Train Disaster: Battered by a Tsunami

Real Survival Stories

NOISER

Society & Culture, Documentary, Sports, Wilderness, History

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A young Brit arrives in Sri Lanka to spend Christmas with family. Festivities over, Shenth Ravindra heads off on a solo trip around the country’s stunning coastline. But barely has his adventure begun when catastrophe strikes. As their train grinds to an unscheduled stop, something seems wrong. And then, from the tightly packed carriage, Shenth can only watch as a monstrous wave approaches… A Noiser production, written by Nicole Edmunds. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's Siegel in Spanish Granddad?
0:03.0	El... Seagull.
0:06.0	And what's a beach ball?
0:08.0	El Beachball.
0:09.0	What about a sunbed, Dad?
0:11.0	El Sunbed.
0:13.0	Retirement planning with Aviva can help make priceless family holidays possible.
0:17.0	You're really good at Spanish, aren't you, Grandad?
0:20.0	I'm pretty much a local, love.
0:22.6	From insurance to wealth and retirement, we can help solve life's financial puzzles.
0:27.6	Making a click, it takes a Viva.
0:32.6	It's just after 9am on December the 26th, 2004.
0:38.7	On the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, a railway track winds for 100 kilometers from the capital
0:44.2	city of Colombo down to Gore.
0:48.0	The route snakes along the country's exquisite coastline, slipping through dense forests
0:53.4	and skirting past the gleaming sapphire ocean.
0:57.0	But today the famous route has been interrupted.
1:02.0	On the sun scorched tracks, just north of the village of Hikaduwa, a long, bright red train sits stationary.
1:13.6	This is the Matara Express. It's packed, standing room only.
1:18.6	1,500 people have bought tickets, but dozens more have snuck on board.
1:25.6	Squeezed among the sweaty bodies is 25-year-old British tourist Shempth Rivindra, a young man on a much-needed holiday,
1:33.3	looking forward to some R&R on the beach.
	...

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