What’s lost is found on Adelaide Metro

Tuesday, 24 December 2024

Whipper snippers, musical instruments, suitcases and prams were among a staggering 14,000 items left on public transport this year.

With Christmas just around the corner, passengers are being encouraged to keep an eye on their belongings as they head home from shopping trips and festive parties, making sure their gifts end up under the tree and not at a transport depot.

So far this year, more than 57 million trips have been recorded across the Adelaide Metro network, with around 605 train, 420 tram and 9,000 bus services running daily.

With so many passengers commuting on public transport, personal belongings can easily get left behind.

Close to 2,400 items were discovered, collected and stored at Morphettville Bus Depot this year, the largest number of lost items stored at any of Adelaide Metros 11 depots.

Each depot’s storge room is a treasure trove for lost property, with items of all shapes and sizes found and stored. Some items were more frequent flyers than others, the top five common finds for 2024 were:

• MetroCARDS (1440)
• Wallets (1164)
• Mobile phones (818)
• Drink bottles (536)
• Umbrellas (492)

Money was also a common find, in one wallet $950 was found, thankfully, it was quickly claimed by a very grateful owner who was able to identify the wallet and its contents.

In cases where items cannot be identified despite the best efforts from staff, they are donated to charity after a month of being in storage.

If you do happen to lose an item while traveling on public transport this festive season you can report it on the Adelaide Metro website or by calling 1300 311 108.

To give our staff the best chance at finding your lost item, try and provide as much detail as possible, even a photo of the item can go a long way.

If you find a lost item, you can hand it to a staff member or driver as you are leaving.

Quotes to be attributed to Adelaide Metro spokesperson, Michelle Spagnoletti

The Adelaide Metro team work very hard every day to transport tens of thousands of passengers across our network, and part of that job is helping reunite customers with their lost belongings.

So far this year, we have found more than 14,000 lost items across the Adelaide Metro network. While it can be a thankless task, it is a very rewarding moment when we are able to reunite a sentimental or personal item with its owner.

When you hear a story like Jody’s it is a true testament to the dedicated public transport team that go above and beyond to reunite precious items to grateful customers.

We want to remind all passengers to keep an eye on their belongings over this busy festive season, making sure their gifts end up under the tree and not at our depots.

Quotes to be attributed to passenger, Jody Olsson

We cannot say enough about the amazing help in locating our lost bag on the bus and the customer service that we received from the whole team involved.

My client was very relieved when I reported back to her that her backpack was found and her very expensive hearing aids were still inside.

It can be a very stressful time when you accidentally leave something on public transport. Luckily there are still wonderful people in our society that are honest enough not to take someone’s personal property.

The Adelaide Metro team are an amazing group of people that went out of their way to be so helpful and polite.

Adelaide Metro passengers, Jody Olsson and Tiffany Hathazi