JR conductor chases runaway train

Monday 03rd August, 08:32 AM JST

TOKYO —

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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Latest 15 of 34 Total Comments Show All

Manny3 at 02:24 PM JST - 3rd August

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 at 04:27 PM JST - 3rd August

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 at 05:25 PM JST - 3rd August

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 09:13 PM JST - 3rd August

At least nobody got hurt. This could have been ugly.
usaexpat at 12:39 AM JST - 4th August

Conductor good on you, driver disciplinary action to follow. Man that's got to be embarassing.
mnemosyne23 at 12:59 AM JST - 4th August

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 at 01:57 AM JST - 4th August

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 at 02:13 AM JST - 4th August

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 at 06:06 AM JST - 4th August

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 at 07:11 AM JST - 4th August

the conductor ACTUALLY CAUGHT UP TO the train!

The conductor was running so fast it was a blur to the human eye.
NeoJamal at 07:22 AM JST - 4th August

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 at 05:43 PM JST - 4th August

A JR East spokesman said further employee training will be carried out to make sure conductors know the correct procedures.

i daresay this is the drivers fault here..
flammenwerfer at 06:38 PM JST - 4th August

the conductor was locked out of the control cabin and trapped in a passenger compartment of the running train while he was taking care of a drunk passenger sleeping on a seat. When the train stopped at Higashi-Nakagami Station, he manually opened the train doors and slid out of the carriage. The doors were apparently closed again before anyone else could get off or on. The conductor hurried back to the control cabin to open the doors anew for the passengers; however, before he could get back in, the driver departed thinking that the passengers had already got off the train as the monitor indicated the door operation records as normal. Some 10 people failed to get off at Higashi-Nakagami Station, while about 40 people saw off the train leaving without them. The driver noticed the absence of his colleague when the doors remained closed after arriving at Nishi-Tachikawa Station. He then waited for about nine minutes for the conductor to catch up.

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 at 06:41 PM JST - 4th August

The train was not a "runaway" train, it had a "driver" the whole time.
ka_chan at 09:46 PM JST - 4th August

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.