“External animal on the track”
Giant tortoise disrupts rail services in south-east England
It is not known whether the tortoise was actually as “huge” as this specimen from the Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg (archive photo).
© Malte Christians / DPA
“Persons from outside the company on the track” – this error message is not unusual for the railways. In England, however, it was not a person but a turtle that caused the temporary delays.
A delay because of animals on the tracks is not uncommon for train drivers – but what passengers saw in Great Britain on Monday was it. Because of a “giant turtle”, rail traffic between the city of Norwich and Stansted Airport near London was interrupted for more than an hour, the Greater Anglia railway company wrote in the short message service Twitter.
England: “Giant turtle” paralyzes rail traffic
“She’s alive but injured,” passenger Diane Akers tweeted, posting a picture of the animal, whose shell was apparently injured. When the announcement “animals on the tracks” came, she looked out the window, Akers wrote. “I couldn’t believe my eyes!”
Another train passenger, Lydia Jane White, tweeted: “The train is delayed because a giant turtle too heavy to lift is stuck on the tracks – didn’t think I’d ever hear this from a train driver! ” According to her, the turtle had escaped from a wildlife center in south-east England.
A railroad account manager named Georgie later wrote that the injured turtle had been taken to a specialist and would pull through.