Rail suicide

The first recorded train suicide occurred in 1852 in England, where rail development in Europe had been most advanced. In 1879 an Italian researcher noted that railway suicides were most common in Italy's northern Piedmont region, where the rail network was at its most extensive. This led the sociologist Émile Durkheim to reason in his 1897 work Suicide that "the more the land is covered with railroads, the more general becomes the habit of seeking death by throwing one's self under a train," a proposition which has since been generally accepted as a rule. Japan's earliest documented rail suicide occurred in 1876, less than four years after the opening of the country's first railway line. The following month, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported a second suicide, cautioning its readers that "these days, a strange new way of dying has begun." ==Methods==

Rail suicides typically assume one of three postures: "jumpers" who jump in front of a train from a station platform, "liers" lying on the tracks as one approaches, and "walkers" who wander onto the tracks before the trains are present, a division first identified by researchers on the New York City Subway in 1972, who found jumping the most common and deadliest in their sample. A fourth group included "touchers," all of whom were women, who often went on the tracks after trains had left and deliberately touched the electrified third rail. A German researcher also found some outlying methods like jumping from a moving train and jumping from a bridge into the path of an approaching train. A railway suicide can also be committed by a vehicle driver, such as the Ufton Nervet rail crash, which killed seven others on the train. Studies have found the preferred method differs by country. A 2005 Swedish study found walkers most predominant among 145 suicides, followed by those who sat or lay on the tracks with jumpers third, while a 2008 Australian study of 161 suicides along the Queensland rail network found sitters/liers most common with jumpers and walkers evenly split. A 2013 U.S. study of 50 suicides where this information was available found a slight edge for liers, with walkers and jumpers evenly split. Electrocution via third rails remains rare; it most often happens in conjunction with suicides on subways or metros, where the body comes in contact with the third rail as it is run over by the train. German researchers believe walkers are most likely to have planned their suicides in advance, while jumpers do it on impulse. Difference to trespasser accident A collision with a suicidal pedestrian is different from a collision with an unauthorised person, a trespasser, who has illegally entered the tracks, and can be distinguished, according to the European Union Agency for Railways, by the presence of suicidal intent. Ovenstone criteria are mentioned for categorizing a suicidal intent. ==Locations==

General locations along lines Researchers have tried to determine what locations along tracks are more at risk for suicide than others. In response to a 2009 cluster of rail suicides by teens at a level crossing along the Caltrain commuter line in Palo Alto, California, the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at nearby San Jose State University studied 17 years of data from Caltrain on suicides and unintended pedestrian fatalities along the line from downtown San Francisco south along the Santa Clara Valley for any trends or patterns that might help prevent suicides. The researchers found that while only 20% occurred at stations, most were within of a station or nearby crossing. They theorized that people attempting rail suicide used the stations primarily to access the tracks, wanted to ensure that the train was traveling at a speed as high as possible, and that no one was able to interfere with them. Researchers in Canada have found that two-thirds of rail suicides there occur on open track, with only 2% at stations. In a broader sense, some sections of track seem more attractive than others; population density in the areas the line passes through may have some effect. The MTI researchers studying Caltrain suicides found that a section of track between the Burlingame and Sunnyvale stations accounted for a larger share of suicides than the rest of the line, and a greater incidence than trespass fatalities in that area. A Caltrain representative they contacted noted that that section was one of the oldest on the line, with largely residential areas adjacent to the tracks, whereas the line north of that section went through more commercial areas and into tunnels where it might be less accessible. The paucity of suicides south of San Jose's Diridon station was attributed to the lower frequency of train service between there and the line's southern terminus at Gilroy. Other researchers have reported a similar correlation. A 2018 Belgian study found that the rail suicide rate over a five-year period was highest along lines in suburban areas. The researchers theorized that tracks in those areas are more accessible than they are in cities, and the trains operate at the same frequency as those in the nearby urban areas but at higher speeds. In what the researchers deemed "high-risk" locations, 2–km (3.2–mile) sections of line where two or more suicides had occurred during the time frame of the study, they noted that there were points where someone attempting suicide could easily hide, and where the driver had limited visibility. However, a 2010 study in the Netherlands, which has the highest rate of rail suicide in Europe, a phenomenon also observed in the later Belgian study, and Germany. A 2015 Swedish study of suicide on the Stockholm Metro found that stations in areas with high rates of drug-related crime had higher suicide rates. In 2016 a Belgian study looked at regional variations in the rail suicide rate within the country over a five-year period. Paradoxically, poorer areas, like the center of Brussels, that had higher overall suicide rates had rail suicide rates below the national average, while more affluent West Flanders's lower overall suicide rate included the highest rail suicide rate in the country. Metros/subways offer suicides the additional possibility of the third rail with its high voltage electric current to complete their suicides, especially if the train should be able to stop or slow down before striking them. A Toronto operator recalled once seeing a man lying across the tracks at the far end of the station as he entered, and quickly pressing the brakes. He believed he had prevented the suicide, but then saw that the man had touched the third rail. Similar incidents have been reported on the Kolkata Metro in India, where autopsies of many completed suicides show signs of electrocution in addition to the severe blunt force trauma caused by the train. A 2007 Canadian review of the literature on metro/subway suicide found some differences to rail suicide as a whole, complicated slightly by different definitions of suicide used in different jurisdictions. An Austrian researcher found a high correlation between suicide rates and passenger volume through records at one station, similar to that found by researchers looking at the London Underground. In Toronto this was further found to correlate with transfer stations due to their higher volume, with research in Vienna finding terminal stations to have a lower rate. Rates of suicide on metros/subways also, like rail suicide generally, were resistant to declines in the overall suicide rate. The studies did show some distinctive statistics. Metro/subway suicides were, while still predominantly men, less disproportionately so. Victims were also younger than most younger rail suicides, except in Tokyo where the largest share was in their 50s. An even higher propensity for mental illness was found, with 86% of the suicides in the Montreal Metro having had at least one past diagnosis. As with rail suicide generally, stations with nearby psychiatric treatment facilities evinced higher suicide rates. Metro/subway suicides offer some prevention methods that might be impractical on rail systems generally, but have proven highly effective when and where they can be used. Drainage pits a meter (3 ft) deep between the rails on some portions of the London Underground, while not designed for suicide prevention, have helped enough attempters survive to have become known as "suicide pits". On other systems, particularly in Asia, platform doors have proven so effective in blocking access to the track that Singapore has reported no suicides on its MRT. ==Time patterns==

