Narrow escape for passengers as youth tries to drive train

LUCKNOW: Hundreds of railway passengers had a narrow escape on Friday evening when a youth, out of his fancy for driving a train, sneaked into the loco engine of the Jhansi Intercity at Lucknow Junction and pressed the start button.

However, before he could get the train in motion, alert RPF and GRP personnel nabbed him.

The loco pilot had got down on the platform for some work at that time. The police said the youth -- Rishabh Kumar, 25, from Kannauj district — has a strong liking for trains and so decided to try his hands on the train that was stationed on platform number 5.

According to RPF, the youth climb on the loco engine and switched on the power button.

“Since he was not wearing the loco pilot’s dress, a few passengers, who spotted him inside the loco engine, raised an alarm,” an RPF personnel said.

On getting information from passengers, the policemen immediately rushed to the loco engine and nabbed the youth before he could get the train moving. Rahul Srivastav, inspector RPF, said, “Verification is being done. Rishabh entered the loco engine of Jhansi Intercity at around 4:30 pm but he was arrested after some passenger raised an alarm.”

During interrogation, Kumar told police that he is fond of trains and wanted to drive it, hence indulged in the ‘adventure.’

He had been coming to the platform for the past two-three days, but got a chance for his ‘adventure’ only on Friday morning. He never had a platform or any train ticket.