If the UK rail companies get wind of this story they wouldn't install brooms or concrete balls. They would sell tickets (scenic viewing / smokers area) for the roof space to help reduce the overcrowding on trains..
Indonesian train roof fare-dodgers given the brush off
Indonesian train operators have come up with yet another ingeniously cruel system designed to discourage fare-dodging commuters from blagging a free ride on the roof of their carriages - this time involving brooms covered in putrid gunk. Fresh from the success of its plans to dislodge the pesky roof-dwellers with small …
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Thursday 9th February 2012 13:01 GMT Is it me?
Loading Gauge
Here in the UK we don't need concreate balls, we have a, it true British style built most of our railway infrastructure to decapitate the unwary traveller as it is.
In the glorious days of British Railways, it was not unknown for passengers, as they used to be called, to be decapitated by sticking their heads out of the carriage window, being hit either by a handy bridge or another passing train. This is why there are notices telling you not to lean out of the window,
Good efficient infrstructure design builds tunnels and bridges with the minimum space needed around the vehicle. UK Loading Gauge is much smaller than European and North American. After all, you can always rebuild it later, if demand requires.
(PS The exceptions are HS1, The Old Great Central out or Marylebone, and The old broad gauge lines from Paddington which exceed the UK Standard, there are also a few are more restrictive)
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Wednesday 8th February 2012 15:27 GMT BristolBachelor
Wasn't it one of the stages on Takeshi's Castle?
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Wednesday 8th February 2012 15:21 GMT Lee Dowling
Am I the only one that sees the solution here?
Stop them getting on the roof? Either by personal force (which is what would happen over here), or by the simple precept of painting the train roof in anti-climb paint? Why some fancy-schmancy system of hanging deadly devices in the path of fast-moving trains?
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Wednesday 8th February 2012 15:44 GMT Khaptain
Quick Solution
On the electric trains I presume it would be a relatively simply matter to "electrify" the roofs.
BUT, the electricity should only be turned on about 3 seconds before the concrete balls/whips obstacles arrive, thereby nulifying the possibilty of acrobatically avoiding the obstacles....
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Wednesday 8th February 2012 16:20 GMT The Metal Cod
Putrid gloop?
The author has clearly not travelled on Southeastern trains (often delayed or cancelled from CHX, never a working toilet, often a leaking one), a CrossCountry Voyager (crap design leads to the whole train reeking of excrement) or an Arriva Trains Wales Class 150 (if the waste tanks don't get you the ambient chemical odour will).
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Wednesday 8th February 2012 18:11 GMT Mephistro
Hmmmm...
So the Indonesian Government is saying they can't use traditional means- i.e. police - for preventing people from climbing on the train roofs, and instead they are using an infrastructure -brushes and concrete balls- that can be easily sabotaged as it's located outside of train stations, where vigilance is, to put it mildly, quite scarce. Geniuses.
The part about endangering the lives of their own citizens is just a bonus.
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Thursday 9th February 2012 19:22 GMT Nuke
@ Mestipho ...
So you must think the railways here in in the UK (and most of Europe AFAIAA) are terrible. They have structures like signal gantries and tunnels only about 6" above the roof, far more lethal than concrete marbles and brushes.
Something should be done about it! It endangers the lives of our own citizens!
Quote : "So the Indonesian Government is saying they can't use traditional means- i.e. police - for preventing people from climbing on the train roofs"
I guess the government are saying nothing - or that it's the railway's problem. That is what the government tends to say in the UK, which is why the railways pay for their own police force (the British Transport Police).
What astonishes me is that these eastern railways' infrastructures have been buiilt so inefficiently that they do have enough room for people to sit or stand on the roof.
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Wednesday 8th February 2012 22:01 GMT Stevie
Hmm.
Are there any videos of these miserable freeloaders brushing up against the catenary?
I suggest swinging axes and hammers, along with improbably large munitions periodically fired down the length of the train to dislodge ticket dodgers on the unelectrified sections.
With a bit of forethought this could be merchandised into the next X-Box game.
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Thursday 9th February 2012 00:24 GMT Anonymous Coward
Top 5 inhumane ways to remove free riders from top of trains
5. Tunnels and underpasses with strips of razor wire hanging down to roof height
4. Trackside rock salt air guns sweeping top of train
3. Make sure train takes scenic route through poo-flinging monkey preserve
2. Tents on top of train containing ameobic dysentary mosquitos
1. Endless loop of Rebecca Black's "Its Friday" blasting from traintop speakers!