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What would happen if a rat or mouse was found on board a train?

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175mph

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Would the train be declared in an unfit state for passengers and the passengers asked to get off at the next station, then the train run ECS to it's depot or would the train be allowed to carry on it's normal service, but at the end of the day taken out of service for a deep clean?

I bet even if the train was allowed to continue normal service, if it was a long distance Intercity route that sells food and drink to it's passengers, they would stop selling any food or drink as a precaution.
 
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jamesst

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If its before service? Open the nearest door, push it out, close the door and carry on prepping the train!!!
 

Antman

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Do mice and rats often get on trains? They're probably less trouble than some of the human passengers!
 

whhistle

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I'm sure 390054 had a problem a few summers ago with cockroaches.
Train remained in service until it finished it's run (Euston to Birmingham) but was then taken out of service.
 

Spartacus

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Rat on a service train would mean it’d be packed full of cranks!

I suppose the answer might depend on if someone can get their hands on said rodent in a hurry, what you wouldn’t want is it chewing through something vital while in service. Equally disruptive, though in a different way, might be if someone’s Jack Russel got a sniff of it!
 

Wilts Wanderer

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I was once seated on a packed train, looked down between my feet and saw a mouse sitting there under the table. I reached down, picked it up and it sat there in the palm of my hand quite calmly, showing no indication of being scared. Poor thing, I thought, it must have been terrified surrounded by all those feet and bags.

Then I gave it back to the lady sitting next to me so she could continue working on her laptop.
 

Deafdoggie

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I daresay some operators would cancel all trains in a 100 mile radius as a safety precaution. But I can’t see any real reason too. Supermarkets happily carry on trading if rodents found (and with all that food it’s inevitable they are) yes, they have to get rid of it, but this can take days/weeks. They do, of course, keep all stuff like cables, fire alarms, etc behind “chew proof” structures such as steel casings etc.
 

Mathew S

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In the airline industry, I understand it is standard practice to ground an aircraft if a rodent is seen on board. You never know what they might have nibbled through, and it's not something you want to find out at 34,000 feet. Checks are carried out, and the aircraft thoroughly cleansed of all wildlife, before it is brought back into service. Whilst it's a slightly different situation, I can see how a mouse having a nibble in the wrong place on a train would be capable of causing serious issues.
 

DarloRich

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I am sure the train would be taken out of service at the next opportunity and pest control people called and the train inspected for any signs the rodent had nibbled on any cables. I am sure it will have happened.

I saw a pigeon on a tube train once!
 

gsnedders

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In the airline industry, I understand it is standard practice to ground an aircraft if a rodent is seen on board. You never know what they might have nibbled through, and it's not something you want to find out at 34,000 feet. Checks are carried out, and the aircraft thoroughly cleansed of all wildlife, before it is brought back into service. Whilst it's a slightly different situation, I can see how a mouse having a nibble in the wrong place on a train would be capable of causing serious issues.
Customs regulations may well come in to play in the international setting, given you're then bringing an animal across a border without proper quarantine procedures.
 

Mutant Lemming

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Many moons ago I caught a train from Niagara to Toronto and spied a mouse drinking spilt beer on the floor of the bar car. I pointed it out to the steward who just said well this train has come from New York intimating that as it had originated there you should expect it to have mice on board.
 

Clarence Yard

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Rodents on LHCS was not unknown, especially if the coach had been lying around a shed yard for a bit. Caterers were the worst and I've had to remove a few rodents from them at KX station in years past, when I was on C&W duty.

HST sets were a lot better for this than LHCS but you still got the occasional one, mainly with the kitchen cars.
 

Master29

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They say you`re never more than 3 metres from one. I`ll remember that when I`m on an IET now:lol:
 

Ken H

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There are rats all over the place. Trains must be full of them because of spilt food. Trains stations are full of them - I have seen quite a few rats on stations.
I would hope the guard whacked it with his ticket machine and chucked it out of the window and then carry on as normal.
 

JohnR

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Depends on whether it had a valid ticket for travel on that train or not
 

DanDaDriver

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There would be a hysterical over-reaction, people would be tweeting newspapers and MP’s with pictures of the animal and demanding compensation for psychological trauma.

The papers would run a story cleverly linking the phrase, “rail fat cats.”

Then the usual suspects would come on here to tell us all that it was better in BR days when every train had a dedicated cat.
 

LowLevel

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Stations and the permanent way are full of rats. That's a fact of life. They're usually just keen to stay out of the way until it's quieter late at night.

I don't recall seeing one on a train though. Pigeons are a different matter, they wander in all the time.
 

jamesst

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I am sure the train would be taken out of service at the next opportunity and pest control people called and the train inspected for any signs the rodent had nibbled on any cables. I am sure it will have happened.

I saw a pigeon on a tube train once!


Not a chance, it might be taken out of service for one trip at the very very most then put back in with a new set of oblivious passengers!!
There's literally rats and mice all over the railway network, the conditions are pretty much ideal for them.
 

DarloRich

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Not a chance, it might be taken out of service for one trip at the very very most then put back in with a new set of oblivious passengers!!
There's literally rats and mice all over the railway network, the conditions are pretty much ideal for them.

just to be clear: you are suggesting that if a rodent is found on a train ( and in particular a rat) nothing would be done.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Unsure about a mouse or a rat, but a ferret boarded a train at Long Eaton some years ago and proceeded to run around a lot before eating the driver's lunch.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3039021.stm
A Coyote boarded Oregon's LightRailMAX system and rode into Portland in around 1999/2000. This adventurous creature inspired not one but two leading alt-rock bands to write a song about the event.
Sleater-Kinney - Light Rail Coyote:

Modest Mouse - Coyotes:
 
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