'Absolute unit': Escaped Highland cow delays trains after walking onto tracks

Commuters held up for around an hour after trespasser escapes country park

A hulking Highland cow held up train passengers near Glasgow after escaping from a country park, leading rail staff to dub the beast an “absolute unit”.

The disruption also set off a deluge of bad puns, with ScotRail pledging to get the escaped livestock “moooooved as soon as we can”.

Glasgow City Council, whose workers were dispatched to help, also got in on the action early on Tuesday morning after a number of the animals escaped from Pollok Country Park.

“The coos have been retrieved and moooved back to Pollok Park. Our cooncil team are working with rail staff to check where the breach in the fence is,” the local authority tweeted.

ScotRail released a still image from one of its CCTV cameras, and tweeted: “Absolute unit spotted on the track at Pollokshaws West. Sorry if you’re being delayed due to this.”

Video later posted by Network Rail Scotland showed the cow being led away from the tracks by a person holding a bucket of feed.

Commuters were delayed for about an hour.

The “absolute unit” meme originated on Twitter, when in 2017 a user posted an image of Goring Hotel managing director David Morgan-Hewitt alongside Queen Elizabeth II with the caption, ”in awe at the size of this lad. absolute unit”.

The phrase has since been used to describe any animal, person or even cuddly toy that is deemed remarkably large.