Quick-thinking commuter rail crew saves dog left tied to train tracks near Lowell

“I just felt like we did the right thing, and I would do it 100 times again,” said the Keolis engineer who spotted the pup.

Left for dead on the commuter rail tracks near Lowell earlier this month, one lucky dog got a rescue — and a free ride — from an eagle-eyed Keolis engineer and the train’s quick-thinking crew.

Engineer Ignacio Barillas was heading inbound from Lowell the evening of July 18 when he spotted a dog stuck on the opposite tracks, struggling to free itself.

“I knew that wasn’t right, and I also knew that there was an outbound train heading towards Lowell that I always cross paths with every day,” said Barillas, who has worked for Keolis since 2019.

He stopped the train and notified the commuter rail dispatcher so the crew could launch a rescue mission. Once the coast was clear, the train’s conductor and assistant conductor hopped off and freed the dog.

“The dog was stuck around one of the spikes in the rails, and there was no way the dog would have been able to get out of there on its own,” Barillas recalled.

From what the conductor told him, Barillas said, the dog appeared to have been left there intentionally.

The conductor and assistant conductor brought the pup onboard while Barillas provided dispatchers with an update. The train continued on its way, and an animal control officer met the crew at North Billerica Station to take custody of the dog. Boston.com has reached out to Billerica & Tewksbury Animal Control for further information.

For Barillas, leaping into action was an obvious choice.

“I just felt like we did the right thing, and I would do it 100 times again,” said Barillas, who has two dogs himself.

“It’s just not the humane thing to do. If you have a dog and you can’t take care of it, there are so many other options in the world rather than tie your dog to the train tracks,” he continued. “I didn’t feel overwhelmed with joy. I was sad for the dog. … Just knowing that we saved that dog from being hit by a train was all that mattered to me.”