Dwellings Beside The Railroad Tracks

I was walking on the railroad tracks stretching from Jakarta Kota station. If a train came, I had to avoid it. But fortunately or unfortunately, few trains seemed to pass by. I leisurely walked along the tracks. I remembered that in Sri Lanka, all the locals walked back and forth on the tracks. It was as if the tracks were just a hard road to walk on, with no trains passing by.

There were houses lined up next to the tracks. Even though it was not really a residential area, the houses seemed to have been built there. In layman's terms, it looked like they were illegally occupying the land owned by the railroad company. In any city, there are often poor people living on the banks of rivers or beside railroad tracks. This seemed to be one such place.

There was no fence in front of the houses built beside the railroad tracks. The railroad tracks were right there. With many young children playing between the houses and the tracks, I wondered if they could know if a train was coming or not, and if it was safe to go out on the tracks now. Probably not. I feel sorry for the driver who runs the train while such defenseless children are playing around.