The Unexplored

On my way to work some weeks ago by means of one of the only two trains in Ghana, we made an unusual stop. This got me all panicky. But to my dismay, none of the passengers, who were mostly young adult workers, seemed bothered. Well the stop couldn’t have lasted more than two minutes, to be totally honest, but on the broader picture, a lot could have happened within two minutes in the world of trains.

Trains move on a very tight schedule, leaving no room for errors lasting as long as two minutes. In countries where trains are a major means of transportation, this incident could have caused disruptions in work schedules, panic , stampede and even on the extreme, an accident with another train en route this railway if there was no communication to appropriate departments. 

But as negligent as Ghanaians can be, the train system [which by far is the only system close to respecting time in Ghana], showed a lapse in security at this incident.

Till date, no one seems to know the reason for that stop, but also no one seems bothered at all.

Unconfirmed reports say this stop was made to drop off a railway worker on board. If this is so, then it gives more reason for concern since the train system is being reduced to a “trotro” system of transportation.

If this trend continues, the train could be targeted and hijacked on one of such stops in future, when the Ghanaian train system grows, which we are eagerly anticipating. [I mean the growth, not the hijack oo]. Now, before I get arrested and charged for causing fear and panic, that’s a possibility in the long run.

All this said, no robber will want to risk his life and resources attempting such a worthless endeavor anyway.  All they may make away with will be lots of mobile phone booty to last a lifetime.

On other related news, train fares go up by 100% from 1cedi to 2cedis. And oh, just in case you are wondering, yes I rode in the train driver’s cabin the other day!