scary train story!

[Binky]

Ok this is a story I over heard, and I have NO clue if it's true, as I said it was over heard.

Apparently there was a girl who got on a train, and when she saw that there were only two people in the carriage she entered, she decided to sit down next tot the girl that was sleeping, the other person was a guy. Anyways, in comes the security guard, he comes up to the girl and asks her for her ticket, she gives it to him, and he looks at it. He then proceeds to tell her she has the wrong ticket, this one is out of date, girl gets pissy and tells him that he's lying and that is in fact the ticket she bought JUST then, security guard doesn't buy it and tells the girl to come with him. She starts screaming, and says NO, keeps telling the guy that it's the correct ticket and he's lying! Guard won't budge, and tells the girl repeatedly to come with him. The girl eventually gives in, seeing there is no point, and follows him to the guard’s carriage. Once there, the guard turns around and starts to apologise to the girl. Apparently, the sleeping girl wasn't really sleeping, she was, infect, dead! The guy that was in the carriage with her had just killed her, and if the guard had not come when he did, he would have no doubt killed the girl as well.

HOW SCARY IS THAT!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG...I hope it's not true!

[Barefootgirl]

Umm, how likely is it to be true? Really? Given that its a urban legend that has been doing the rounds since trains were invented, I think it is in fact, just a scare story.

If it was true, its more likely that the guard was the killer. How else would he know that the girl was dead? Presumably there was no gigantic give-away pool of blood, so either the guard watched the purported "serial killer" murdering the girl, but wasn't spotted himself, and then did absolutely nothing about it, even when the train reached a station (i.e. when the heroine of this tale got on), or he murdered the girl himself.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I'm guessing this is an urban legend. I've read similar stories on snopes that have been debunked, like the guy in the backseat of the heroine's car that would have killed her if the guy behind her hadn't repeatedly honked his horn to pull her over.

Plus, no-one with eyes in their head could mistake a girl that was dead for one that was sleeping. Sleeping people breathe... dead people don't.

OK, I searched snopes and found this: Dead man on the subway (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/subway.asp) It's not quite the same story but a variation of it.

[Banrion]

I don't know where you are, but here we don't have guards on trains, we have conductors. Also, if this person had just watched the man kill the woman, why didn't he use his radio to have dispatch summon police to the very train station that this woman boarded at? I ride the train everyday, and we have had the cops called for much smaller infractions than murder (such as drunk and disorderly). Yes calling the police causes delay, but when not in station, you are pretty isolated on a train.

[Rapscallion]

The term 'guard' is used in the UK for the person who rode in the last carriage and waved the flag to say that the doors were closed and the driver could pull away from the station - if memory serves. I think it may be dying out.

Rapscallion

[repsac]

This actually DID happen. It was on a London Underground train on the Picc line I belive. If not Picc, then Met. And yes, Raps, there's no Guards used anymore save for a few lines on the District.

The original story is as follows:

Sometime in the seventies or eighties, a woman gets onto a tube train. There's a couple of people sitting across from her, with a man sitting sort of between them. This man looks to be dozing away. Taking the seat across, the woman is joined at the next stop by a male passenger. As they move along, this man suddenly leans over to the woman and whispers very darkly. "If you know what's good for you, you'll get off with me at the next stop."

The woman panics. Looking around she sees no guard, and knows that most likely her best bet is to do as he says. At the very least there's a station attendant and possibly a tube cop; so maybe she can scream. The next stop comes up, and the woman and man get off. She looks at him very terrified; unsure what to do next. Looking at the woman he sighs. "I'm sorry." he says quietly. "I'm a doctor. The man across from you is dead, and those two on either side were holding him up. We need to contact the authorities."

Well, they did, and yes, the man WAS dead.

I forget how the story ends, but I think the people on either side of the guy were friends with him. The man had suffered a stroke or something similar as he dozed on the train and no one noticed.


Note: The only other line (and this one I'm very unsure of) that may still have guards might be the Victoria line. That line still uses the older ATO stock. (train nerd here)

[One-Fang]

Repsac, that's almost word for word the link Lace posted. I don't think you'll find it's a genuine case.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Nope, just another variation of the same story. Snopes knows best.

[repsac]

Before Dave quit updating regularly, http://www.trainweb.org/districtdave/ he had the original paper story. I think it may still be in there, in some of his stories of one unders and near misses. The problem is, Dave's not really updated the site since when?25 May 2005 according to his site.


however, just to show that it's not always a legend:

http://wcbs880.com/pages/25004.php?contentType=4&contentId=126598

Quote:
A man who remained in his seat after his subway train pulled into the last stop in Coney Island on Thursday was found to be dead, police said.

This happened Thursday, 13 April 2006 in NYC.

[One-Fang]

Oh sure, people die on trains. This is not in dispute.

But the story above has too many UL like elements to it. The people propping up the dead one, the assumption of murder, the helpful stranger with the scary "come with me if you know what's good for you" type of statement.

What strikes me, is that anyone noticing that a person appeared to be dead rather than sleeping, would be more likely to ask "Is your friend okay?" and try to alert the friends. A heart attack or stroke is far more likely than a deliberate murder, without blood, with the intention of also killing anyone who notices it, as appears to be the 'warning' in the story.

[repsac]

The reason it's more believable in the UK, is a rather funny tradition/rule.

Namely, you're supposed to be silent when riding the tube. In fact, the easiest way to draw the ire of your fellow passengers, is to start up a conversation. I've got links to some old placards that were once displayed in the trains (somewhere. I know the pics are on my HD, but It's too blank early in the AM for me to search them out.) Basically, these things said stuff like. "Don't talk, remain quiet." while also listing other things you ought not do. I forget the exact reason t his is said to have started also; but it's vastly different from the US systems.


On a side note: If you ever get a chance, take a look at comparison pictures of tube trains as opposed to subsurface (subway) stock. your average Tube train is rarely much larger than eight feet tall, while subsurface could be twelve or thirteen depending on the type. Strange really, but amusing to see in photos.

[Barefootgirl]

Repsac is right about the silence. its not so much that people don't talk to their companions - of course they do, we don't ride in silence - but that people virtually never speak to strangers.

I was coming back from a rugby match in London once, with my DH, his friend Dave, and Dave's brother-in-law, Dick. Dick is from rural North Wales, where people behave rather differently to the way they do in London. In Wales, if you sit down next to a stranger on a bus, particularly a rural bus, they'll start talking to you, and by the time you get off the bus, they'll know everything about you.

We got onto the Tube, sat down, and Dick turned to his neighbour and said "Hello, busy isn't it". The woman next to him got up and moved ! Poor Dick looked so crestfallen, we had to explain to him that only lunatics talk to strangers on Tubes...

[protege]

We got onto the Tube, sat down, and Dick turned to his neighbour and said "Hello, busy isn't it". The woman next to him got up and moved ! Poor Dick looked so crestfallen, we had to explain to him that only lunatics talk to strangers on Tubes...

Heh. That sounds like the subway here. Calling it a "subway" is kinda funny--most of the system is above ground ;) Anyway, very few people talk to each other. If you try to start a convo with someone, they'll usually think you're nuts and will ignore you.

[Lace Neil Singer]

That's cuz the only people who do talk to strangers on the tube are the ones more commonly labled as "care in the community". :lol:

[kerrisan]

This sounds alot like the gas station attendant story who saved a girl from a murderer in her car. That was an urban legend, so this was leans more on the side of "urban legend" as well.