duffield
Established Member
40 years ago I got confused as to which railway offices I was travelling to and ended up in Darlington instead of Crewe, much to the amusement of my colleagues.
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Going the 'wrong way'
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There's different ticket gates for the Shinkansen and other trains. The Shinkansen is usually on the highest level. It wasn't too bad as it's only like 30 minutes or something between Shin Osaka and Kyoto on the rapid commuter train but it wasted about an hour.
Not quite the same, but in 1984 when I applied for jobs after university I applied to British Rail, said I'd work just about anywhere except Nottingham, and ended up with a job interview in - Nottingham - and a subsequent job offer in - Nottingham. Oh well. They couldn't even send me a rail ticket in advance, I had to buy my own and claim it back from BR. But it helped that I had a firm job offer from IBM with a company handbook which I read on the train to Nottingham for the BR interview, and I didn't accept the job which was subsequently offered.
EDIT And I just didn't like the idea of Nottingham, at least I told them up-front, for the complete lack of good it did. Darlington, Crewe, Reading, all these and others would have been fine with me.
GCHQ was the other job offer I turned down, although I didn't mind Cheltenham ......
duffield
Established Member
Meanwhile, I was quite happy with moving to Nottingham (from Reading) and accepted a British Rail job there in 1985. I'm pretty sure they *did* send me a ticket in advance though!
Still, you got a free Shinkansen ride!
The Sanyo/North Kyushu pass was valid all the way from Fukuoka and Shin-Osaka on the Shinkansen, just not the last part between Shin-Osaka and Kyoto unlike the whole JR Pass which is valid on basically nearly all Shinkansens everywhere apart from the Nozomi ones. I think the lady who at Nagasaki was trying to be too clever by thinking it would just be a same platform interchange at Shin-Kobe. I've done it quite a few times between Shin-Osaka and Hiroshima and it's always fun seeing the castles at Himeji etc. The Shinkansen going just between between Shin Osaka and Kyoto is actually quite underwhelming and is only about 10 minutes slower than the commuter train.
I overslept quite a few times going back from work in Heald Green/Cheadle Hulme back to Leeds, ending up in York. I ended up paying in that I missed many a social event, but the guards were very understandable on TPE as I’d ask them what I could do when I arrived into York.
Some years ago, during Virgin Franchise I went to Bletchley Park from Hereford, via Birmingham New Street and Milton Keynes, using a ticket marked only valid via Leamington Spa. On the way back I got to Milton Keynes a few mins earlier than planned and there was a Virgin Train coming in & asked Virgin staff on the platform if it was the Birmingham train , I got a rather muddled reply which I took to mean yes , so I jumped on. Next stop Stockport! I explained the issue to the Conductor who said he already knew about me as the station staff had called to him as the train pulled out. He just marked my ticket & said ask at Stockport about getting back. The staff there suggested a better route was via Crewe and then catch the Cardiff train down to Hereford. I asked about buying a new ticket & was advised I would probably be OK. Staff on the Crewe and Cardiff trains just said it happens and let me travel. Interestingly I got to Hereford only 20 mins later than the correct route
xotGD
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At Leeds: Skipton train leaves from platform 11C. Rear coaches occupy 11D. Screen on 11D advertising service to Newcastle. Passengers for the North East get to visit Kirkstall Forge.
My parents and sister lived between Osaka and Kobe (Mikage) in the 1980s, and I stayed in Osaka last June on holiday. I wouldn't think of using the Shinkansen between the two, I didn't have a JNR pass so I just paid on the day on any of the - many - rail options. I guess for someone with a JNR pass it might make sense, even though it involves going the wrong way to start with.
Himeji I missed last year - I went there in the 1980s - and will probably just use the regular JNR service next holiday in Osaka which will probably be soon.
peterblue
Member
I've never gone the 'wrong way' before though I do remember one time I got on the wrong train by accident. I was running late in Preston, attempting to go to Lancaster and jumped on a TPE service towards Glasgow. I thought every train northbound did call at Lancaster, but apparently not as I ended up in Penrith!
The guard took pity on me so luckily I did not have to pay for any additional ticket or excess
The guard took pity on me so luckily I did not have to pay for any additional ticket or excess
MadMac
Member
There was a case in one of the Scottish Sunday newspapers a good number of years ago where in the evening peak, someone bought a ticket from Waverley to Haymarket and boarded the only train that didn’t stop there, ending up in Dundee and having to come back on a stopper which got him to Haymarket about 3 1/2 hours after he had intended.
I once booked a early morning Grand Central from Pontefract to London, completely slept through it then quickly found a cheap enough advance LNER Wakefield to London and micro slept whilst on a train to Wakefield Kirkgate (for a change to Westgate), next stop Darton…
So instead of my planned day out in London attending a TV audience recording I ended up in Barnsley
So I didn’t technically go the wrong way I just slept through my destination with disastrous consequences!
Leeds is perhaps unique in I believe the most damage you can do on a long distance train is a trip to Wakefield or York
So instead of my planned day out in London attending a TV audience recording I ended up in Barnsley
So I didn’t technically go the wrong way I just slept through my destination with disastrous consequences!
Leeds is perhaps unique in I believe the most damage you can do on a long distance train is a trip to Wakefield or York
hermit
Member
This has happened at Ryde Esplanade - seeing a train at the platform, people tend to assume it will take them up the pier to catch the ferry. If not warned by the guard, they can find themselves heading off towards Shanklin instead.
I have seen the guard shout across to his colleague on the crossing train at St John’s, asking him to wait while a couple of elderly passengers clambered laboriously over the footbridge to get on a train going in the right direction. (Nowadays, with the trains crossing at Brading, they wouldn’t have to rush).
