Indonesia has gone to imaginative extremes to try to stop commuters from riding the roofs of trains — hosing them down with red paint, appealing for help from religious leaders, and threatening them with dogs. Now they have an intimidating and possibly even deadly new tactic: Suspending rows of grapefruit-sized concrete balls above railway lines a few inches (centimeters) above the tops of carriages at points where trains enter or pull out of stations, or where they go through crossings. Authorities hope the balls — which could deliver serious blows to the head — will be enough to deter defiant roof riders. “We've tried just about everything, even putting rolls of barbed wire on the roof, but nothing seems to work,” said Mateta Rizahulhaq, a spokesman for the state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api. “Maybe this will do it.” Hundreds seeking to escape the overcrowded carriages clamor to the top. Some ride high to avoid paying for a ticket. Others do so because — despite the dangers, with dozens killed or injured every year — “rail surfing” is fun. The first balls were being installed Tuesday hundreds of yards from the entrance of a train station just outside the capital, Jakarta, and others were to be placed near railway crossings. If successful, the project will be expanded, said Rizahulhaq.
