passenger confusion over trains going to similar sounding destinations

[Trainfan344]

Alton in Hampshire used to at least have a sign pointing people for Alton Towers to Stoke-on-Trent

 

[Edders23]

NR should sell the naming rights to Liverpool St, make a few quid, outrage the traditionalists and solve this particular problem.

hmmmmm................London Etihad station or perhaps London Aviva station

I think that would confuse people even more

 

[Class 170101]

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.

When the screens at Norwich did refer to Liverpool Lime Street some of the trains to London were formed of 3 carriages. Both Anglia and Central Trains had 170s at Norwich in those days.

In London, it has been known for people to mistake Tottenham Hale with Tottenham Court Road, and Blackhorse Lane (Croydon Tramlink) with Blackhorse Road (Victoria Line)

Rainham (Essex or Kent), Swinton.

 

[Stampy]

That means nothing to some of our passengers. It's as if the second they walk onto a railways station all common sense flies out the window

Agreed..

Take for example this which I saw yesterday at Nottingham.....

Coming back from Manchester - as the train left Ilkeston, the guard came through the train saying that the REAR 2 coaches were only going to Nottingham - passengers for stations AFTER Nottingham would have to travel in the front 2 coaches - and to follow him if they weren't sure where they were.

Train pulls into Nottingham a couple of minutes late - and the guard has advised passengers in the REAR section (where I was) that the doors wouldn't open until the train separated.

Cue people HAMMERING on the buttons outside the train trying to get in - and we could hear the platform announcer saying that only the FRONT 2 coaches were continuing on to Norwich.....

When the doors finally were released, there were people pushing to get on in the REAR section, despite people telling them that it's going nowhere.....


MOO!! MOO!!

 

[185]

Coming Soon. Within just 1.5miles of each other.

A. James St.
B. St James.

This is further examples of the excellent handiwork work of Merseytravel Chairman and Network Rail Manager, Cllr Liam Robinson.

 

[F Great Eastern]

Coming back from Manchester - as the train left Ilkeston, the guard came through the train saying that the REAR 2 coaches were only going to Nottingham - passengers for stations AFTER Nottingham would have to travel in the front 2 coaches - and to follow him if they weren't sure where they were.

Train pulls into Nottingham a couple of minutes late - and the guard has advised passengers in the REAR section (where I was) that the doors wouldn't open until the train separated.

Cue people HAMMERING on the buttons outside the train trying to get in - and we could hear the platform announcer saying that only the FRONT 2 coaches were continuing on to Norwich.....

When the doors finally were released, there were people pushing to get on in the REAR section, despite people telling them that it's going nowhere.....

Thing is that it's understandable when people get mixed up between what is the rear carriages and what is the front carriages, when the train changes direction because what might be the rear two carriages upon arrival might be the front two carriages on departure because of the change of direction.

This is particularly the case on the EMT train from Liverpool to Nottingham which changes direction at least twice during the journey with passengers who may have never used that train before.

If I had never been to Nottingham and I saw a board saying front two carriages were what I should board I would assume that if a train just went past me, the first carriage to go past me was the front.

 

[duncanp]

Coming Soon. Within just 1.5miles of each other.

A. James St.
B. St James.

This is further examples of the excellent handiwork work of Merseytravel Chairman and Network Rail Manager, Cllr Liam Robinson.

I hope the excellent National Rail Enquiries website doesn't confuse either of these with St James Street station in London, which of course is served by trains from...... Liverpool Street.

 

[Terry Tait]

Ashford (Kent) to Rye or Wye can be as bad.

 

[AlbertBeale]

I wonder if anyone has ended up at Hampden Park station near Eastbourne when they really wanted to go to the football stadium in Glasgow.

Plausible because there are direct trains from Gatwick Airport to Hampden Park, and someone who is unfamiliar with the geography of Britain might not realise how far it is from Glasgow to London.

Gatwick to Glasgow? Really? Surely not for many years??

And there's also 2 Ashfords...

 

[AlbertBeale]

Many years ago I was on a Paddington to Oxford train (remember the Inter City DMUs?), first stop Reading. When the ticket collector came around he had to point out to a couple of American tourists that they had a LU ticket Padd to Oxford Circus not Oxford! He very kindly told them to get off a Reading and get a train back without charging them. Those were the days!

The US habit of using a road name without the "Street" or "Road" causes endless amusement to those of living in central London and tripping over tourists every day. I'm often asked the way to places like "Oxford" when they want Oxford Street. I always tell them to get a tube to Paddington and then it's only an hour on the train... They then usually twig - but maybe Parham Wood's experience was "one of mine"....

Of course some learn their error and over-correct. I was asked the way to Piccadilly Street the other day.

