The morning commute to work can be pretty painful, sometimes it feels as though the whole world is against you, especially when you’re running late. But at least you’re not stuck trying to explain to your boss that a swan held up your train.
Without video footage to back up your claim nobody would believe you but believe it or not this did indeed happen to a train full of passengers in the U.K. The clip, posted to TikTok by “Twurleywurleydrawing” shows the train they are on moving at a snail’s pace thanks to a swan that has decided to take a leisurely stroll down the tracks and it doesn’t look like they’ll be getting out of the way any time soon.
The train conductor can be heard apologizing to customers and informing them that “we currently have a swan on the line, that’s why I’m going so slow.”
@twurleywurleydrawing “I’d like to apologise to customers – there is currently a swan on the line”
♬ original sound – user8920927116341swan tfl dlr
It just goes to show, swans can show up anywhere and everywhere, usually when you least expect it.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there’s a lot that can be done about the feathered biped on the tracks, leaving the frustrated passengers with no choice but to wait until it either moves to the side or decides to fly away. But for the people like us watching the drama on TikTok, it’s a pretty funny situation.
Naturally people made a few Hot Fuzz references, “no luck catching them swans then?” Meanwhile, another quipped, “It’s just swanning along,” while a third wrote, “imagine explaining this to your boss for being late.”
Is the swan alright?
There was also concern for the bird as it doesn’t look too healthy. The usual white feathers appear to be grey and dirty and the way it waddles along looks somewhat weak and unsteady. A second video gives us a much clearer view of the swan’s sorry state. “Poor baby looks hurt,” wrote one person, “That swan looks injured or disoriented, did somebody help him?” asked another.
Perhaps that would explain why it simply doesn’t fly away despite the fact it’s being slowly chased by a huge and heavy hunk of metal on wheels.
The conductor also can’t risk accelerating too much and harming the swan because they are a protected species and they also belong to the royal family, also it just wouldn’t be very nice to mercilessly run over an innocent animal.
We can assume that the bird did eventually clear the tracks although it’s unclear how as the original poster has not given an update so far. Perhaps those train passengers are still stuck on that train to this day, moving along the tracks at a crawl behind their feathered friend.
