Train driver Andrew Johnson acted quickly and ‘saved lives’ when panicked passengers told him a bloody knife rampage has been launched on board his Peterborough to London service on Saturday evening
The hero train driver who saved lives by diverting a service when a knife rampage was launched on board has said he was “just doing his job”. Andrew Johnson acted quickly and diverted to Huntingdon when the incident started on the 6.25pm Peterborough to London King’s Cross on Saturday evening.
The Royal Navy veteran instructed signallers to divert the train to a different track, allowing it to make the unscheduled at Huntingdon. The stabbing, which initially left nine fighting for their live, would have lasted a lot longer if not for the train driver’s intervention.
Despite his brave and potentially life-saving actions, Andrew, from Peterborough, chose to praise a colleague who was seriously injured after trying to stop the attacker.
Andrew said: “I was only doing my job. It was my colleague who is in hospital who was the brave one.”
The driver is “very shaken” but “good”, according to an Aslef union officer who commended him for doing “exactly the right thing”.
Aslef officer Nigel Roebuck said: “The driver did everything he was trained to do, at the right time and in the right way. He showed real courage, real dedication, and real determination in the most difficult of circumstances. Our thoughts tonight are with his colleague who is still in intensive care.”
It comes as Anthony Williams, 32, from Peterborough, has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one count of actual bodily harm and one count of possession of bladed article following the knife attack on a train in Cambridgeshire.
Several eyewitness accounts have emerged after 24 hours passed since the Huntingdon train stabbings – as some of LNER staff members are still fighting for their life.
On Saturday (November 1), over 30 police officers – including an armed response unit – raced to Huntingdon train station, Cambridgeshire, after passengers aboard a train bound for London hastily alerted emergency services about the incident taking place.
After passengers frantically liaised with train driver Andrew Johnson, he diverted the service where emergency services were able to arrest two men once the train reached the platform. It was later confirmed a 32-year-old man from Peterborough is being treated as the only suspect, with a 35-year-old man from London having been released.
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