Dream: A Broken Down Train

I had this dream the night of 2026-10-24 and woke up towards the end; as such, some of the last parts, such as some of the discussion with the driver, were had whilst still awake, in that liminal half-awake-half-asleep, where the dream still runs on with full senselessness, however the mind is awake and aware of itself as dreaming. Rather, in hindsight, I must have had the dream between 07:30 and 08:00 specifically, as I believe I slept my alarm, and the dream only began after having slept the alarm (for a half hour).

I was on a train. It was just pulling out from an overhead covered station, likely the one near Shadwell, and was by Fenchurch Street, albeit in a sort of elevated way, which the real station does not have. There, it went faulty, and the train, which was actually rather more like an underground service in layout, stopped, and the driver had to evacuate all passengers off from the train onto another to the left of it; the doors were aligned and the passengers were to jump from one onto the other. The assumption was that the new train would be functional and bring to the destination, wherever that may have been. The doors would open and close as the driver keep on trying to keep them open against the automated closing; an old lady, with walking stick and a plump body against short stature, got stuck in the closing of the doors on the new carriage and struggled against them, trapped within the closing doors. I jumped onto the new train to see what it was like, and noticed it was all black and white, flickering constantly, totally non-functional. There were no other passengers either. I hopped back onto the first train, and somehow, I cannot remmeber how, or if it was even specified, made my way out. I then was on the far platform. It had incoves in the wall I believe like at Barking, and the platform was certainly not like that of Fenchurch Street on the ground, though looking across it was, much brown-grey. The driver and an assistant of some kind noticed me, and I could overhear their announcement, given by word of mouth spoken loudly at the carriage, that the new one was a temporary measure, and the passengers were to be held there, whilst the old train was sorted. The assistant noted me and came over to the platform, as did then the driver. I was asked whether I could pay with my phone; I noted I could not, however did have a ticket (a London return ticket) and my bank card. The train ticket was taken by the assistant, and the driver, after somebody, I suppose the assistant, repainted the incove what appeared to be red, but after painting was only a wetter of the original colour (brown brick), went up to the incove for some reason, apparently to help fix the train somehow. I sat upon the metal structure besides it, which surrounds a large mirror, and noticed as I was looking out, rather conscious that the metal may too be painted and I would have paint on my hands, a freight train, which was arriving in and then immediately went about in a loop, like a bicycle returning on itself, and departed; the last train staggered with electricity and static about itself and detached from the train, became immobile upon the train; the train halted and the driver presumably had a distance to walk up the train to reattach the broken carriage. I made note of the broken carriage to the driver, who remarked that it is private, and was at least not his issue. Asking why the train broke, he gave two reasons. Firstly, he had gritted the track, and had likely done it wrong. Secondly, he had hit the station roof with the train as he departed, and had thereby had to halt. I inquired as to whether it was the transponders, to which he assented, though it made no sense in the dream either, as the train was rather like one of the underground trains, and would have used third leg power. The gritting by the driver himself was due to cuts in funding, and a lack of staff manning the tracks able to grit it themselves, requiring therefore the drivers, with a lack of training, to do it. The driver was despondent, as he noted that he would be reprimanded for this once he reported, which he had not done so far, as he was hoping to fix the issue without anybody finding out until later.