In any big city it's a sad inevitability that people are killed by passing trains, trucks, buses and cars. Sometimes the sites of these tragedies are marked with little memorials to the victims. If you get around a lot on public transport as I do then you are sure to see them occasionally. 

Perhaps the most widely known was in the recently demolished Wellington St Bus Station. I forget the name of the person who was killed, but I'm pretty sure it was a girl and she was Japanese. The site always had fresh flowers left in remembrance of her, presumably left by station staff. 

There's another one at the Mosman Park train station, in the bushes next to the platform on the Cottesloe side. Not sure what happened there but it's very likely that he or she was hit by a train. Just near the same station, on the corner of Stirling Highway, there's a little cross in honour of "Ricky".

I do recall seeing one at Carlisle station, though it's years since I've been there now. This related to a particularly tragic fatality. In it, a wheelchair bound woman was crossing the railway line and became stuck on the tracks. The oncoming express train hadn't a snowflake's chance in hell of stopping in time, and killed her instantly. Tragically, the exact same fate befell a man there some three months later. 

Not far from there, at Welshpool Station, there's another touching memorial to a girl called Emilie. As well as a cross naming her, the makeshift shrine contains some clothes along with thoughts penned by the person who maintains it.



Not sure if this particular line contains any more such sad reminders. But if it does I wouldn't be surprised. There seem to be many more trains travelling along it, with a high proportion of those being express trains.

I had a very powerful reminder of their potential danger recently as I rushed from the northern side of the line towards Welshpool Station, in a hurry to catch the train to Perth. As I neared the platform a train approached from the city side, to my right, and the warning bell rang.

I rushed through the gates, which were just about to close. Keen to make it through in time I actually overshot my mark and ended up on the other side of the tracks, when I really should have stopped in the middle on the platform itself. 

I realized my mistake just as the gates began to close and lunged back in the opposite direction, hoping to squeeze back through the gate on the southern side and onto the platform. Just then I heard the loud blast of a train's siren to my right. This startled me because the train I was originally trying to beat was coming from the other direction. 

I looked towards the east and saw the huge locomotive powering towards me. Unlike the Thornlie bound train -- now to my left -- this one was definitely not stopping! If I hadn't managed to halt myself in time I would have been flattened for sure.

This experience really gave me a fright. I could see how easy it was to end up being caught on the tracks.

See, when a warning bell rings you automatically assume that there's only one train coming. Yet with it being such a busy line, there will sometimes be two trains coming from opposite directions. Two bells will ring, but it's hard to distinguish between them.

If one of these trains is hurtling along at speed the danger is huge. This is definitely something to keep in mind whenever you catch trains in Perth, particularly along the Armadale-Thornlie line.