Frontline Action on Coal activist Megan Byrnes delayed train testing after locking onto carriage near Collinsville

A train bound for a major coal export terminal was significantly delayed after a 62-year-old grandmother locked herself onto a carriage. Watch the footage.

A rail company boss has labelled an activist ‘selfish’ and warned she could have been killed or seriously injured after disrupting a train on the way to one of Australia’s biggest coal export terminals.

Grandmother Megan Byrnes, 62, locked herself to a train carriage travelling to Adani’s North Queensland Export Terminal at Abbot Point, near Bowen, on Monday.

The train was stopped at signals near Collinsville.

Ms Byrnes, a Frontline Action on Coal activist, was removed from the train about 9pm on Monday after police were called, which allowed the train to safely finish testing and commissioning activities.

Bowen Rail Company general manager Brendan Lane said anti-coal protesters seemed to be oblivious to the danger they had placed themselves in.

“What this protester did was incredibly selfish, they could have been killed or seriously injured,” he said.

“If our driver had not shown the situational awareness he did and realise activists had climbed onto a wagon, he may have had the traumatic experience of knowing someone had been hurt or killed on his shift.

“What kind of person puts a friend at risk like that?”

It comes after the Frontline Action on Coal group allegedly delayed works at the Hay Point Coal Terminal and the North Queensland Export Terminal in recent months, with two activists arrested and charged for their alleged involvement.

Ms Byrnes said her actions were in response to “another failure” in Australia’s fight against climate change.

“The COP26 summit which concluded yesterday has been another failure,” she said.

“Adani has repeatedly failed to manage environmental risks or to uphold human rights.

“Our climate will be the next thing that breaks down if we keep allowing unethical companies like Adani to make a joke of global climate mitigation efforts.”

Police have charged the woman with trespass, contravene police direction, interfering with a railway and use of dangerous attachement device (sleeping dragon).

She will appear in Bowen Magistrates Court on November 30.