I’m not a rebel. The law-abiding nature of Switzerland suits me well. I’ve never, as the saying goes, so much as spat on the sidewalk in over ten years living here.
Our home is in the countryside, about five minutes’ walk from the village railway station: two lines in the middle; a platform on each side; and a short walk down, under the railway bridge, and up again if you want to get to the opposite platform.
Living so near the station, I have a tendency to time my arrival to coincide with the train’s. Sometimes I cut it a little fine. On this particular occasion I cut it too fine. The only way to avoid missing the train was to step over the tracks. Strictly forbidden of course. This is the main line between Bern and Geneva.
As I crossed the rails, the train whistle sounded. The driver had seen me in the mirror and wanted me to know he knew I’d broken the rules. Big deal, I thought. He’s not going to get out of his cab and give me a lecture. He didn’t have to. No one else was getting on or off, so he simply refused to open the doors. He made me stand there hopelessly pressing the entry button for a few seconds before driving off. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, I could do. The next train was due an hour later.
I was furious; literally hopping up and down with rage. What sort of sanctimonious so-and-so was that train driver? Hadn’t he ever been a few seconds late? What if I’d missed an important appointment? Just 500 metres from our station a public footpath goes straight over the tracks.
But I’ve told my story to numerous Swiss acquaintances and have yet to find even one who thinks the driver was wrong to keep me off the train. Of course I was wrong. But is that really the point? Bearing in mind that, given the same situation, I’d do the same again (hoping for a more benevolent driver), does anyone agree that nothing good came from the driver’s decision to take the law into his own hands?
Tags: behaviour, Life in Switzerland, Swiss, transport
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You are positively evil Ross. Of course living in a small village in Switzerland does expose you to this kind of treatment. And I bet the train driver is a close cousin of those Bern tram drivers who refuse to open the doors even when they are at a stop and won’t be moving for some time. It’s wonderful when someone shuts the doors on you and you have to wait another 10 minutes to get a ride!
um…. they have to draw the line somewhere, don’t they? this sounds like a sensible place to draw it. You can’t start hopping over the tracks as you please, what if a kid saw you? how many die playing on railway lines each year? actually, i have no idea whether any do, but anyway…
I don’t think this is something specific only to the swiss railway, i’ve seen very similar things happen in denmark and germany with trams and trains. You work on public transport long enough and you start looking for any excuse to inconvenience the public.
Life in Switzerland is well regulated and orderly, and everything looks clean precisely because people don’t get away with behavior that does not fit societal norms. On the other hand, it is precisely the kind of narrow-minded and sanctimonious attitude described by Ross, mostly of people in public positions, that drove me to leave Switzerland 35 years ago, and I have never looked back. Of course, things are far from perfect in the country I now call home (USA), especially the inner city crime and littered streets. That’s the flip side of the coin and the price we must pay for the personal freedom and easy-going, laid back and uncomplicated life style the USA is known for and that everybody who comes here first notices and loves (although some of that is gradually changing since 9/11). I still love Switzerland and am proud of its many accomplishments as a tiny nation with few natural resources. I visit as often as I can and maintain contact with dear friends and family. I just can’t live there anymore. It’s a choice everyone has to make for themselves…
If I were the train driver, I’d have done the same thing but that’s only because I am prone to let a little bit of power go to my head. I admit that in the UK the driver would, in all probability, have let you on the train whilst shouting well deserved obscenities at you down the platform. It is something about national character and the age old British expectation that we should be allowed to take risks with our own lives. Do you think that if you lived in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland you might have got away with your reckless behaviour?
WE WANT TO BECOME YOUR TEACHERS PET!!!
Please…
That was a fair train driver!
This action was not self-evident.
Ross
The day you see a body that has exploded by being hit by a train you won’t want to be such a naughty boy again! Even if the trains all stop at your station, you never know if a special freight is coming at speed, and indeed as the tracks are not ‘prepared’ for people to cross at that point, you can easilly trip or get your foot caught in the rail. Lose the train, not your life. Despite there never appearing to be any Swiss Police about, I think you’re lucky you didn’t get your collar felt!
Most of the laws and rules are put into effect to protect human beings from stupid behavior. Crossing the rails is very dangerous.
Adults who cross the rails where they shouldn’t or crosswalks, where the light is red, are bad role models for others (e.g. children). Therefore your behavior was not justified.
The reaction of the driver was stupid too. He played the sheriff and showed you that. A typical Swiss reaction of self justice and better knowing….
The fact, that there is a public foodpath crossing the rails close by, is a bad excuse for your behavoir. Authorities should shut down this hole as well. Too big is the risk that somebody gets killed.
In my opinion: The whole story is about sense, reason and reasonable behavior. Question: What is an hour of lost time compared with a lost life?
I’m glad you posted that opinion Heidi because I think it highlights the difference between the Swiss/German attitude to personal freedom and that which has historically applied in Britain and its colonies (I live in New Zealand but spent 14 years in the UK).
