Train driver asks passengers to get out and push

Not in Argentina, mercifully

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 18th May 2007 10:42 GMT

We don't know what Argentinian commuters would make of it, but hundreds of Indian train passengers were apparently happy to oblige when the driver asked them to hop out and push.

According to Reuters, the unscheduled jump-start happened in Patna, capital of Bihar, after "a passenger pulled the train's emergency chain and it halted in a 'neutral zone' - a short length of track where there is no power in the overhead wires".

It took the emergency fare-paying labour more than half an hour to shift the train the 12 feet required to reconnect with the juice. Indian Railways spokesman Deepak Kumar Jha admitted: "In so many years of service in the railways, I have never come across such a bizarre incident." ®