"The Tube Pigeon" .....are you really ready for this!

By are you really ready for this..... I mean, please read it and let me know if you think the story is true or false!

 The Tube Pigeon........ 

I think before writing this piece, the only other person I have mentioned this extraordinary story to is my sister; she told me categorically, that if I wrote the piece, folk would think me totally ‘off my rocker’.

I related this story to my wife Ruth on my return from the memorable day and she did not turn a hair; so here goes, the story is quite true.

The actual day was sometime in the November of I believe 2003 It could have been 2002.

I had been National Chairman of the National Farm Attractions Network for several years and enjoyed the chance to meet other folk from various parts of the UK who were engaged in opening their properties to the public as we were doing at Northcote.  Barry Davies a surveyor and rural planning consultant from Kettering was our Secretary and hardly a week went by when we were not engaged together in some issue or other of concern to our national membership.

On the actual day of the story, I was travelling to the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London to assist on the NFAN stand at a national Trades Fair. My aim had been to arrive in good time to set up the stand before the centre opened to visitors at 10.00am. As usual I had to travel half the distance from home by car, before I could board a train at Peterborough at about 6.30am.  By 7.45 am I was entering the Underground station at Kings Cross well on time to arrive at Earls Court by my target time of 8.30am. Then things went awry.

TRAVEL  STRESS

It could have been my lack of concentration, or just the fact that I had visited the capital so often in the past I thought I knew my way around the Underground perfectly. I bought a ticket for Earls Court and boarded a train that looked as if it was going in the correct direction. West was good and I was casually watching those unique long thin maps above the windows opposite, counting off the stations as we passed.

There were only three more stations to go, when the train suddenly turned off and headed away from my destination.  I studied the map more intently and realised we were heading for a dead end. My best laid plans were in tatters and I was not going to get to my destination on time.

The train duly stopped at the buffers, by which time I was the only occupant. A ticket collector was manning the barrier awaiting the first customers of the day and quickly explained that the train I needed for Earls Court was on the adjoining platform and would be leaving in just a few minutes.

MY ONLY COMPANION

I found the train and it was clearly marked ‘Earls Court’ on its marker board. All the carriages were completely empty; it was just as if I was the only human on the planet. This made me rather uneasy and sapped my confidence somewhat. I entered a door in the centre carriage and chose a seat three down from the doors and on the opposite side of the train facing the direction we should be going to travel.

I waited and waited, perhaps for 10 minutes. No other passengers came to join me in any of the carriages and then the whole train began to tremble as obviously the driver had arrived and activated the train systems. We were going to move shortly.

Quite suddenly and to my absolute surprise, through the same door as I had used, which was still open, a pigeon walked off the platform and into my carriage. As you probably know, some birds hop and some walk on the ground. I distinctly remember this pigeon walking. It came into the centre of the carriage, looked up and down then chose the first seat in the row in front of me, quickly flew up and perched on the hand rail on top of the seat back.

The pigeon was happily perched on the seat rail facing forwards just as I was, in the direction the train should be going. I suppose my mouth gaped open; first thoughts were to find an attendant and ensure the train did not start with a distressed pigeon fluttering about in the carriage.

It was then I realised that the bird was not distressed at all. It behaved just like any normal commuter; the only difference being I was the only human in the carriage and the pigeon my only companion. The doors closed with their usual swish and gasp of air and the train moved out of the station. 

As the train gathered speed and smoothly twisted and turned on our journey, my companion remained on his chosen ‘perch’ and simply leaned left or right as the curves came and went. It was a commuter and had quite obviously done this all before.

Still not believing, my eyes glued on the seat just six feet in front, it came as no real surprise when we stopped at the next two stations, doors opening and subsequently closing and the pigeon resolutely still remained on the seat of his choice. The pigeon obviously knew where he wanted to be and was clearly watching through the windows at everything we passed.

Earls Court Station was the next stop and as the doors opened, my friend hopped down from his seat and walked out of the door.  I was still so astonished, I almost forgot this was my stop too and only managed to get off the train before it was once more on its way.

I think the most astounding thing about the whole episode, was not that the bird had actually chosen his seat; sat on the seat back facing the direction he was going and swayed with the train motion; that all seemed so natural after the bird actually walked on board.

Everywhere you see birds, they are normally flying; in and out, here and there, they fly. This bird never flew that I saw at all, except to get on and off the seat of his choice.

It actually walked on board from the platform and then when it arrived at the bird’s destination, it walked off again onto the platform and disappeared.

As I have been writing; all the time, I have been wanting to write ‘he’ or even ‘she’, but of course we did not actually have a conversation.

Few Londoners do, do they?  

 ks 2010

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