly to get on and off at stations". That decision has set Mr Stewart back on the warpath. "Every time I hear about an accident I know is avoidable, it traumatises me further," he said.

Metro employs more than 1100 station staff and 300 authorised officers, deployed strategically across the network. Authorised officers are tasked with "active platform duties", including helping passengers get on and off trains safely. However, they are also responsible for reducing fare evasion, providing customer service to commuters and helping prevent anti-social behaviour on trains. Protective services officers also play a role in supporting safety around train stations. They're at train stations after 6pm until the last train and are now patrolling trains. Metro is trialling new platform markings at Richmond station and a "visual countdown" in the City Loop, alerting commuters to when a train is boarding or about to depart. Public Transport Victoria chief executive Jeroen Weimar said the safety of passengers was "always the No. 1 priority".