It's hard to deny that Rockstar hit gold with the development and release of Grand Theft Auto Online. The company's live-service online multiplayer game has gone from strength to strength over the years, from humble beginnings on the PS3 and Xbox 360 to the game's impending launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Plenty of amusing secrets and glitches have been found over time, but one mystery has frequently managed to elude even the most dedicated of GTA players - until now.
Redditor CaptnCosmic shared a brief but enlightening video on r/gtaonline of their character phasing through the roof of a train in Grand Theft Auto Online's Los Santos, finding themselves in the driver's cabin. Though it might not seem like much, it came as news to many players of the game that there was even a cabin to get into: there's otherwise no way to access it, and no reason to get in there either.
By positioning their character on the roof of the train car just right as it drives out of a tunnel and passes a low-hanging bit of masonry, CaptnCosmic somehow managed to avoid becoming another one of Los Santos' gruesome dead bodies and instead clipped through into the cabin. There's a surprising amount of detail there for somewhere no player was meant to go: there's even a plaid shirt-clad NPC train driver present who appears entirely unfazed by the sudden appearance of a maniac wielding night-vision goggles and a hunting rifle.
The trains in GTA Online have been something of a holy grail for a select group of players. Longing for the halcyon days of San Andreas, which featured several missions in which the player took direct control of a train, fans have been trying to get into the driver's seat of one for years. Even the single-player alternative Grand Theft Auto 5 featured only a brief portion of one mission in which Trevor gets to gleefully send a train tumbling off a bridge.
Unfortunately, despite the nice little details present in CaptnCosmic's discovery, it still appears that anyone hoping to cause train problems on purpose is out of luck. Though the unfortunate driver can indeed be killed like any other NPC, it has no effect on the vehicle's route or motion at all. Perhaps everything is automated and train drivers are soon to be a thing of the past in Los Santos, much like GTA Online's venerable PS3 and Xbox 360 servers.
Grand Theft Auto Online is available to play on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions due for release on November 11, 2021.