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CHAOS ON THE WAY TO TOKYO WORLD AS 200 PASSENGERS WALK DOWN TRAIN LINE

Disgruntled festival-goers stopped train and jumped onto tracks.

On the way to Tokyo World, which took place last weekend in Bristol’s Eastville Park, up to 200 rail passengers halted an overcrowded train and walked down the tracks.

As The Guardian reports, shortly after the two-carriage train left Clifton Down station, an announcement was supposedly made that the train would not be stopping at Redland because it was too busy. Annoyed by how long it was taking and how crowded the service was, some people decided to act, chanting, “Let us off, let us off”. After pulling the emergency cord, passengers jumped down onto the tracks while some scrambled up the banks to get away.

British Transport Police are currently trying to identify the passengers, many of whom were university students, and have condemned the event as a “trespass incident”, claiming that it caused delays and endangered both themselves and other passengers.
 
Trespassing is a criminal offence, carrying a maximum fine of £1,000.

Speaking to student newspaper Epigram, one person said, “It was awful, I was trapped in the corner. I’m claustrophobic so I started panicking and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. People around us were shouting to the guys nearest to the window to smash it open.”

Another student has described how he noticed one girl lying beside the track after fainting, and as a result had to divert the crowd of people jumping off the train away from her, worried she might get trampled. He also described how students ran away from police officers as they walked down the tracks towards the train, causing many to scramble up a bank and over a fence rather than walk back to the platform.