Research has not consistently established any patterns related to the times of the day, week or year in which rail suicide is more common. The 2008 Queensland study found peaks in March–May and September–October, periods accounting for half of the 161 completed suicides over 15 years in the researchers' data set. June accounted for only nine, but they did not find that statistically significant. While there were differences in the weekdays chosen, again they did not reach statistical significance. However, patterns in the time of day showed a preference for late afternoon and early evening, with a third of cases occurring between 5 and 9 p.m. The 2011 German researchers attempted to see if any temporal patterns presented in the 1,004 suicides they analyzed by jumping, lying or walking. The first of those methods was more common during the day at stations; the others at night. The researchers theorized that night might provide more concealment for those venturing onto the track from a station or crossing before the train came, while jumping might be harder in the dark. Data on seasonal variation did not show any significant variation A 2020 Polish study of 60 rail suicides in the Warsaw area examining the relationship between alcohol use, sex and age among them found that sober victims predominated among those occurring in the fall while those who had been drinking were more likely to take their own lives via rail in the spring. The Canadian study also took note of the weather. Rail suicides mostly occurred during milder weather, suggesting to the authors that inclement weather may discourage those considering suicide from going out and making attempts. ==Behavioral indications==

Railway-related suicides are rarely impulsive, and this view has led to research on behaviour analysis using CCTV at known hotspots to see what might indicate a traveler is considering suicide. Some behaviour patterns are implicated such as station-hopping, platform switching, standing away from others, letting a number of trains go by, and standing close to where trains enter. Surveillance cameras are viewable by railway staff. A 2011 German study made online questionnaires available to Federal Police officers who had witnessed, or interviewed witnesses to, rail suicides. From the 202 that were completed, the researchers identified several frequent behaviors of those considering suicide in stations. The most common was dropping personal belongings such as bags, suicide notes or identity cards, and avoiding eye contact, reported by half the respondents. A quarter recounted erratic behaviour, such as talking loudly to themselves and general confusion. Intoxication was reported by 20%, a proportion lower than the researchers expected based on another previous study, and 15% said that the suicide was seen wandering around. These phenomena were similar to those observed in a study of suicides on the Hong Kong subway. ==Reasons for choosing==

