Changing tracks

In "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3", Denzel Washington stars as New York City subway dispatcher Walter Garber, a man whose ordinary day is thrown into chaos by an audacious crime: the hijacking of a subway train by the criminal mastermind Ryder (John Travolta).

Directed by Tony Scott, "Pelham" was shot in New York City's subway and marks the fourth collaboration between the director and the actor.

What is your own relationship with subways?

I grew up in New York and subways were the way to get around so I spent many hours on subways as a kid. I hadn't taken the subway in more than 20 years because I used to spend two hours each way on it every day and I swore as soon as I had two pennies to rub together I would never ride it again and I didn't! Until this movie of course!

What is it like shooting a movie in a subway tunnel?

It was trippy. You had to take a full safety course then walk from one station to the next and stand between trains and have two trains pass you.

We would be working at 4 in the morning and we might stop shooting just for a moment until a train went by. You'd see the faces in the train window and them going, 'what the heck?' but you get used to it down there.

What kind of research did you do?

I spent time with a retired dispatcher who worked there for 60 years and another train dispatcher, Joseph Jackson.

What did you learn that was most helpful?

That the third rail is very dangerous and if you step on it, you fry. You don't realise it from the platform but there is another foot of train under there and it's huge. And the wind will move you a bit when it comes screaming by too, so it can be a very dangerous place to be down on those tracks and you have to always be on your toes if you want to stay alive.

Why did you want Walter to be a dispatcher when in the original film he's a cop?

Early on, I said to Tony, "I don't want to be a cop". Ryder, John's character, just likes the guy and he's a sociopath and thinks he has a relationship with my character and only wants to talk to him. So that seemed more interesting, that a civilian was caught in the middle but volunteered to help anyway and ends up saving himself.

 DIFFERENT TRAIN

>> 1974's "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" starred Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. It was directed by Joseph Sargent.

>> The story is from a the novel by John Godey,

 >> "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" is in cinemas on Thursday.