News & Reviews News Wire Startled passengers share train platform with horse in Australia

Startled passengers share train platform with horse in Australia

By Trains Staff | April 10, 2024

Escapee from nearby racehorse stable recovered safely

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Horse standing on platform at train station
An escaped horse stands on a platform in suburban Sydney, Australia. Transport for New South Wales

SYDNEY, Australia — Well, that’s a horse of a different color.

Passengers at a Sydney commuter train station were startled last Friday night to discover they suddenly were sharing the platform with an escaped horse from a nearby stable, which — showing good horse sense — properly remained behind the yellow safety line as a train pulled in at the Warwick Farm station. The train operator, aware of the animal, did not open the train doors, preventing it from boarding.

7 News reports the animal spent a half-hour pacing the station platform before being reunited with its owner, accomplished horse racing trainer Annabel Neasham, who said the stable pony had been let out during a break-in by an intruder at the Warwick Farms stable. “(Our) horse is back at home, none the wiser, not even a scratch on him,” she told the network. Stable hand Keith Morrison said he still wanted to know how the horse found its way up the stairs and onto the platform.

Police are still searching for the person responsible for the break-in.

Surveillance video of the horse on the platform — showing startled passengers giving way to the horse — was originally shared by New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, who noted, “Didn’t realise I needed to say but — horses aren’t allowed on our trains, sorry folks.” It was re-shared by Sydney Trains with the message, “The chances of a horse boarding your train are low, but never zero.”

Detail of suburban train network map
A portion of the Sydney Trains network. For those of you who want a map for every story, Warwick Farm is at the lower left, just above Liverpool. Transport for New South Wales

5 thoughts on “Startled passengers share train platform with horse in Australia

  1. The horse probably saw the movie “The Great Escape”. Based on actal events at a WWII Luftwaffe-run POW camp in eastern Germany, British and Commonwealth POW airmen escaped from the camp and headed for ….. the train station. So it is with this escapee horse. Just as the escaped Allied airmen acted totally nonchalant waiting for the train, as if they belonged at the station, so it is with this horse. You can see from the photo he’s acting like any other passenger as the train arrives.

    I don’t know about Australia (never been there) but in UK people take their dogs everwhere — pubs, trains, restaurants. So this horse says, Why Not Me????

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