One British study that interviewed 20 survivors of rail suicide attempts found that almost half had chosen that method because they knew of someone else who had; they also perceived it as likely to be fatal while easily available and accessible. A later British study interviewed 34 people in three categories: survivors of rail suicide attempts, those who had attempted suicide by other means but considered trains, and those who had not attempted suicide but contemplated doing so by rail. It quoted their own words extensively, without "interpreting such accounts through a lens of deficit and pathology". "A quick, violent death is quite attractive", one rail suicide survivor told the researchers in the later study. "I think that's one thing that you hope that a train can provide." Another informant, from the group that had considered suicide by train but not attempted any method, said that since it was likely no identifiable remains would be found their survivors would better be able to accept the finality of their death. Two rail suicide survivors also liked the "sense of anonymity" they had at stations. "I'd want to do it somewhere privately," one allowed. "It's not the sort of thing you want to do in front of everybody for a show". The impact on any witnesses, particularly the driver, was also a consideration. One survivor recalled feeling "desperately sorry" for that person, and another said that was the reason they ultimately chose another method, "because that's making somebody else complicit, so that's almost making them feel as if they'd killed me." Another deterrent was the possibility of surviving the attempt and living with any permanent injuries. Some survivors chose trains as a metaphor for their own situation: Another expressed the hope that their death might have been seen as an accident. ==Consequences==

in Japan Approximately 10–30%, depending on the method chosen, of those who attempt rail suicide survive the collision. Among documented rail suicide attempts in Germany from 1997 to 2002, there were more survivals where the attempter was female and the attempt was made at a station, on a lower-speed line, or during the daytime. Those who do not die at the scene often arrive at hospital with internal organ damage and severe haemorrhaging that can ultimately prove fatal. Survivors often suffer severed limbs, to two hours in most European countries. In the neighboring Netherlands, one railway suicide incident results in €100,000 of direct economic costs for carrier and railway manager together. In 2024, the Rail Delivery Group said those figures had fallen to 1,500 per suicide (with some extreme incidents causing 10 times that amount) and 400,000 per year. It noted that an incident in the south of England can have effects as far away as Scotland. Belgian law requires that the family of a suicide compensate the railway for the costs incurred, including repairs to damaged trains. Of the €2 million suicides cost the country's railways between 2013 and 2015, averaging €8,500 per incident, roughly one-third was recovered from families. Families can also be sued by affected drivers. Most of the costs are covered by insurance. Western newspapers have reported that the same law exists in Japan, but Japanese outlets consider this an "urban legend". The Japan Times found cases where railways had sued families to recover the costs of pedestrian deaths that may have been accidental, but no cases where the family of a suicide had been sued. In Germany, rail suicide is a criminal offence and can be prosecuted in case of survival. Effect on drivers Even if the suicide situation is recognized at an early stage, the train driver is rarely able to prevent it due to the long braking distance and the inability to take evasive action. A German train with an locomotive traveling at takes , and 18 seconds, to stop, more than enough time for drivers to make eye contact with a person on the tracks. and hear the sound, which one American driver likens to "hitting a pumpkin". German drivers say that standing humans are particularly loud. The ensuing heavy psychological burden for the driver can lead to years of impairment. "It's not a matter of if you are going to kill someone, but when", says one driver for the American goods carrier CSX. "And when it happens, you're totally helpless." He recalled having previously worked for another railway in a different area when a woman stood on the tracks in front of his train, giving him the finger in response to his repeated soundings of the train horn as the locomotive struck her. "You never forget something like that," he said. "If she wanted to kill herself, why did she have to involve me?" The memory of the incident led him to change employers. Other drivers whose trains had struck suicides had similarly vivid memories of those events many years later. Drivers often suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), exhibiting symptoms such as sleeplessness, irritability, depression, anger, panic attacks, nightmares and flashbacks. One recalls having only slept three hours in the three days after his train struck a pedestrian. Since 2014, German drivers who cannot work due to witnessing a rail suicide are paid full salaries. In Britain, Samaritans report that most of the costs associated with suicides are sick leave and replacement employees for drivers and others affected. Staff based in the station may similarly not want to work at the station, or in the industry, anymore. Passengers may decline to take the train anywhere again. Communities around stations known for a suicide or suicides may see their reputations suffer to the point that people do not want to live there. It was reported in 2000 that housing prices along the Chūō Line near Tokyo had declined at a greater rate than other areas of Japan due to the high number of suicides along it. ==Demographics==

