SJ evacuated two trains – Frida ended up in the middle of the chaos

Two SJ trains were evacuated today.

Frida is one of the hundreds of travelers affected.

– It was so crowded that it felt dangerous. There were old people, babies, the air basically ran out and we got no information, she says.

During the morning, an SJ train, which was supposed to run from Gothenburg to Stockholm, was hit by a so-called warm run.

Some distance outside Örebro it stopped and the passengers were evacuated to another train where there were already passengers.

But the new train also had problems and was stopped a short distance outside Bålsta – again this time because the train was “running hot”.

Frida Mälarborn Hoshino, 45, traveled with her daughter from Gothenburg, and they are two of the hundreds of passengers who had to evacuate at the time.

– We received no information at all from SJ. It is almost comical that we received the information that we would evacuate a second time from Aftonbladet, and not from SJ, she says.

“Like packed herrings”

She says that the last train they had to evacuate to was very crowded – because there were also passengers sitting there.

– There were people from a total of three trains that were to be accommodated there. I can’t describe what it’s like when the air runs out, children scream and old people who don’t get seats. We stood like packed herrings and had to help each other to ensure that the elderly and children got seats, she says.

The trains they traveled on lacked catering, and there was no food or water on any of the trains.

The last evacuation train also had no working toilets.

– I experienced an incredible uncertainty that I have not experienced before when I have traveled in Sweden, and it scared me a little. It felt like SJ completely lacked a safety mindset. What would they have done if someone had suffered a cardiac arrest, if there was a diabetic or a pregnant woman on the train, and they completely lacked water and other aids? she says.

“Wants someone to take responsibility”

She praises the staff’s work and emphasizes that she does not want to criticize them.

However, she wishes that someone higher up in management took responsibility.

– The staff did their best. They cannot help that it is cold or that the road is not maintained. I want someone higher up to take responsibility, because it can’t be like this. It doesn’t feel safe to send an elderly person or a child on a train if it’s like this, she says.

Frida and her daughter would have actually taken the train all the way to Stockholm, but in Bålsta they chose to get off.

– I was lucky that a friend could come and pick us up, but otherwise I would have taken a taxi. Because it really didn’t feel safe to go on that train, she says.