And there are many roads called Abbey Road in London. The only one with a station named after it is on the DLR out east ... quite some miles from the famous Beatles Abbey Road. I believe there's a little newsagent near that DLR stop which sells a lot of A-Zs tanks to tourist stupidity.

 

[edwin_m]

Coming back from Manchester - as the train left Ilkeston, the guard came through the train saying that the REAR 2 coaches were only going to Nottingham - passengers for stations AFTER Nottingham would have to travel in the front 2 coaches - and to follow him if they weren't sure where they were.

Plenty of scope for confusion there because the train reverses at Sheffield. The "follow me" seems like a good idea. Otherwise...

Do they announce "rear coaches for beyond Nottingham" before Sheffield, with the risk that when they announce "front" afterwards people will think it's changed?

Do they announce nothing before Sheffield, so a lot of people get settled in the wrong half of the train?

Do they try for something like "what are now the rear coaches" and hope people will understand?

And then what happens if the train is late and runs via Dore South Curve, so it doesn't do the reversal? Or there's a problem with the unit scheduled to continue and Control decides to run the other one through instead?

 

[edwin_m]

And there are many roads called Abbey Road in London. The only one with a station named after it is on the DLR out east

Which has several posters replete with song title puns, directing tourists who've come to the wrong place to get a ticket to ride to St Johns Wood.

 

[HLE]

Don't expect "normals" to have any idea of what type/length of train is to be expected.

Indeed, many tourists from other countries may be somewhat perturbed/put off the correct train by only 2 carriages being at Norwich for a 5-odd hour cross-country journey to Liverpool!

I've often been asked whether 'this train goes to London'. I'm on a single 153, 100 miles from the place.....

'Ordinaries' probably wouldn't have a clue, but then again why should they?

 

[Spartacus]

New Street used to famously have two departures to Glasgow Central at the same time, one WCML, one XC, frequently departing from adjacent platforms. Confusion was inevitable.

Not the longest mistaken journey but when TPE had 170s rather than Northern they had a strange service off Leeds, 1802 from Hull to Huddersfield, which strangely went off platform 12C for some time. The only thing that wasn't strange was a service from platform 12 to Huddersfield, except that was Northern via Bradford Interchange. For the first few months it was common to have more people board only to have to get off again than to stay on to Dewsbury and Huddersfield! Despite all the announcements some still stayed on.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

Ashford (Kent) to Rye or Wye can be as bad.

Especially if the person asking at the ticket office has a bad lisp...

 

[Julia]

Americans' tendency to routinely omit street qualifiers can make matters worse - I was once accosted by a tourist in the tube at Kings Cross asking the way to Leicester. Had I not checked what he intended, he'd have been on his way upstairs up to the MML platforms and a very long diversion...

 

[Hadders]

There used to be come confusion by tourists at Cambridge - the fast train from London divided at Cambridge and then the front unit was going on to Kings Lynn and the rear unit was forming the next fast service non-stop to Kings Cross from the same platform. So they just heard the announcement for "Kings..." and the platform number without realising there were 2 separate services going in different directions. The detached unit now goes empty into the yard and returns to platform 7 to await the arrival of the portion from Kings Lynn so most services now leave from separate platforms.

Always mildly amusing to see this at Cambridge. The look of utter panic on passengers faces as they try to work out where the front 4 carriages are.

Not just tourists either

 

[Taunton]

Americans' tendency to routinely omit street qualifiers can make matters worse

Certainly a US colleague gave directions to another visiting US colleague (bad plan) about meeting up with us at a restaurant next to Edgware Road station - the latter ended up at the top end of the Northern Line …

But the best Liverpool Street confusion, I've described it before, was in the 1980s when the North London rush hour DC trains from Watford to Broad Street were diverted into Liverpool Street. These now formed a convenient connection into the morning Hook Continental from there, and thus favoured for European au-pairs from Bucks and Herts with heavy baggage returning home. They would be dropped off at Watford Junction station, farewells said, and directed to the Liverpool Street DC line platform. Unfortunately at just that time the morning express to Liverpool Lime Street also used to call at the opposite side of the same island platform you have to walk along. First stop Runcorn. PA is announcing "Liverpool" and "Street", all aboard, off we go. Apparently Runcorn had to deal with this one more than once.

 

[Crisps]

This thread reminds me of a mistake I once made at York, I was going to Manchester - I was actually changing there as part of my epic journey to university in Aberystwyth, but Advances via Manchester were cheaper than via my usual route via Birmingham - but there were TPE 185s on adjacent platforms going to Manchester and Middlesbrough. Guess which train I got on...

I had to buy a new ticket from Manchester to Shrewsbury too! Luckily I already had a long wait there as this was back in the days of two-hourly Cambrian services.

