Trains delayed by dog on the line
We’ve all heard some pretty feeble excuses as to why trains have been delayed here in the UK. The excuses range from leaves on the line to the wrong kind of snow, but a new excuse was used yesterday as trains from London heading towards Sussex, travelling through the Ouse Valley area, were delayed because of a dog, on the line.
According to Sussex Police, the trains were stopped when a dog owner ‘indicated strongly’ that he was about to climb onto the train track to retrieve his dog, which is believed to have been hit by a train. The police arrested the man and took him away from the scene, which occurred near the entrance to a railway tunnel.
No word on whether the dog survived or not has been released, but train travellers going from London towards Brighton, Eastbourne, Haywards Heath and Littlehampton were delayed for over an hour as a result of the trains being halted.
A spokeswoman for Southeastern was quick to add to the excuses for the delay in the trains, knowing that a dog on the line probably wasn’t sufficient to explain the length of delays experienced by passengers:
This, and signal problems in the Ouse Valley area, meant that train services in the area were delayed until normal service resumed about an hour later.
Where does ‘dog on the line’ rank with previous excuses for delaying or cancelling train services in the UK?