Rail suicides, like suicides in general and those using similarly violent methods, are mostly attempted and completed by men. A 2013 U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) study using psychiatric autopsies found that the median age of the 55 suicides studied over a three-year period was 40. The 2008 Queensland study found a peak among men in the 15–24 age group, who accounted for nearly a third of its suicides. Comorbidity was reported in 73% of cases, 63% had a family history of mental illness, and 53% had been prescribed medication. Chronic physical illnesses were also reported in 51%. Almost all had recently experienced, or were experiencing, a stressful event such as legal difficulties and/or the end of a relationship. Many were also reported to have been abusing drugs or alcohol during the time prior to their suicide, and autopsies showed that half had recently consumed those substances at the time of their suicides (with all but one of those who had been drinking having a blood alcohol content (BAC) over 0.08%, high enough to be considered legally intoxicated (five had recently been arrested on drunken-driving charges)). The 2008 Queensland study found as well that, in cases where a toxicology report had been done as part of the autopsy, half of the 15–24-aged males in their peak demographic had been drinking before the suicide. ==Epidemiology==

Australia In Queensland, rail suicides accounted for 2% of all suicides in the period 1990-2004. Canada As of 1996, 3% of suicides in Canada were committed on railways. Europe Data gathered from 2006 to 2023 showed that there were about 2,500 suicides and 800 trespass-related injuries on the European railways each year. Only current EU member states counted Czech Republic As of 2019, approximately 35% of railway trespassing victims in the Czech Republic are suicides according to an estimate by the country's Rail Safety Inspection Office. Germany As according to STABAG () in the years 1991–2000, 8653 (91.0%) rail suicide cases were fatal from a total of 9510 incidences which occurred on the German railway net. A fatal suicide meant a death within 30 days. The data of 4127 suicial acts from the time period 2002-2006 showed that 32.2% of subjects were jumping, 32.6% lying and 34.2% wandering. Wandering included standing, and lying on the tracks included suicide by train decapitation. Jumping in front of the train had the highest chance of survival, while lying on the tracks most often resulted in death. However, suicidal behavior is not always detectable post mortem. Japan In 1999, about 5% of total 33048 suicides in Japan were on train tracks. There have been 13 incidents between 2011 and 2013 at this station. It was an increase of 11 on the previous year and 55 on 2011. Additionally, annually around 50 suicides on the London Underground were reported for 2014. Those statistics have several caveats. First, they only represent the heavy surface rail system, as mass transit systems such as the New York City Subway are not required to report to the FRA. About 70 passenger rail systems in larger metropolitan areas, such as light rail, hybrid rail, streetcars, and cable car systems, report their incidents to a different regulatory authority, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), requiring that researchers combine statistics from that agency with those kept by the FRA to get an accurate count. More than twice as many rail-related pedestrian fatalities in the US result from trespass incidents than in Europe. Since the railroads were required to report them, only 30% of those have been suicides, but that portion may actually be more than 50% due to deficiencies in reporting by the FRA and the railroads. In 2015, 328 fatal suicides and 30 suicide-related injuries were recorded on the US rail system. ==Prevention==