Well at least I got the M right!

 

[southernyoshi]

I really really hope the old story about the American couple turning up to Leeds (Yorkshire) station & asking directions to the castle (in Leeds, Kent) was true

 

[Bovverboy]

I've nothing against Yanks (generally) but one story I particularly like I heard quite a few years ago. A group of British and American tourists were on a package tour to Vienna. After three days in the place, one of the Americans protested most vociferously, they'd been here three days and hadn't yet seen a single canal! He apparently thought he'd been going to Venice.

 

[farleigh]

I wonder if anyone has ended up at Hampden Park station near Eastbourne when they really wanted to go to the football stadium in Glasgow.

Plausible because there are direct trains from Gatwick Airport to Hampden Park, and someone who is unfamiliar with the geography of Britain might not realise how far it is from Glasgow to London.

I have also been at Glasgow Central (in GNER days) when the Scotrail service to North Berwick via Shotts and West Calder was cancelled. A customer who wanted to go to Berwick Upon Tweed asked station staff when the next train would be. It was only after a short conversation that they realised which Berwick he wanted to go to, and they directed him to the GNER service to London which was about to leave.

In London, it has been known for people to mistake Tottenham Hale with Tottenham Court Road, and Blackhorse Lane (Croydon Tramlink) with Blackhorse Road (Victoria Line)

Especially confusing as they pass through Berwick en route and would assume they are close to the Scottish border.

Something should be done!

 

[etr221]

I think the relevant quote is "You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public" ...

And then there is the story of the American who one day wanted to go to Morrow, and then after a night's rest to Day...

 

[father_jack]

One Saturday years ago Virgin XC days, Gatwick ticket office once sold two foreign blokes with golf bags and suitcases tickets to St Andrews Road instead of Leuchars where St Andrews golf club is. Even gave them an itinerary.

They eventually got back to Temple Meads in a taxi. It was a rugby Saturday too and was bedlam. I put them on what was actually the last possible connection to north of Edinburgh. Said to the guard, "don't excess them" despite the fact they probably only paid half what they should. He said "stick them in FC" and I'll tell the man at New St !!!!!

 

[duncanp]

Gatwick to Glasgow? Really? Surely not for many years??

I meant that there are direct trains from Gatwick Airport to Hampden Park near Eastbourne, not Hampden Park in Glasgow, the nearest station to which is Mount Florida.

Which rather proves my point, as someone from overseas arriving at Gatwick might not realise this, and travel to Sussex whilst thinking he was on the way to Scotland.

 

[AlbertBeale]

I meant that there are direct trains from Gatwick Airport to Hampden Park near Eastbourne, not Hampden Park in Glasgow, the nearest station to which is Mount Florida.

Which rather proves my point, as someone from overseas arriving at Gatwick might not realise this, and travel to Sussex whilst thinking he was on the way to Scotland.

Sorry to have been dim!

 

[Taunton]

A further issue is that while the passenger gets the right train, they have been issued with the wrong tickets. Visiting Glasgow not long ago I went on the local train to Carmyle in the eastern suburbs, a decidedly quiet station, but asking for tickets at Anderston Cross station I was so conscious of the scope for being issued to Carlisle, which they probably do more tickets to and at many times the price, and where an English-sounding passenger would be more likely to go, that I got myself into a tongue-twist that made the ticket clerk's face go into puzzlement.

Sorry if that was you …

 

[philjo]

A further issue is that while the passenger gets the right train, they have been issued with the wrong tickets. Visiting Glasgow not long ago I went on the local train to Carmyle in the eastern suburbs, a decidedly quiet station, but asking for tickets at Anderston Cross station I was so conscious of the scope for being issued to Carlisle, which they probably do more tickets to and at many times the price, and where an English-sounding passenger would be more likely to go, that I got myself into a tongue-twist that made the ticket clerk's face go into puzzlement.

Sorry if that was you …

It took several attempts at my bad pronunciation for the ticket office in Lucerne to issue me a ticket to Schynige Platte ! The ticket clerk was nonplussed ! Fortunately I had the leaflet with the timetable on it so I could show where I was going to.

 

[bionic]

More than once I've dealt with passengers at Hayes (Kent) who wanted Hayes & Harlington. Personally I can't figure out how anyone could be that stupid, but it seems many are.

My favourite passengers at Hayes (Kent) were two cockney old dears who got off the train, took one look around and got straight back on the train again. I asked them if they needed any help and they said they had fancied a day out in Kent but didn't think much of it so were going back home!

 

[AM9]

You have to identify the mistake before you can correct it, though!

My favourite example is probably the chap who got on the wrong train at Manchester Piccadilly to go to the Airport, ...

Well of course, everybody knows that you take the Piccadilly line train to the airport.