Trainman (The Matrix)
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The Trainman, played by Australian actor Bruce Spence, is a fictional character in the film The Matrix Revolutions and the game Enter the Matrix.
The Trainman is effectively the god of Mobil Ave, a virtual subway station he created that exists in neither the real world, the Machine world, nor the Matrix. With one exception (Neo's arrival at the beginning of The Matrix Revolutions), no one can enter or leave the station except on the train that the Trainman conducts.
The Trainman's function is to carry programs between the real world and The Matrix; temporarily storing them at Mobil Ave. The truth about him working for Merovingian constitutes to a possible explanation of his ability; the Merovingian was and is a part of The Source; the only thing existent in both worlds - thus, The Trainman is able to make transports between the worlds as a program.
The Trainman works for the Merovingian and is aggressively loyal.
The Trainman has long, dirty hair, a half-crazed look, and wears numerous watches on one arm, apparently to track the movements of all the trains in the Matrix. He carries a revolver, but isn't a very good shot. While in his Train Station, he seems to be able to manipulate its simulated physics there better than Zion rebels do in the Matrix, as shown by his punch to the trapped Neo that slams him effortlessly into a wall.
He is the only program other than Smith to have fought Neo and won (though he did this in Mobil Ave., his own world).
The Trainman is an allusion to the ferryman Charon, reinforcing one of the Merovingian's characterizations within the Matrix as a Hades figure. The name of the Merovingian's wife, Persephone, is another reference. His role in the Matrix may be analogous to that of a computer bus.
The Trainman possibly existed in the early versions of the Matrix. As the Architect explained in The Matrix Reloaded, the current version is the sixth. The Trainman had a very small cameo in the Enter The Matrix video game and told Niobe some information about the last time the humans fought the machines and failed. He told her that the previous Zion lasted 72 hours when the machines attacked.
[edit] Trivia
Mobil is an anagram of limbo.