Data from 2008 to 2018 may indicate that 30% of railway suicides in the Netherlands, approximately 85 suicides per year, could have been prevented by measures taken by ProRail, such as restricting access. The U.S. FRA found that railways do not always publicise their suicide prevention efforts, although many have them. This can be both out of concern that doing so will alert possible suicides to the possibility of rail as a method, and fear that the public will be averse to rail travel if they associate it with the possibility of suicide. Those railways that do often put it in the context of promoting greater mental health awareness. In a report on suicide countermeasures, researchers for the agency suggested that if all the railways were more open about their efforts, they could learn from each other and improve their practices. Journalistic practices In the early 21st century researchers and government bodies began to focus on how coverage of suicides, generally, in the media might lead others to attempt it. Media reporting has been linked to increased rail suicide attempts through the Werther effect. Over 20 years later, a celebrity rail suicide also became an opportunity to examine and critique the role media coverage plays in suicide prevention. After the 2009 suicide of Robert Enke, a German association football goalkeeper considered a contender for the starting position on the national team in the next year's World Cup, suicides, particularly rail suicides, were reported to have significantly increased across the country. Media coverage of Enke's death and its aftermath was intense, Süddeutsche Zeitung noted. Accounts of his suicide included details such as exactly where he had parked his car near the level crossing at which an express train struck him, the location of the crossing, and that he had stood in its path. In its wake fans and journalists debated whether a football setback with the national team was to blame, or Enke's despondency over the death of his young daughter from a heart defect three years earlier. Fans were shown grieving and leaving flowers at Niedersachsenstadion, where his club at the time of his death, Hannover 96, played its home games. Enke's former club, FC Barcelona, observed a moment of silence, as did several international matches in the days afterward. His memorial service at the stadium was broadcast live on several TV networks. All these could, the newspaper observed, quoting several researchers, encourage others with suicidal ideations to make them a reality. But some others were specific to rail suicides, and the Volpe Center has posted guidelines on its website. Articles about rail suicides and trespasses should not: • give specific information (including a map) about where the suicide or trespass fatality occurred (i.e., distances to nearby stations or crossings, since that might lead someone to begin planning their own suicide at the same location); • describe exactly how the suicide occurred (i.e., whether the victim jumped, stood or lay on the tracks) and what they had been doing just prior to the suicide (which also might make it easier for a potential suicide to formulate their own plans); • show a picture of a train (again allowing a potential suicide to begin visualising the process); • show pictures of police officers and/or railworkers standing near tracks (which can have the same effect as showing grieving loved ones). The study also found that only 5% of the news articles surveyed included information on how those contemplating suicide could get help. The FRA noted in 2019 that a few U.S. railroads had published guidelines for reporting on suicides, but most had not. While it understood that concerns about triggering copycat suicides were legitimate, it said "the ideal strategy is not to refrain from talking for fear of making the problem worse, but rather to learn how to discuss the topic responsibly." Suicide prevention signs {{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=300 Beginning in 1916 in Japan, suicide prevention activist Nobu Jo placed large, well-lit signs at train stations and bridges. They advised suicidal visitors to stop, to wait, and to visit Jo's home or office, if they were feeling desperate. Jo believed that many suicidal people in the city experienced stress, poor health, poverty, and social isolation, and that these underlying issues might be resolved or relieved without loss of life. One of the preventive measures taken in the Netherlands was to place suicide prevention signs in high-risk locations, mentioning the suicide prevention hotline (). That information may be of limited utility in prevention, at least in the US. Research by the FRA found that only 20 percent of rail suicides had their cell phone on them at the time, suggesting that it might be better to have a dedicated telephone at crossings and stations, although that risks being damaged by vandals. Signs with the dedicated 988 number (the North American version of 113) may still be of some efficacy in prevention as a significant portion of suicides had visited the station before, giving them the chance to call the hotline before their attempt. In 2010, Caltrain placed signs with a helpline number along some of the stretch the FRA had studied after the Palo Alto cluster, a section between Menlo Park and Mountain View. The signs were located not only at stations and crossings but also along fences and at gates to the right-of-way, no more than apart. Access restriction Physical barriers reducing the number of trespassers and suicides are barrier fences, intermediate fencing between tracks, anti-trespass panels and platform screen doors. In Sweden, the number of suicides at stations could be reduced by 62.5 per cent through mid-track fencing. Sometimes vegetation along the tracks can obscure the view of the train driver and the removal of this is also advocated. In South Korea, platform screen doors reduced the number of suicides by 89 per cent. , U.S. Access restrictions such as these are primarily effective on metro or subway systems, with underground or elevated tracks in urban and suburban areas. On surface rail systems with long intercity lines it is seen as expensive and impractical to fence off the entire line. There is also doubt about their efficacy in the face of a suicide's resolve. "If someone is determined, what can you do? Absolutely nothing", says one American drivers' union official. In Australia, human-monitored CCTV was found to reduce the number of suicides in metro stations. Computer vision enhanced CCTV sending alerts to staff are a matter of research. Lancaster University together with the company Purple Transform has been awarded £50,000 by Innovate UK's UK Research and Innovation to conduct a project entitled 'Suicide Avoidance via Intelligent Video Examination' (SAIVE) project. The goal is to investigate feasibility of AI surveillance systems for preventing rail suicides. A program begun by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) in response to suicides on its subway system trains station staff to be alert for behavioural indicators of a possible suicide, whether seen in person or on camera. Some signs include wandering around without boarding any trains, crying, loitering at the end of the platform, removing clothing or not wearing shoes, or wearing hospital gowns. When they see these and report them to transit control, the next train to reach the station is given a slow order, so it enters at a pace no faster than a walk, while staff approach the person and ask if they are considering suicide. Since its implementation in 2005, the rate of suicide on the subway has declined; the TTC believes it has prevented an average of five suicides a month. The Brunswick, Maine, police department was also preparing a drone program to watch over tracks in its jurisdiction. Blue light In Japan, the use of calming blue lights on station platforms is estimated by one study to have resulted in a 74–84 percent overall reduction in suicide attempts. They are also often installed at crossings, which the West Japan Railway Company began doing in 2006. A 2014 study questioned this conclusion, finding in a review of 10 years worth of records on rail suicides in Japan that only 14 percent of suicides at stations took place at night, when the lights could be expected to have an effect. They called the earlier study "potentially misleading", noting that the researchers' news release announcing their results had failed to mention the 95 percent confidence interval. After adjusting for that, they said "the proportion of suicide attempts that is potentially preventable by blue lights should be less than our conservative estimate". ==In fiction==

