Train attack driver's '10 seconds' to change line

The driver of a high-speed train where a mass stabbing took place said he had "probably about 10 seconds" to decide to switch to the slow line before making an unscheduled stop. Andrew Johnson was driving the London-bound LNER service on 1 November last year when the train stopped at Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire amid a mass attack by Anthony Williams. Giving evidence, Johnson told jurors at Cambridge Crown Court he heard someone on the intercom "screaming 'there's a knifeman stabbing people'".

Johnson told jurors that ordinarily the next stop after Peterborough would be Stevenage, a journey that takes "exactly 30 minutes". He said when they were around Abbots Ripton in Cambridgeshire and "as it was uphill" the train was travelling at 122mph, adding the service was "bang on time". Johnson said he picked up the intercom to that door but received no response and thought "Saturday night, someone's messing around".

He said while he was speaking to the train manager to ask her to investigate "someone over-spoke us" and he heard someone "screaming 'there's a knifeman stabbing people'".