By: Rachel Chen

Recently, last Friday on July 19th, 2024, a tortoise named Solomon escaped from his owner’s home and was found in the train tracks of Bagshot, Surrey in England. The animal was technically counted as a trespasser.

As soon as a train driver found out a tortoise had entered the station, all train services were interrupted at about 6:00 p.m., and four trains were delayed.

Thankfully, engineers were able to rescue Solomon before he got on a train. In order to rescue him, workers and staff needed to take Solomon to a place of safety, which involved a short train ride too.

Solomon’s owner gratefully picked up his pet that evening, happy that Solomon was not hurt. After that, the train services at the tracks returned to normal at about 7 p.m. on that same day.

After this experience, many workers insisted that pet owners should keep an eye on their pets. If Solomon had not been rescued on time, the tortoise would not have been safe for long. Workers encouraged pet owners to keep fences around houses to avoid pets from getting on to the tracks again.

A spokesperson from Network Rail said, “While we are delighted that this story has a happy ending and can reassure passengers that our ‘everyone home safe, every day’ ambitions extend to pets, we must remind everyone that the railway is dangerous.”

Image Credit by Ellie Burgin