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passenger confusion over trains going to similar sounding destinations

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2392

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Whilst I haven't read all posts in this thread. There's the historic case of Whitley [Bay] and Whitby. Both on the East Coast, there was a character who really loved Whitley and noted in his will that he'd like to be buried in Whitley when he died. The fate-full day came and arrangements were made to transport his mortal remains to Whitley, so the a local Undertaker was waiting at Whitley at the appointed time, only to find that his client had been delivered to Whitby instead by mistake, OOPS! As a result the local Council of Whitley decided to add the term Bay to their name hence it's now Whitley Bay. Though there aren't any direct trains from there any more as the town is now served by the Tyne & Wear Metro.
 
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Scouseinmanc

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I worked with a South African guy in Manchester, who after having a few scoops after work, left for his train to Stockport. When he woke up on the train he found himself in Southport. He had quite a wait for a return, as that was the last train...
 

TrevorY

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I was once on a Circle Line train and overheard some American tourists excitedly talking about going to Stratford - from their conversation it was clear they were anticipating seeing the home of Shakespeare, not Stratford east London!
 

L401CJF

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Liverpool City Region/Merseytravel/Merseyrail have recently announced plans to build a few new stations just on the edge of the city. I believe one of the proposed stations is to be on the Hunts Cross section of Northern Line between Central and Brunswick in Liverpools Baltic Triangle on the site of an long closed station, named St James. It would be just one stop from Central on the Northern Line, meanwhile just one stop from Central on the Wirral Line is James St. A quick glance to the unsuspecting traveller at Central station could quite easily Mistake James St for St James or opposite!

The other proposed station is Headbolt Lane, a completely new station on an extension of the Kirkby line.
 
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I encountered a chap with a ticket from Stansted to Dalston Kingsland. He was at Ely on his way to Kings Lynn.
 

yorkie

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Did he want to go to Dalston Cumbria and have the wrong ticket, or was he on the wrong train towards Dalston London?
 

61653 HTAFC

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Liverpool City Region/Merseytravel/Merseyrail have recently announced plans to build a few new stations just on the edge of the city. I believe one of the proposed stations is to be on the Hunts Cross section of Northern Line between Central and Brunswick in Liverpools Baltic Triangle on the site of an long closed station, named St James. It would be just one stop from Central on the Northern Line, meanwhile just one stop from Central on the Wirral Line is James St. A quick glance to the unsuspecting traveller at Central station could quite easily Mistake James St for St James or opposite!

The other proposed station is Headbolt Lane, a completely new station on an extension of the Kirkby line.
I wonder if Brunswick (Liverpool) has ever played host to American tourists aiming for Braunschweig in Germany, which gave its name to many US and Canadian places but is anglicised to Brunswick...
 

stut

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Shepley and Shipley - both in West Yorks.

Apologies if already reported.

To be honest, the Bermuda triangle that is Shipley station is confusing enough to the non-expert. You hardly need to add Shepley into the mix.
 

PeterC

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Shepley and Shipley - both in West Yorks.

Apologies if already reported.
Wearing my other hat as a music journalist a festival press release had me contemplating a comp until I realised that the music was at Shepley and the friends I would have stayed with were in Shipley.

I must confess that (Dalston) Kingsland <> Kings Lynn was one that I wouldn't have thought of.
 

jfowkes

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I once bought tickets and got on a train to Bedford. When my tickets was checked, it turned out I'd bought one to Bradford. I was very, very tired and completely failed to check them. Turns out the cost from Nottingham to both is similar enough that it didn't raise alarm bells.
 

duncanp

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In the West Midlands, some people refer to Sutton Coldfield as just Sutton.

Don't know if anyone has ever confused Sutton Coldfield with Kings Sutton or even Sutton (Surrey), but it would be easy enough to make a typo in an online journey plannner.

Similarly with Kings Langley and Langley Green

or

Earlswood (Surrey) and Earlswood (West Midlands) not to mention Earlsfield in London, and just for good measure Earlston in the Scottish Borders, which hasn't had passenger trains since 1948, but is nevertheless shown in the National Rail journey planner (code EAS) as it is served by a rail link bus to and from Berwick (Upon Tweed, not Sussex)
 

Gathursty

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Earlswood (Surrey) and Earlswood (West Midlands) not to mention Earlsfield in London, and just for good measure Earlston in the Scottish Borders, which hasn't had passenger trains since 1948, but is nevertheless shown in the National Rail journey planner (code EAS) as it is served by a rail link bus to and from Berwick (Upon Tweed, not Sussex)

and Earlestown in Merseyside, on the Liverpool-Manchester line?
 

sprunt

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In the West Midlands, some people refer to Sutton Coldfield as just Sutton.

Similarly, locals tend to refer to Bury St Edumunds as just Bury - I wonder if that ever caused errors when Bury was a national rail station?
 

Antman

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One just a few days ago, a couple roll up at Woking when they actually wanted to get to Worthing. Back to Clapham Junction and try again.
 

prod_pep

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Liverpool City Region/Merseytravel/Merseyrail have recently announced plans to build a few new stations just on the edge of the city. I believe one of the proposed stations is to be on the Hunts Cross section of Northern Line between Central and Brunswick in Liverpools Baltic Triangle on the site of an long closed station, named St James. It would be just one stop from Central on the Northern Line, meanwhile just one stop from Central on the Wirral Line is James St. A quick glance to the unsuspecting traveller at Central station could quite easily Mistake James St for St James or opposite!

