Great Western Coffee Shop

Major delays this morning on services between Bristol and Worcester/Birmingham after a CrossCountry service (1S51 0625 Plymouth - Edinburgh) hit and killed a horse at Tuffley near Gloucester.

Apparently, a group of horses had got onto the line from a nearby travellers site.

Driver and train involved said to be okay to continue. Fortunately the incident wasn't more serious. A horse is quite capable of derailing a train.

As I type, the line has been cleared and BTP are allowing services to run again. Delays, cancellations and early terminations are likely to continue into the afternoon. Lots of services each way are backed up. What also doesn't help is CrossCountry services are already running to an amended timetable and route due to engineering works at Bromsgrove.

I hope the TOC and/or whichever authorities have standing prosecute and sue the arse off the "Travellers" concerned for this - Animal Welfare Act 2006 should cover it as well as any railway specific legislation.

Whilst I appreciate that the "travelling community" considers itself above the law, this could have caused a far more serious incident.

What disappoints me most is, bearing in mind no serious consequences today, the lack of equine puns...

Ah, you want details of the runners and riders, then?  Where is Peter O'Sullevan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_O%27Sullevan) when you need him? ::)

Neigh, whinnyever there's a horse involved, you'd best put blinkers over your eyes if you're in the least bit unstable.

Well, you'll certainly end up flogging a dead horse over this one.  :o

Sorry, but that's not funny. Lacking in taste and wit. Have you considered the effect of the incident on the train crew and passengers as well as those who had to clear the scene up?

Horses are noble, gentle beasts, the death of one in such a horrible manner is not a matter for humour.

I took a deep breath and 'shed a tear' as this topic came up.  Held me words as comments started but indeed there's a sadness at the death of an animal in this way, and there's also no evidence that the animal was anything but loved and out by accident.  I'm conscious that some of the least well off members of our society take the greatest care of their animals, and someone may be mortified.

There is evidence if you take a look at who owned this animal. And they're certainly not the least well off in society by a long way, it might all be mostly off the radar but they're plenty well off enough and certainly know how to play every trick in the system for their own advantage, often including profiting from illegal activities mostly with complete impunity, often because 'ethnic minority' even though they're clearly not. Sweeping generalisations, yes, but I feel justified in making them with this group of people.

I'm not associating these Irish folk found in tin boxes on wheels in the UK with the struggles the true Romanies have had over the years.

I do agree however that many people who genuinely struggle to make ends meet have pets and really would go to the ends of the earth to care for them.

Poor horse.  Lucky driver too.  A big animal can do serious damage although luckily at a height below the windscreen. 

The bad puns I don't mind, but I do think we need to be careful about generalizing about the horse's owner.  We simply don't know the character of them do we?

I'm really not one stereotype in anything other than jest usually, but I really do think the character of the ponies owners is fairly easy to predict in this instance and I stand by that. I can only assume you've neither encountered any of these people directly nor seen much of the media coverage surrounding their misdemeanours.

Agreed it could've caused a much bigger problem - in 1984 one of the push-pull Glasgow to Edinburgh services was derailed near Falkirk by a single cow resulting in the deaths of 13 people.

We northerners don't stereotype either.

I have met the travelling community many times on a professional basis. I have also seen ponies abandoned in squalid former beauty spots when the travellers have been moved on, leaving behind the contents of the cheap rubbish disposal jobs they did around the area. But I don't know that this horse was not a much-loved pet from somewhere in the genteel areas nearby, spooked by a firework and trying to find its way home.

Either way, it ruined my Yankee.