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Wednesday 3 Mar 2021

Cat avoids train surfing hitch hike from London Euston to Manchester

Region & Route:

North West & Central

| North West & Central: West Coast Mainline South

A cat had a lucky escape at London Euston station after it was spotted on the roof of an Avanti West Coast train which was about to speed to Manchester.

Wide-eyed and terrified, the cat was seen curled up on top of the 125mph Pendolino service at 8.30pm last night (Tuesday 2 March) while it was stationed at a platform.

Facing an extremely dangerous situation, fortunately the misplaced moggy was seen before the train was meant to set off at 9pm.

To rescue the cat the train was taken out of service and another one made available for passengers to continue their journey, with only a slight delay.

In total it took two and a half hours to coax the cat down to safety away from the 25,000 volt overhead lines which power trains.

Eventually a bin was pulled up beside the carriages to give the scared cat its own special platform on which to disembark.

Joe Hendry, Network Rail station manager for Euston, said: “We often have to deal with birds inside the station but in all my time here this is the first train surfing cat! Thankfully curiosity didn’t kill this cat and we're glad it avoided using up one of its nine lives thanks to the swift action of the station team and Avanti West Coast staff who organised for passengers to get onto a different train for the rescue to take place.”

Kathryn Pranga-Wells, lead station manager for Avanti West Coast, said: “The things some pets do to avoid lockdown. Thankfully we managed to avoid a cat-astrophe but don’t ask me-ow the cat got up there.”

It’s not known how the frightened feline came to be on top of the high-speed train.

Seemingly the entire caper left the trainspotting tabby cat rather unfussed, with station staff describing it ‘swaggering off’ with a sense of somewhere else to be after its 180-minute brush with danger.