Wed May 16, 8:25 AM ET

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.

PurpleJedi said:

Bump start a train!

did it have a flat battery?

ZombieKitten said:

no i think it has a wind up clockwork mechanism... they just needed to crank it up a bit

I waited for an overdue electric train for about an hour once, and the explanation offered over the PA was a flat battery

eraclito said:

and it's called Thomas

Steadwood said:

oh!

I saw Thomas at the mall today

ZombieKitten said:

Bloody Hell!.... They pushed him a long way

Steadwood said:

seemed to be up and running just fine with 8 little boys in the carriages

ZombieKitten said:

Steadwood said:

those indians are resourceful

eraclito said:

Rumour has it that they are in the end stages of building a peddal powered Rocket

Steadwood said:

they are still working on stopping the craft from totally disintegrating on re-entry

eraclito said:

ZombieKitten said:

hello you..

I went to see Thomas and friends at a live show afew years ago.. it was unbelievably cringe watching..

REDFEATHERS said:

I saw some of walking with dinosaurs LIVE recently

all the little kids were screaming!

ZombieKitten said:

But Thomas and Friends Live was soo gay...

REDFEATHERS said:

I have also seen spiderman and bananas in pyjamas too so there AND bob the builder and they are ALL lame since the big dopes can't even talk, they have to pretend

ZombieKitten said:

Oh damn.. I dont envy you..

whoa. my brother and his wife are in india right now.


i'll be sure to ask them how heavy the train was
[Edited 5/17/07 4:42am]

I'll bet the passenger responsible for pulling the emergency chain made lots of new friends that day.

WillyWonka said:

PurpleJedi said:

It was going to happen sooner or later... they've got to fix the system so that the train can't be stopped in a neutral zone, or there aren't any neutral zones...
[Edited 5/17/07 19:42pm]

coolcat said:

Either that, or allow for the floors to be REMOVEABLE.

PurpleJedi said:

That's messed up, did they get their money back?!

This almost sounds like the time that last months a couple of friends and I went from one city in Texas to another and the driver was too cheap to get more gas so he was like, "Ok it sounds like we are going to have to start pushing the car" We were like He said we could make it with 1/4 of gas from two cities that are almost two hours apart! So we convinced him to get gas at a gasonline.
[Edited 5/18/07 11:50am]

Paradisekiss03 said:

I know it's so wrong! I forgot to add that the other passengers and I pitched in for gas money.
[Edited 5/18/07 19:35pm]