If the station gets built and is called St James, I will be amazed. Surely Baltic Triangle is the obvious choice, given the upsurge in popularity of the nearby locality of the same name. Having a St James and a James Street on the same network is a recipe for disaster.

That said, Merseytravel has history with poor station names. Conway Park should have been called by its originally proposed name, the much more accurate Birkenhead Market. Lea Green is another choice unreflective of the surrounding area, but I think this references another long-closed station.

Over the water, locals have a tendency to call both Liverpool and Birkenhead Central stations just 'Central', so that could confuse an unsuspecting outsider.
 

Terry Tait

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Isn't Ormstone and Ormskirk also in the North West? But on different lines one would imagine.
 

xotGD

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Today one of my colleagues had to buy a ticket from Strood.

I looked over his shoulder just to make sure he didn't choose Stroud.
 

Kendalian

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One just a few days ago, a couple roll up at Woking when they actually wanted to get to Worthing. Back to Clapham Junction and try again.

There's a good one...Clapham Junction and Clapham.

Clapham was a junction before the Ingleton line closed, although it was just a bit quieter!!
 
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My daughter, who was born in Canada, arrived in the UK on a visit to see her grandmother. She went to a booking office, unfortunately at Victoria, and asked for a ticket to Gillingham, using the correct hard-G pronunciation for her Dorset destination.

The stupid ticket agent sold her a ticket to Gillingham, Kent (soft G as in Jill)! After a very stressful wait at the station for her grandma, who was waiting at the other Gillingham, she discovered the problem and with directions from a very helpful staff member, she finally made it to her destination, many hours late.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Shepley and Shipley - both in West Yorks.

Apologies if already reported.
As there are no stations which run services to both, it's more an issue of buying the wrong ticket than boarding the wrong train.

I mentioned upthread that Shipley appears as "Shipley (Yorks)" on planners and tickets. Shepley has no such clarification, though (Yorks) would be of limited use anyway!
 

Oxfordblues

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I recall visiting the SNCF Travel Centre in Piccadilly one lunchtime in the 1980s to make some couchette reservations. I had to wait as the clerk dealt with another customer. It was a lengthy process as he went through all the routeing and accommodation options (which sea route, whether 1st or 2nd, sleeper or couchette, etc). Finally he announced: "Here are your tickets for Lucerne". The customer looked perplexed as he scrutinised the documents, then sheepishly replied "But I want to go to Lausanne!" I ran out of time, gave up and had to come back the next day
 

Taunton

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The worldwide classic is people buying air tickets on the Internet from London to Sydney, and getting ones to the city in eastern Canada instead of Australia. Now you would think nobody could be so silly to mix them up, but airline booking systems often make use of a USA-based city list that just qualifies duplicates with the state name. The one in Australia is thus Sydney NSW, with immediately above the one in Nova Scotia, Canada, appears as … Sydney NS. It's exacerbated by the Canadian airline Air Canada serving both, and offering fares from London to Australia, via Toronto and Vancouver which sometimes are not that different. I believe someone did actually make it through once to the Nova Scotia one before the error was discovered, their local media there had a field day.
 

L401CJF

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If the station gets built and is called St James, I will be amazed. Surely Baltic Triangle is the obvious choice, given the upsurge in popularity of the nearby locality of the same name. Having a St James and a James Street on the same network is a recipe for disaster.

That said, Merseytravel has history with poor station names. Conway Park should have been called by its originally proposed name, the much more accurate Birkenhead Market. Lea Green is another choice unreflective of the surrounding area, but I think this references another long-closed station.

Over the water, locals have a tendency to call both Liverpool and Birkenhead Central stations just 'Central', so that could confuse an unsuspecting outsider.

You're right there, not the same but similarly I work on the buses on the wirral and always get people boarding who ask for a single to town, half mean Birkenhead and half mean Liverpool I assume its the same at the wirral train stations too!
 

Gareth

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I've also heard people over the water ask for Central, meaning Liverpool Central not Birkenhead.
 

USBT

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The worldwide classic is people buying air tickets on the Internet from London to Sydney, and getting ones to the city in eastern Canada instead of Australia.
.....
I believe someone did actually make it through once to the Nova Scotia one before the error was discovered, their local media there had a field day.

A teenage couple (both 19). They got suspicious when the Sydney flight was on a turbo prop.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/oops-british-couple-flies-to-canada-by-mistake-1.353972
 

silverfoxcc

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At Norwich should be easy to spot the difference, Norwich-Liverpool Lime Street trains are normally 2 carriage trains Norwich to Nottingham, were as Norwich -London Liverpool Street trains are normally longer sets.

I doubt it, to the average traveller a train is a train..... it may be easy for you ........
 

PeterC

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I know that Aberystwyth is generally referred to Aber locally. Has anybody bought a ticket to Aber on the Valley Lines by mistake for Aberystwyth or for Aber on the North Wales coast (which doesn't have a station)? When I was at university there a friend had a letter misaddressed to Aber in North Wales.
 
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