A Japanese railway company has asked its employees to sit next to the tracks when bullet trains (bullet trains) pass through the tunnel at speeds up to 300km/h.
Graphic of the maintenance staff’s experience of sitting and observing the train running at JR West. (Photo: Twitter).
Nearly 200 JR West maintenance staff had to undergo this strange training, the Daily Mail quoted the company as saying.
JR West launched the Shinkansen bullet train observation course in 2016, following an accident in August 2015.
According to a JR West spokesman, the purpose of the training is to teach maintenance workers the importance of their jobs.
However, not everyone embraced this idea. “It was a horrible experience,” a JR West employee was quoted as saying by the Tokyo Shimbun.
Another described the feeling of sitting next to the track watching the bullet train pass as like “getting hit by a council”.
Despite the complaints of some employees, JR West stated there are no plans to change the training course.