A train conductor on the JR Ome Line was left in the dust by his own train on Sunday, and had to run along the line to catch up with it at the next station, JR officials said Monday.
According to JR East Japan, at around 8:15 a.m. the conductor got out of the express train at Higashi-nakagami station before opening the train doors, but the train began moving before any passengers could get off or on. The train continued on for about a minute, arriving at Nishi-Tachikawa station.
The conductor chased the train from Higashi-nakagami station, catching up with it about 10 minutes later at Nishi-Tachikawa. The episode caused several passengers to miss their stop, and delayed the train for about 10 minutes.
A JR East spokesman said further employee training will be carried out to make sure conductors know the correct procedures.
© News reports
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chotto
Gold!
ZetaSagittarii
[...] training will be carried out to make sure conductors know the correct procedures.
One would think that this "training" and the subsequent verifications should have been completed before handing him the command of a multiple unit.
Apsara
This sounds like the driver's fault to me- surely he would have realised that the doors hadn't been opened and closed? The conductors usually step out on arrival at the station, and then the doors open. In this case it sounds like the conductor stepped out and was about to open the door, but the driver took off without waiting.
smithinjapan
Just plain old stupidity on the conductor's part. Probably was lost in thought when he stepped off the train with the doors still closed. I think that's why they have the conductors always point at signs and salute lights and what not -- to make sure they're always paying attention.
FryingMonkey
LOL ya think the conductor had a fraidy pee during the chase? Freeking awesome story! Good thing no injuries.
kwatt
It sounds like bad team of train driver and conductor. They maybe don't like each other. The driver maybe wanted to let the conductor run catch up the train someday.
noborito
What a great laugh for Monday morning.
ilcub76
If there was a video of this, it would be classic! Watching the conductor chase the train....
So what are those little yellow boxes with red buttons on the platform for? (emergency kill switches) He could have stopped the train if he really wanted to.
geronimo2006
Put it in the AC/DC video of runaway train. But make the red button the explosives one.
GW
looks like the driver goofed bigtime, but did the abandoned conductor really chase the train down the tracks???? That to me sounds like a huge no no.........
This is very Laurel & Hardy by the sounds of it ha ha
bobbafett
hehehehe. hilarious. wish I had of seen it, and photographed it.
What? you may salute lights but no one else on earth does.
gogogo
Was Bennie Hill music playing?
timorborder
Sounds like the driver had a couple too many cups of coffee in the morning. An F1 racer in the making. Years ago I remember the story of a conductor who was drunk and left behind by the train, but this is the first time I have heard of one hoofing it along the tracks.
Disillusioned
Possibly it is only in the translation, however there seems to be very flippant overtones in this article for what is a very serious incident. "left in the dust by his own train"??? - "further employee training will be carried out"??? - This guy should be dismissed immediately and face negligence charges. It's only by the grace of the hundreds of Shinto gods there were no serious injuries or fatalities.
It's only Monday morning the 'idiot of the week' candidate is a standout already.kiwiboy
Sorry if I'm a bit ignorant, but I would have thought it was the drivers fault and not the conductors? The driver's the one that took off too soon right? A few more details in the story would be nice. Did the train sit at the station for the normal amount of time but without the doors opening and closing, or did the train stop for just a few seconds and then take off again before they had a chance to? I'm a bit lost.
Apsara
Disillusioned, why should the conductor be dismissed when it is quite obviously the driver who messed up here? The driver knows when the doors are opened and closed, and he left the station without opening the doors! Conductors always step out onto the platform, and that driver pulled away without even waiting for the doors to open and close. I fail to see how anyone could say it was the conductor's fault that the driver left him behind. The driver wasn't paying attention.
TSRnow
I heard about this incident on TV this morning.
The facts aren't as funny as one could imagine from this article, so I'll keep it to myself :)
lincolnman
This is actually a big breakdown in procedures, the driver is required to verify with the conductor that all passengers are free of the doors and that the doors are secure, before moving.
norinrad21
Chasing after his own train.......
Manuel D. Valencia III
This is a classic. I still remember a few years ago that a tain conductor in Osaka had to let go in his pants all of a sudden. I wonder if the two people were related? Too bad no one got this on video. You gotta love this country!
NuckinFutz
Now we know who'll be scrubbing urinals at JR train stations with a toothbrush for the next 6 months (while writing useless essays and having his pay cut 70%.) I somehow think the additional training will have nothing whatsoever to do with operating trains!
polarmalik
WOW !!! what an ordeal - chasing a runaway train. However, over weight people should do the same - chase trains from station to station. Farakh Malik
ca1ic0cat
At least nobody got hurt. This could have been ugly.
usaexpat
Conductor good on you, driver disciplinary action to follow. Man that's got to be embarassing.
mnemosyne23
Poor guy! Who wants to take bets that the conductor wasn't chasing after the train to catch up to it, but to escape the legions of angry commuters left behind on the platform? I'd like to know what the driver was thinking, personally. I hope JR goes easy on this conductor, though I doubt it -- SOMEONE has to be the scapegoat, ne? Poor fellow.
kyoken
JR must be very serious about fighting METABO having their staff to work out by catching their transportation. On the other hand it could be a good slogan for the Tokyo Olympics: "In Japan even the conductors are top trained runners".
Fadamor
This is embarassing for two reasons... one reason was that the driver wasn't paying attention and the second reasons was that the conductor ACTUALLY CAUGHT UP TO the train! So it's faster if you run to work instead of taking the train? ;-)
DailyBread
NuckinFutz at 04:27 PM JST - 3rd August
obviously you and I have been here a long time to remember how JNR retrain their staff. pay cut & sweeping the station plus cutting/scraping chewing gum , tending to flower beds and as you said the bogs need to be bleached.
tuneintokyo
The conductor was running so fast it was a blur to the human eye.
NeoJamal
Runaway train please come back ahead of time on the west bound track Seem like I should be driving somewhere Sunday's refuge seems so faded
It seems to me, there's no way out except to cleaning dunnies where I started out
This time I..proved BART is a way...
Coolasapool
i daresay this is the drivers fault here..
flammenwerfer
more to this story, the snippet posted on JT leaves out the details. Seems the train driver is the one who needs a rocket for not checking or even looking.
flammenwerfer
The train was not a "runaway" train, it had a "driver" the whole time.
ka_chan
Man, trains don't have drivers. They have engineers. Must be a small train to have only one conductor. Seems both the engineer and the conductor need a refresher. Maybe the lesson here is let sleep drunks lie.