A stalled train got a helpful nudge from hundreds of passengers near Buxar on the Mughalsarai-Danapur section of the New Delhi-Howrah mainline on Tuesday.

The incident occurred after a passenger pulled the train’s emergency chain and it halted in a “neutral zone”, a short length of track where there is no power in the overhead wires. A train’s momentum usually allows it to continue moving through neutral zones.

When the passengers approached the driver he said the train would not start till it reached the live wire section a few metres away. Hundreds of passengers then got off the train and pushed it over four metres so that it touched live overhead wires and was able to resume its journey, officials said on Wednesday.

When contacted, Divisional Railway Manager Pankaj Jain said he had no idea about the incident since he was out of station. However, he pointed out that whenever a train stopped in the neutral zones, an engine is sent to pull it out of that section and added that he would inquire into the incident.