Sitting standoff

Train commuters are used to the occasional travel delay — power outages, track obstructions, even dangerous storms. But on rare days, the cause of disruption can be so unusual that it leaves passengers stunned, angry, or just baffled.

One such case occurred on 10 June, when passengers on a Deutsche Bahn train traveling from Munich to Hamburg, Germany were abruptly informed that their journey would end in Nuremberg.

“We apologize, but we as train crew need to make a statement. This train is too dirty for us to travel any further,” the conductor said over the loudspeaker, according to a report by the Muenchner Merkur and cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

One of the passengers, Tom Junkersdorf, later posted on LinkedIn photos of a seemingly clean carriage, casting doubt on the crew’s claim.

In response, a Deutsche Bahn spokesperson confirmed to AFP that the train had accidentally been put into service without undergoing cleaning.

“This is an isolated incident which we deeply regret,” the company said.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, commuters in Texas found themselves caught in a very different kind of standoff.

On 26 June, traffic ground to a halt for five hours along Interstate 45 in Spring, Texas after a collision involving a car and an 18-wheeler shut down the freeway’s central southbound lane.

But it wasn’t the wreckage that caused the prolonged delay — it was the car’s driver, a 64-year-old woman who pulled out a lawn chair, placed it in the middle of the freeway, and sat down, armed with a handgun.

“She persistently kept [the gun] to her face, her throat, her head, therefore making it very difficult for us to approach her and take the gun away,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters, according to reports from The New York Post and Fox 26 Houston.

Photos from KWTX showed officers attempting to negotiate with the woman, who remained seated and calm, holding a .38-caliber revolver.

A crisis negotiator and the woman’s daughter eventually arrived. The daughter was able to speak with her mother and de-escalate the tense situation.

The woman later surrendered peacefully and was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation, police said.