I have seen the guard shout across to his colleague on the crossing train at St John’s, asking him to wait while a couple of elderly passengers clambered laboriously over the footbridge to get on a train going in the right direction. (Nowadays, with the trains crossing at Brading, they wouldn’t have to rush).
Edsmith
Member
One incident recently, somebody approached the on board manager (I don't think they're called guards?) on a Javelin from Ashford International that was heading for St Pancras saying that they had boarded the wrong train and wanted to go to Canterbury. The OBM told them not to worry as it happens regularly and just to get off at Ebbsfleet and get a train back, he said there would be no additional cost for an innocent mistake and signed their ticket accordingly.
father_jack
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That's not the same class 50 hating person who ended up on Luxulyan bank behind a class 50 while going from Paddington to Reading..........?
Since the single IETs have started to be used on Cardiff to Taunton and Bristol to Gloucester/Worcester services Paddington passengers are ending up being wrongly carried to some exotic destinations !!! "But it looked like the London train.........." while at Patchway or Cam and Dursley............
Purple Train
Established Member
While I was waiting for the GA replacement bus at Newbury Park yesterday, a gentleman turned up wanting Ashford in Kent. Apparently the station staff at Newbury Park told him to speak to the staff coordinating buses!
47296lastduff
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As a slight deviation from original post, in 2004 I was returning from BHM to CRE via Nuneaton to ride the new layout there (platforms 6 and 7). I realised I would need to go to Hinckley to complete this, so on leaving Nuneaton I went to find the guard and offered to pay the excess. When he learned that I was coming straight back on the next train he insisted that it would not be fair to charge me extra and endorsed my ticket, so I accepted his generous interpretation.
BingMan
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A related situation is when you go past your ticketed station.In theory it should be a new ticket, but in reality its down to the guard’s discretion how they deal with the situation
I once fell asleep on the train to Whaley Bridge and ended up in Buxton.
And last week I got off the Manchester train at Levenshulme, realised that I had left my bag on the train, jumped back onboard as the door were closing and ended up at Piccadilly
On both occasions the inspectors accepted my explanation with a laugh and let me on the return train
That's my experience too, common sense. They know when someone is trying it on.
When it happened to me, the guard laughed too!
I got off at Carnforth and doubled back.
Deepgreen
Established Member
On several occasions I have witnessed people board trains using the platform indicator information which was wrong and then be stuck on a departing train they didn't want.
A friend fell asleep on his late night train from Paddington to Reading. He woke up suddenly at an unfamiliar station, and promptly leapt off the train so as not to be carried even further into the West Country. Looking round, he realised he'd got off the train two stops early. This really confused his wife when he rang home for a lift.
Or Horsforth, Shipley or Huddersfield, assuming you're awake. Stations like Durham would be even better as at least there's no risk of ignoring or confusing platform letters.
londonbridge
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A couple of instances of the above:
Arrived into Manchester Piccadilly and was walking along the platform towards the concourse when my mate suddenly decided he needed the loo. Why he hadn’t gone before we arrived or waited till we reached the concourse I’ll never know, but he boarded the train opposite the one we’d just disembarked from, which then pulled away with him still on board. Luckily first stop was Stockport where he jumped off and got another train back to Piccadilly, without seeing a guard on either train.
Second one was arriving back at Sunderland after the lunchtime game and finding the 15:30 Grand Central cancelled. Was told ticket acceptance had been arranged on the 16:30 LNER from Newcastle, so I made my way there, arriving shortly before 16:00. Went to find the 16:00 train manager to ask if he’d let me on that one but he refused. I returned to the platform and met one of my fellow supporters, who was carrying a bag. Suddenly he said “hang on, where’s my……”, got up and jumped on the 16:00 in a panic, leaving the bag on the platform. Train subsequently pulled away. It turned out he’d been carrying two bags, he’d boarded the train looking for the train manager, was refused permission to travel, as I had been, and then got off leaving one bag on the train. I phoned him saying I would look after the second bag but it went to voicemail. He then called back saying he was getting off at Darlington so I got on the 16:30 and re-met him there.
Easily done. The last time I did it was in Germany when engineering work diverted my familiar RE train away from Dusseldorf Airport, first stop some obscure town deep in the Ruhr. No ticket inspection, luckily. I had to self-rescue with a taxi as time was not on my side
father_jack
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Years ago at Bristol Temple Meads the last screen you saw before going downstairs to the subway was an "ARRIVALS" one..... Took lots of arguments, mostly with staff (!!!) to get it changed. Actually every arrivals screen inside the gateline got changed, what passenger was ever really going to need it.....
It's generally pretty obvious. You can often tell who's going to try it on before they even get to that stage - the young couple who had tickets from a barriered station to the next stop (five minutes away) who were carrying suitcases. Helpful person that I am, I made a special effort to remind them that we'd arrived at their supposed destination before dispatching. They got off.
Mind you, I had one bloke who genuinely slept through his stop (and kept sleeping until I woke him after departing from the terminus on the return journey). Thing was that he didn't have a ticket for his original journey - nor any intention of paying for it (I wasn't charging him all the way to Z or anything ridiculous, just his original A to B fare). So a BTP officer removed him for me at Y.
MadMac
Member
Similar story:
17:22 Glasgow Central - West Calder. A busy peak service, on this occasion operated by a “high density“ first generation DMU. A young-ish couple is sitting there with suitcases, and as the train is struggling its way up from Uddingston to Bellshill, the chap turns to his fellow passengers and asks “This is the London train, right?”.
Fawkes Cat
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(going through an old thread. Sorry if it's moved on from this point)
I started with BR Computing (as it probably wasn't called at the time) in maybe 1990. I was provided tickets to get me to various parts of the recruitment process: I think it's the last time I had an Edmondson ticket on the big railway (preserved lines don't count).