While the UK has to put up with an army of train managers (or whatever their title is nowadays) who will do whatever they can to avoid doing what they are paid for, the Russian seem to have a rather different attitude as in this little tale from Pravda :

A court in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region brought down a sentence against a train hostess who had made a passenger get out of the train after it started developing speed leaving the station, which the man had missed. The woman simply forgot to wake the passenger up on time and did not want to stop the train for him afterwards.

The train hostess was given a ten-month suspended sentence, Interfax reports.

The train hostess of the Abakan-Krasnoyarsk train did not warn one of her passengers about the arrival to his stop, which was done in violation of her duties.

She woke the man up just a minute before the train started moving. The hostess was aware of the fact that the man would not be able to pack his things and get off the train in only one minute. However, she did not take any measures to stop the train to avoid possible disciplinary penalties afterwards.

“Instead, she made the passenger jump off the train as it was leaving the station. She was very well aware of the fact that this could cause the passenger severe bodily harm. Luckily, the passenger suffered no injuries,” an official said.

Having seen a few of the ex-military russian ladies in Estonia employed as Trolley Bus attendants I can vouch for their no nonsense attitude. One of them had the whole trolleybus neatly arranged and in order for the whole trip – no sticking out legs, no luggage on seats, younger people made to get up for older people and noisy youngsters chastised.

I was amused and suitably impressed to say the least.