Indian Passengers Forced To Push Own Train Back On Track
Posted May 17, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Those who have complained bitterly and endlessly about Go Train delays and cancellations during the winter can take some solace that they don’t have to ride the rails in Birhar state in India. Because what happened to passengers there on Tuesday makes any experience here pale in comparison. An electric train was steaming along at its usual pace when it entered a “neutral” zone, and suddenly lost contact with the overhead wires it depends on for power. The vehicle came to a screeching halt and there was nothing the conductor could do to get it to budge.
Well, almost nothing.
Facing a possible hours-long delay, train officials told several hundred passengers to get out of the cars and push the 12-foot vehicle back onto a part of the track where the wires were dangling. Incredibly, they did, with almost the entire group of commuters lining up in back and pushing the several ton train for more than half an hour. They then got back onboard and continued their journey.
The Indian rail system carries more than 15 million people a day and has often been criticized for its safety and service record. But even beleaguered officials admit this one was strange. “In so many years of service in the railways, I have never come across such a bizarre incident,” agrees Indian Railways spokesman Deepak Kumar Jha.
