Open air commute, or hold on for dear life

[bikkuri bahn]

Takasaki Line 1960, train #724 for Ueno.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGXx0OkPZbA&feature=related

 

I remember my uncle saying how he loved to ride on the elongated platforms of the EL's as a youngster. 

[Bernard]

Even 51 years ago they had a problem with over crowded trains!

[bill937ca]

I think we forget how recent this type of operation still cropped up.  I won't say it was common, but you would find it here and there.  I have video of open platform trams in Lisbon as late as 1989.  Riders would board or alight while the car was still in motion and there was always room for one more. I can't even find open platform streetcars in North America after about the WWI. In earlier days platforms were a major factor in car capacity.

[Mudkip Orange]

You can still ride like that on the cable cars in SF, although the 9mph top speed results in a lot less "flirting with death" than is seen in this video, or the current state of things in Mumbai.

[Nick_Burman]

Takasaki Line 1960, train #724 for Ueno.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGXx0OkPZbA&feature=related

 

I remember my uncle saying how he loved to ride on the elongated platforms of the EL's as a youngster.  

 

Wish there was more of this video... surprisingly the music at the beginning is the tail end of a "remixed" version of Heitor Villa-Lobos's "Trenzinho do Caipira" ("Little Train of the Caipira"). Amazing to find it in a Japanese documentary...

 

 

Cheers NB

[David]

You can still ride like that on the cable cars in SF, although the 9mph top speed results in a lot less "flirting with death" than is seen in this video, or the current state of things in Mumbai.

 

Yeah, first thing that comes to mind is these guys are amateurs next to India. A dozen people riding on the platform? Try a hundred clinging to the sides and riding the roof of one already filled to crush capacity car. Then throw in the guys pulling the emergency cord so they can get off closer to their destination.

[to2leo]

It is interesting that we now long for it so much that we pay $50-60 to ride the roller coasters.

[keiichi77]

David, you mean like these? 

 

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sBeBXmIAQgQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pMRXQeB400w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[David]

The second one is what I'm talking about, though they have some rolling stock that lets people hang on across the full length of the train, not just near the doors.