Computer glitch brings Brisbane trains to a standstill

A computer issue has been blamed for bringing Brisbane's train systems to a halt Tuesday evening, a Translink spokesman has confirmed.

Public transport body Translink revealed that a Queensland Rail network-wide computer issue left passengers stranded on commuter trains for a period of 24 minutes Tuesday night.

The computer issue caused signalling problems throughout the network and followed "similar incidents" last month, the spokesman said.

"To ensure the safety of passengers and staff on the network, trains were halted between 6:21pm and 6:45pm while the fault was rectified."

The spokesman said that "independent reviews" of the central computer system by "experts from the software/hardware suppliers" was being commissioned.

IBM was conducting a review of the IT system hardware whilst Siemens would start a "further investigation into the software functionality" on Monday.

Translink was unable to clarify if the glitch was caused by a security breach.

"Until the reviews are concluded, we are unable to speculate what caused the problems," the spokesman said.