Annie Mole's, webmaster of Going Underground, daily web log (blog).
If you like this you'll LURVE One Stop Short of Barking, THE fun and informative BOOK about travelling on the London Underground.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Station master Dog in Japan
Remember Tama the station master cat on the Japanese railway who boosted their income by 1.1 billion yen? Well looks like the canny Japanese have thought that dogs should get on the act and they now have Maron, a Yorkshire terrier, who's the stationmaster of Okunakayama-Kougen Station on the Iwate Ginga Railway Line. As Japanprobe said: "he does seem to have the advantage of being able to wear a cooler uniform."
Thanks to Jon Justice for giving me the heads up to this. If you want to see Maron on duty, which basically seems to involve him being petted & wandering up and down the station looking for places to wee, check out the video below
Actually I think that the London Underground would have a better chance of efficiency if they were to have station master or station assistant dogs rather than cats. Cats are too contrary and wouldn't lift a ... err ... paw to do any work. Whereas, I reckon a dog would try to help out as much as he or she could. We've already established they are more likely to wear a uniform. It wouldn't take much to get Elvis in some London Underground stuff.
They'd be good at eating any left over burgers or chicken or pizzas left behind. They'd be less likely to give you that bored disinterested look when you asked to top up your Oyster card. Most importantly they're more used to Tube travel than cats.
Warriorgrrl's dog Benji is a regular commuting dog about town and I think he would make a fantastic station dog! He's quite switched on technically and has his own Twitter account.
If you had a cute little dog's face looking at you when you bought your tickets, you'd feel much happier on your journey. Perhaps dog owners could get discounts on Oyster cards if they got their dogs to do a few shifts in the station office. Just a thought!
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