Sitting on a stopped train

 On Saturday we were coming back from London on the fast train when something happened to change our journey. We were running fast through Stevenage on one of the big trunk routes when there was a strange noise. It sounded like someone had thrown a bucket of stones at the train, and there was a bit of dust thrown up into the air. I thought maybe we had driven over some stones that annoying children had put on the track. 

The train stopped as quickly as it could and then there was - silence. We waited for an announcement but none came for five, ten, fifteen minutes. It was a full train so we started to speculate on what the cause might be. Had something fallen off a building by the line? One passenger had heard of an incident like that. Could we have slightly derailed? You would think it would be more bumpy and noisy. And the fact that there were no announcements made it a bit odder. Why does the guard not invade our silence with some kind of update. Usually it is 'waiting for a signal' or 'waiting for a slow-moving goods train', but there must be something in the repertoire that does the trick. 

It turned out to be something much sadder, and sadly not even rare. Someone, for reasons that impelled them, had thrown themselves in front of our train. The noise was ballast kicking up off the track. The reason we had heard no announcement was that the cab was damaged (and in any case I would not expect any word from the driver in the circumstances). The news gradually filtered through even without the Tannoy because our mobile phones told us quickly that all trains on our line were delayed because of a 'person struck by a train'. And the only train that had stopped quickly was ours. The phrase 'struck by a train' is used because it does not judge the reason, and is seen as neutral. 

I am not sure about other countries, but people on British trains can be very patient in the right circumstances. If it was a different cause, such as 'lack of train staff' (to which the answer always seems to be 'well employ some then!), people might be much more arsey. But right now, however much your Saturday evening was replanned at a stroke, I think most people had some thought for two people when judging how to react. Someone's life had presumably just ended, and we understandably put ourselves in the driver's position too. As you can't swerve, I'm not sure what the recommended action is for a driver when they know what is going to happen next. Maybe they tell you to shut your eyes. 

We were on the train for a long time but after about half an hour a slightly hoarse-voiced officer from the Transport Police came down and explained what had happened. He also said that the announcements didn't work because of damage to the electrics in the cab. So he was personally announcing everything to all sixteen carriages on the train. And he did tell us that "The driver is OK", but I think that is a rather relative term. 

We had stopped in full daylight at 4.30 and didn't leave our train until four hours later when they brought another train alongside and put a bridge across two of the doors. Even then people were pretty placid and patient. But I mean, what are you going to complain about "Your struck by train response time is too long!" would seem a bit petty.

We had left London at 16:12, due in to Cambridge at about 17:00. We finally got there at 22:30. It was a very long evening, and we were all tired and hungry and dying for a drink. But at the back of your mind you had that saying maybe whispering itself

"Each day is the first day of the rest of your life!"

Well it is, except for one day.