as the title character in the 1914 Russian film adaptation of Anna Karenina The title character of Leo Tolstoy's 1878 novel Anna Karenina, under the influence of morphine, trapped in a loveless marriage, believing her lover is himself having relationships with other women and may give in to his family's plans to arrange a marriage to one of them, kneels on the tracks as a train approaches. Similarly, Willa Cather's 1905 short story "Paul's Case" ends with its title character, having been unable to bring himself to shoot himself, walking onto a set of tracks and being struck by a train. In the 1944 film Double Indemnity, the two main characters, Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson, conspire to kill her husband and collect the large insurance settlement enabled by the title by making his death appear to have been an accidental fall from a moving train. The insurance company, Neff's employer, declines to pay on the belief that the death was a suicide. Barton Keyes, the claims adjuster believes it to be murder, citing suicide statistics he is familiar with in a ten-volume set that break down suicides by every possible category. "[O]f all the cases on record", Keyes says, "there's not one single case of suicide by leap from the rear end of a moving train." He also notes that the train was traveling at when the fall occurred, too slowly to cause serious injury or death to someone jumping or falling from it. The 1956 Tom and Jerry short Blue Cat Blues starts with Tom Cat sitting on a railway, intending suicide by this method. After an inner monologue by Jerry Mouse recalling the financial and romantic troubles that led to Tom's suicidal ideation, Jerry finds himself in the same situation at the end of the short and decides to sit beside Tom as a train is heard approaching. Due to the prominence of suicide by train and the protagonists' implied demise, Blue Cat Blues is recognized as having some of the darkest subject matter in the franchise. The short has acquired a legacy as an example of shocking content in children's entertainment (despite animated theatrical shorts like Tom and Jerry not being marketed for children in the 1950s), and the misconception that it was or intended to be the final episode of the series during the original run under William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. The 1981 West German television series Tod eines Schülers ("Death of a Student") began with the title character jumping in front of an oncoming train. The scene was repeated at the beginning of every episode, as the story explored the aftermath of the suicide from different perspectives. Some research has suggested an increase in rail suicides took place for several months after the series aired. The 2008 British film Three and Out tells the story of Paul Callow, a driver on the London Underground who, after accidentally running over two people with his train, learns of a supposed rule that if his train strikes a third person within the month, he can retire and collect £10,000 in a lump sum payment. He then stops a man, Tommy Cassidy from jumping off the Holborn Viaduct and says he will pay him if he jumps in front of his train. Over a last weekend Paul promises Tommy, the latter attempts a reconciliation with his family as Paul begins to have second thoughts. Tommy insists the two follow through, and Paul ultimately does. Calling attention to the trauma suffered by drivers when their trains strike someone on the tracks, the Underground's driver's union, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, denounced the film and staged protests against it. Management publicly defended its cooperation with the filmmakers but privately the Underground's managing director Tim O'Toole had second thoughts in an internal memo, suggesting that it may have been a mistake to work with a film that "does not reflect reality and is in poor taste in attempting to make a suicide event 'funny. Three and Out failed at the box office. Films have depicted suicide on urban mass rail transit as well. In Oliver Stone's 2010 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Louis Zabel jumps off a New York City subway platform into the path of an oncoming train after the trading firm he owns has suffered a catastrophic loss in value. The 2001 Japanese horror film Suicide Club begins with a scene where a group of 54 schoolgirls holding hands before they jump off a station platform into the path of an oncoming train, drenching the horrified other waiting passengers with their blood and beginning an epidemic of mass suicides around the country which a police detective attempts to solve. The scene is echoed in 2023's Bird Box Barcelona, where passengers on an underground platform, under the influence of mysterious unseen creatures, descend to the tracks and walk into the path of an oncoming train. On stage, British playwright Kieran Knowles's 2017 31 Hours follows four railway trackworkers around dealing with the aftermath of a suicide. The play takes its title from the average length of time between suicide attempts on the British railway network. ==See also==

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