Let's assume that in this trolley world, a sizeable amount of mass transportation is based on trolleys. Doesn't even have to be a great amount. But let's assume that it's in a metropolitan area of 4.5 million people with a strong tourist economy, and boarding for the trolley in an average year is 8.5 million times. It's been in operation for 140 years or so.
But as time goes on, the mechanical condition of the system becomes increasingly tenuous. Many years of neglect start to accumulate. The cars and power house start to seem unreliable. The system is bordering on collapse. For the system to continue to operate without an inevitable catastrophic failure, it would be necessary to renew the fixed plant, track, pulleys, winding machinery, power house, and the cars themselves, which instead of housing only 5, house 68 people per car.
And you happen to see this occurring. You know this has been a problem since the 1960s. You happen to be a trolley expert, well versed in its history and operation, as well as the safety protocols necessary for safe operation. Over the last 70 years, you know that the safety protocols are not only archaic, but also not being followed. They aren't up to date to deal with modern urban planning, modern forms of transit, or modern population density. Trolley transit in this town is the most dangerous form of mass transit, causing on average one accident per month. Some are fatalities, some are car collisions, some are just chance events like a bolt sticking up in the track causing the trolley to stop suddenly causing 68 minor, but substantial personal injuries. The total cost to the city is millions annually and the human cost in the city are multiple fatalities per year, injuries ranging from moderate to severe, and a general arbitrary fear that when the trolley bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
As a trolley expert you know all of this. You also know that the government and transit authorities are aware of all of this. Yet the trolley system continues to degrade and injure arbitrarily. The authorities don't want to shut down the trolley, as it generates revenue and brings tourism to the city, both of which the Chamber of Commerce oppose with their campaign dollars and influence. There's also an entire industry surrounding the trolley system and its history, from merchandising to museums, all of which jockey for the continuation of the trolley system. The government can't decommission the system or replace it because of a lack of political will and a general distaste for investing in infrastructure.
So in the end, you have a rather dangerous, aging system of transit that continues to cause fatalities, injuries, and property damage and is kept alive due to two factors: the influence of money and that the impacts are kept to manageable levels. If the money involved disappeared (i.e. tourism for the trolley), the trolley would be decommissioned rapidly and replaced with something more efficient and modern. If the impacts became unmanageable (let's say an entire trolley full of casualties or a trolley ploughs into a crowd), the government and transit authorities would be held accountable for their criminal negligence, as well as publicizing the danger of the trolley, leading to the collapse of trolley based tourism.
So with all of this context, you are presented with the trolley problem. And we'll go with a modified fat man variant.
You are standing on a bridge watching a holiday parade. Underneath the bridge is a trolley track. Opposite the bridge is a switch station. You know as a trolley expert that this track is turned off because of the parade. But lo and behold, you hear the all-too familiar whisking of a trolley coming down the track. You turn and look and see the trolley, the front of which is covered in the viscera of some poor sap who apparently wasn't protected by numbers.
You take into account your surroundings and notice an unrealistically fat man, who somehow has the weight density and physical positioning that not only could you shove him successfully off the bridge, but his mass is such that it would stop a 16,000 pound trolley car careening towards the parade.
You now have a decision to make:
A) Push the fat man, allowing the trolley system to continue existing by making the levels of death and destruction manageable and thereby not preventing a similar situation arising in the future
B) Let the innocent fat man live, allowing the trolley to smash into the parade, making the possible deaths and destruction unmanageable. Thereby also causing national headlines, the abandonment of the trolley system and tourism, indictments of criminal negligence against the transit and government authorities who allowed the situation to arise, and letting the naive utilitarian who switched the trolley paths suffer the full extent of his myopia and subsequent prison sentence.
(2014)