Passengers trapped for eight hours in express train
The weekend is proving to be a testing one for Sweden's train passengers.
In never rains but it pours. As it happened, for 350 train passengers travelling from Malmö to Stockholm over early on Saturday, the weather was blisteringly hot. But after being stuck in their carriages for eight hours after a series of mishaps, the sentiment was the same.
First, the night train hit an elk in Älgarås, outside of Hallsberg.
Then the taxi which was taking the driver to pick up a new engine got lost, adding another hour to the delay. When the second locomotive arrived it was not possible to couple it to the train. Another taxi was called and the driver set off to find a third locomotive.
By that time the train had stood still for so long that staff were forced to go through the security check before it could start rolling again.
The upshot was that 350 passengers were forced to sit in oven-like conditions in the train for eight hours - without water or access to toilets.
"We had water onboard but it ran out," said Dan Olofsson in SJ's press office.
"We couldn't let the passengers out because it was a double track. So it became pretty unpleasant for them," he said.
The train arrived in Stockholm at about 3pm on Saturday, eight hours late.
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In never rains but it pours. As it happened, for 350 train passengers travelling from Malmö to Stockholm over early on Saturday, the weather was blisteringly hot. But after being stuck in their carriages for eight hours after a series of mishaps, the sentiment was the same.
First, the night train hit an elk in Älgarås, outside of Hallsberg.
Then the taxi which was taking the driver to pick up a new engine got lost, adding another hour to the delay. When the second locomotive arrived it was not possible to couple it to the train. Another taxi was called and the driver set off to find a third locomotive.
By that time the train had stood still for so long that staff were forced to go through the security check before it could start rolling again.
The upshot was that 350 passengers were forced to sit in oven-like conditions in the train for eight hours - without water or access to toilets.
"We had water onboard but it ran out," said Dan Olofsson in SJ's press office.
"We couldn't let the passengers out because it was a double track. So it became pretty unpleasant for them," he said.
The train arrived in Stockholm at about 3pm on Saturday, eight hours late.
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