Train passengers asked to get out and push

[GaryC 7]

PATNA, India (Reuters) - Hundreds of Indian rail passengers got more than they had bargained for when the driver of their train asked them to get out and push.

It took more than half an hour to move the stalled electric train 12 feet so that it touched live overhead wires and was able to resume its journey, officials said on Wednesday.

The incident occurred in the eastern state of Bihar on Tuesday 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.

"In so many years of service in the railways, I have never come across such a bizarre incident," said Deepak Kumar Jha, a spokesman for Indian Railways.

A train's momentum usually allows it to continue moving through neutral zones.

India's rail network carries more than 15 million people daily -- more than the combined population of Norway and Sweden -- but its safety record often comes in for criticism.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/india_train_dc;...y5GshHBwFcjr7sF

[JoeMama 0]

I saw the same thing with a bus and it's passengers in Ukraine back in February. It had snowed like hell and the bus got stuck. I was looking out of the window of my balcony and watched the passengers get out and push from the back of the bus out of the area it was stuck. Once they got it free, everyone just jumped back on and away they went. It was hilarious to me. Because I know if it had been Americans, most of us know that bus would've sat until the snow had melted!