However good the intention, the idea that it is the right of the state to protect anyone from the consequences of his own stupid behaviour goes against the fundamental principles of personal freedom (as perceived by your average Brit’). We would say that the law should attempt to prevent us from harming others but it has no business preventing us from taking risks with ourselves. After all, a life without risk is not a life worth living.
Of course, you could probably put forward an argument that Ross was putting the lives of others at risk because an innocent passerby could have been struck by parts of his disintegrating body. Certainly the trauma to the train driver who hit him or the officials who had to inform his wife and family of his demise should also be taken into account.
Perhaps what I’m trying to say here is this. What is the essential difference between the risk associated with mountaineering, for example, which we generally find laudable and would not think of banning and that of walking across railway tracks which we do not consider quite so heroic?
Is it perhaps that one risk is planned whereas the other is merely the expedient result of Ross failing to leave home in time to catch the train?
Holy cow. I mean, I consider myself a bit of a rebel but I never would have considered crossing the rails. I actually saw this video once (blame my college roommates who think that sort of thing is entertainment) of a person trying to cross the railroad tracks and misjudging how fast the train was coming. Not pretty.
the rule is maybe there out of consideration for others. Maybe it is the body splattering across the train driver’s path that is the problem for the Swiss. And the time lost cleaning up (in Germany a lot of people committ suicide this way, which is why some trains are an hour late). In Switzerland you are free to committ suicide with the help of an organization like Dignitas or Exit and many “tourists” including from the UK, go there to do so. Where is there more freedom?
I’m not sure I’d equate suicide with the taking of a risk that could result in the loss of one’s life, I think the emotions and intentions involved are probably quite different.
I hope no young kid has seen you when you crossed the those railways. This might be another Swiss thing, but we see adults as role models when we have a certain age - too many kids have already died in such tragedy, just recently one in my neighborhood!
Looks like you’re outnumbered on this one, Ross (at least in terms of folks with any measure of proximity to your domicile). The vast numbers and size of those signs should be a clue as to how seriously the Swiss take the sin of crossing the tracks. Better find another cause to rebel against.
Hi Ross,
I guess you still haven’t found anyone who agrees with you.
Think back to the story of the little girl who crossed the tracks having thought the train she saw had gone by therefore she could go. She did not think further or think of the consequences of a train coming in the other direction, needless to say of the speed of that train were there one coming. Now, put yourself in the people’s shoes who are left to pick up the pieces and deal with the situation you could have left them with. Apparently this is what suicidal people do not think about, and obviously non-suicidal people too :).
I will too would have done what the driver did and I can also be rebellious.
Keep smiling!
Hi Ross,
I recently did the same thing, racing for the last train of the evening which I would have missed if I had gone the proper way. A Swiss girl had just done the same, so I thought, why not ? I’d also had quite a few Irish beers after a very entertaining Irish night in a shoe shop (honest) which probably aided my decision to break this otherwise very sensible law. The driver just flashed his lights at me but let me on. Otherwise I would have faced a very cold & wet night on the platform until the first train in the morning, 6 hours later. I wish I could buy the driver a beer or six, like I did once before. But that’s another story. Remember the English rule : Rules are made to be broken.
Hey, Stephen from New Zealand, I’m another Stephen from New Zealand.
I have to say though, that I feel (Stephen) your approximating mountaineering to crossing the train tracks in front of a train is way off the mark, if people prepared to cross railway tracks like they prepare to climb a mountain, they’d camp at the side of the track until the best conditions were available (ie: clear weather, no trains timetabled, etc) and then try to make the crossing using all available aides -like the crossing you mentioned.
Mountaineering is about mitigating the risks involved, crossing the tracks when a train is coming is reckless and ill considered. One thing mountaineers never do is allow a timetable to affect safety; to do anything else is foolish, imagine crossing the railway track in body armour with a helmet on, roped to five of your closest friends who are your only hope of rescue if anything goes wrong and you’re getting closer.
It’s one thing to prepare weeks or months in advance and take every available precaution, right up to being prepared to call the entire expedition off at the last minute in the case of unfavourable conditions, and quite another to set off up a snow covered mountain in a hawaiian shirt, shorts and thongs with a cocktail in your hand.
I’d say this guy’s actions were closer to the latter.
Hey, other Stephen, are you related to certain Swiss train driver by any chance? You’re almost as sanctimonious as he was. I crossed the tracks *behind* a *stationary* train when I could see clearly half a mile in both directions that nothing was coming. It wasn’t right, but it wasn’t nearly as reckless as you suggest. It was a calculated risk, with the odds stacked heavily in my favour. Much more so, I’d wager, than your last mountaineering expedition.
I am a train driver for the SBB, and I would do the same if you had crossed the railway lines.
I don’t know about your driver then, but if I saw you running to catch the train, I would have waited till you took the proper way to reach the train (May have called to encourage you).
And as it was the mainline between Berne and Geneva. DO NOT DO IT.
Some years ago, a local died because he skipped to go the save way.
Trains move fast, and there could be always a freight or unsheduled, delayed or rerouted train.