FARE evasion usually comes with a $220 fine, but not if you are six-year-old George.

After escaping from his Eden Hills home in search of a playmate, the staffordshire bull terrier became lost and found himself on a train to the city last month.

Dustin Craggs, of Blackwood, was on his way to Adelaide University when he spotted George walking on the platform at the Eden Hills train station.

“He was so calm, strutting around and looking at everyone’s faces, I thought his owner was around because he did not look anxious at all,” Mr Craggs says.

“I lost track of him on the platform, but after the train took off he was by my feet.”

Mr Craggs, 20, was initially startled.

“I was asking people on the train about what I should do and if it was a good idea to press the intercom and get off at the next stop … but he was happy just walking up and down sniffing at people’s feet,” he says.

“We all just hung out. But halfway through the train ride we realised that we needed to figure out a way to get him on to the platform without him running off.

“There was a lady with a lanyard so she gave me that and I hooked it to his collar and used it as a lead.”

Mr Craggs called George’s owner, Jude Allen, whose phone number was on her dog’s collar.

“When Dustin rings me and tells me what happened I freak and shriek and I asked him what train he was on and he (tells me he) was on the way to the city,” Ms Allen says.

“So I left my office in town and walked to go get him and there is George, and surrounded by another three other women who he had bonded with on his train ride.

“I suspect our dog George was heading to the primary school — he loves it with the kids there — and then he got distracted by the sound of the train.”

Although security is tight at her home, Ms Allen says “escape artist” George will find a gap in the fence or run through an open gate to find a playmate.

She is thankful her beloved dog has never come into too much trouble on his adventures.

“Last time he got out he went down to the church and some of the lovely people there fed him and he spent the afternoon on a lounge with them,” Ms Allen says.

“The month before I got a call from a lovely tradie who said George was with him and was happy to keep him until he finished work.

“Thankfully we have wonderful people around Eden Hills (who will) always call so we can collect him.”