It has been brought to our attention this week that pigeons in the Swedish Capital of Stockholm have been utilising the tube system to
get to the shopping centre, one stop away from their homes.
According to witness reports the pigeons line up patiently at the platform with the other passengers, board the subway train disembarking at the next stop. Apparently pigeons have not been witnessed returning home in the same fashion, so presumably take cabs to make it easier with their shopping bags.
The Local – Swedish news in English, reported that subway staff are encouraged to shoo the birds off of the train if they see them, but not to the detriment of running times. It is not clear when the pigeons first began to patronise public transport, but reports have been made since the early ‘90s. Despite fears that the birds could cause mess on the carriages, very few complaints have been recorded, and the pigeons seem to be very polite whilst on their daily commute. An expert from the Natural History Museum told The Local that pigeons, whilst not particularly clever, are prone to copying each other’s behaviour, so, once one pigeon started using the train more would follow. This is much like our interns and our massively overpriced sandwich machine.
We asked the fans to share their experiences of public transport and/or pigeons. The response was overwhelming.
Angela said: “I feel pigeons are necessary for the flow of public transport, in cleaning up the mass of crumbs people leave from cleaning out pockets purses etc… keeping the ants down to a minimal.” – Well that was clearly something she had spent a long time thinking about, as befits such a cutting edge scientific news publication.
Sarah said: “I love pigeons, I hate public transport…simple.” – That was indeed simple, and she did include a little kiss at the end, which we removed with editorial discretion.
Chimp said: “I have never ridden a pigeon but public transport seems to shit all over everything on a regular basis.” – Thanks for that Chimp.
Eden said: “Our public transport won’t even let you bring a doggie on with you- but pigeons are OK? Where do they keep their fare cards?” – Well, that was less an opinion and more a question, it is rumoured amongst the passengers that the pigeons are fair dodgers, but we have no evidence to support these allegations, so cannot comment.
Andrew said: “There was a pigeon used to travel a few stops every day on the District Line (apparently) – just insouciantly hopped on at South Ken and hopped off again at Turnham Green, obviously fare-dodging but never challenged until the day it got turned into pigeon pie. This was one of those semi-true stories that they print in the Metro et al, and I have persuaded myself that I actually saw said pigeon in action once, but that might be a slightly gin-inflected memory…” – Andrew gets a gold star for most relevant comment of the week.
So, if that wasn’t enough juicy pigeon goodness for you, you can read the full story here: http://www.thelocal.se/37278/20111110/
And you can “like” us here: http://www.facebook.com/newsnibbles – The sooner you do it the sooner we’ll stop going on about it.
