Front page on my morning newspaper today!
Everyone was delighted to help.
No one complained about being late for work.
The other passengers applauded when the man was freed but tried not to embarrass him.

Now, just imagine reactions if company staff and police had rounded up a press gang..
Bad backs, sore wrists, everyone is in a hurry, the train system designers should be sacked, the fellow is a malingerer, and so on.

A good example of recent posts on the subject of altruism as AR defined it - not the same as generosity and goodwill which we saw displayed in that train incident.
As others have said, compulsion destroys cooperation.

Ayn Rand had a lot to say about _benevolence_. No one lost anything by helping. No one was forced to help. In _Atlas Shrugged_ when Owen Kellogg meets Dagny Taggart on the Comet going west, he gives her his airplane for the selfish pleasure of seeing her doing something more purposeful than babysitting the passengers. And I agree, the subway thing was pretty cool...