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Muslim man kicked off train for praying

A devout Muslim was kicked off a train bound for Flen, south of Stockholm, in May, after failing to show his ticket to the conductor as he was deep in prayer.

Muslim man kicked off train for praying

On his daily commute to Flen from his work in the capital, the 35-year-old man needed to carry out some of his daily prayers.

In order not to disturb fellow passengers, he made his way to a calm and secluded compartment – something he had done several times before.

”I started to pray but then the conductor arrived and shoved me three times in the back almost causing me to topple over. Then she said ‘Show me the ticket! Hey!’,” the man told news site Nyheter24.

The man refused to show his monthly rail pass to the female conductor as he felt he couldn’t interrupt his prayers once he had started.

However, as soon as he was finished he thought it appropriate to go look for her and show his ticket.

”I went looking for her and showed her my pass. Instead of looking at it she said I should have shown it to her when she came by earlier,” he said.

The man was told he would have to get off the train at the next stop.

”She was ice cold. I feel demeaned and discriminated against,” he told Nyheter24.

The man, who prays five times a day, tried to explain himself and said that he had never had any problems praying on the train before.

”We have the right to kick you off the train and if you don’t comply we will telephone the police,” the conductor allegedly answered him.

The man, who didn’t have anywhere to sleep that night if he didn’t get home, refused to leave the train, according to the news site.

The staff on board then decided to call the police and officers were waiting for the train at the following station.

The police told him, after a short interview, that he was under suspicion for threatening behaviour.

As the conductor would not let him back on the train, the man managed to get back to Stockholm.

To avoid having to roam the streets of the capital, he made his way to a mosque in Akalla, where he spent the night.

The man later contacted the train services customer service department where they agreed that it was not acceptable and sent him a voucher worth 1,000 kronor ($152).

But to the 35-year-old it is not about money but getting satisfaction.

According to Nyheter24, the incident has been reported to the Swedish Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen, DO).

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TRAVEL NEWS

Swedish rail company SJs site crashes on Christmas tickets release

The booking site of Sweden's state-owned rail company SJ crashed on Tuesday evening after the company released long-awaited tickets for the Christmas period.

Swedish rail company SJs site crashes on Christmas tickets release

The company on Tuesday night released tickets for the period from December 11th to March 12th next year, only to see the site crash under the volume of booking requests. 

“There are enormous amounts of customers who want to buy tickets, even though it’s the middle of the night,” Lina Edström, a press officer for the company said shortly after midnight. “The home page quite simply can’t cope with responding to so many requests at the same time. 

The site started to work again a few hours later, only to crash once again as people woke up and started booking on Wednesday morning. 

“The reports we are getting is that it’s working for some people and not for others. That’s what we’re seeing as Sweden wakes up and more and more people try and get onto the site,” said Jonas Olsson, another press officer at 7.30am. 

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The release of Christmas tickets in Sweden has been severely delayed because of late publication of the Swedish Transport Administration train plan for 2023, which coordinates the times for all passenger and goods trains in Sweden. 

The train plan should have been published at the start of August, giving companies 18 weeks to set tickets from December 10th. It was only released on October 19th. The administration said that it has had problems due to change over to a digital system. 

Many customers have been complaining that they have seen prices for Christmas trips double in the time it has taken them to book a ticket. 

Olsson told the TT newswire that SJ’s pricing system is based on the level of demand. 

“I understand the frustration, and we may well look at this going forward,” he said. “But even if many people have ended up in this situation, there are many others who have been able to buy cheaper tickets.” 

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