There’s possibly (but hopefully not) a new trend in jackass land, and it’s about hanging onto a moving train on the outside like James Bond, but then for real and purely for shock value.

The Climbing Dutchman is pissing off Dutch rail operator ProRail with his extremely dangerous stunts, but he couldn’t care less, and has done it before. While ProRail says that this is ‘intolerable behaviour and against the law’ and has filed a complaint with the police, The Climbing Dutchman’s answer was, “go ahead and complain to the police again”, implying that he doesn’t think he’ll ever be caught.

ProRail is trying to have this video deleted from YouTube, but of course, it can still easily be found, which says a lot about YouTube.

Update December 2018: new video, as the old one had been deleted.

(Link: ed.nl,Photo by Flickr user Kismihok, some rights reserved)

ProRail is planning to use lasers to burn off the leafy mulch that coats rails in the autumn, Z24 reports.

The experiment is a collaboration between ProRail (network), Dutch Rail (operator) and Delft University of Technology. In another test, suggested by a train driver and also held this autumn, ProRail will wet rails to prevent leaves from sticking to them.

A similar trial with lasers was done in 2006 in the UK. At the time, ProRail felt the technology was not good enough. Industrial Laser Solutions has an interesting article about the technology.

In the autumn falling leaves form a mulch that cause train wheels to slip and slide. As a result, both braking and accelerating go slower, causing delays in the service.

ProRail, the Dutch railway network operator, wants to diminish the number of suicides committed by people jumping in front of a moving train. The organisation aims at a reduction of 5% over the next four years. Currently, 200 people kill themselves by jumping in front of a moving train, which is 12% of the total number of suicides, the highest ratio in the region.

According to ProRail, about half of all suicides are committed by people who are undergoing psychiatric care. The network operator has already experimented by placing gates near psychiatric hospitals and by turning level crossings into viaducts.

The current policy of the Dutch Association for Psychiatry (NVvP) is to advise its members to send the suicidal out into the street. This policy is much to the dismay of the Union for Train Drivers and Conductors (VVMC) who point out that people jumping in front of moving trains are very traumatic experiences for their members.

(Photo by Jason Rogers, some rights reserved)