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Trivia: Easily confused station names

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507020

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I’m surprised we haven’t had Hadfield and Hatfield or Lostock, Lostock Hall and Lostock Gralam.
 
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A related issue is that of station names with and without a suffix - early online booking systems sometimes had problems, and even now it can sometimes be a bit of a pain.

As an example (and there must be plenty of others) we have Matlock and Matlock Bath: if you want the shorter station name, a computer system can't readily know which you mean just from what you type - after I type the "k" of Matlock, is that me finished, or is there a space and "Bath" still to come? (It's like the problem of phone numbers in areas that can have either 5 or 6 digits after the area code, like Matlock as it happens).

It isn't an insurmountable problem - but it does need more coding. Trainline copes OK by narrowing the options list as you type and assumes the first when you tab. But other sites make more of a meal of it. On the EMR site, if I want a ticket from Matlock, I can't just type Matlock and tab to the next field. I can't type station code MAT. I have to type Matlock and then select Matlock from a pulldown that also offers Matlock Bath.

In Germany, I guess that it would be "Matlock Hbf" and Matlock Bath, so no problem. And I suspect that the penny has dropped in the UK, but only for new station names: when Smitham was renamed, it became Coulsdon Town rather than just Coulsdon.
 

D6975

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Many years ago when sitting on Eastleigh station a couple of youngsters approached me and asked where the depot was. I pointed out that it's 'just over there' but they said, no they had been to that one but they couldn't find the other one. They went on to explain that they had caught the train to the station and walked all around the area but couldn't find Totton depot anywhere. :(
 

gg1

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As a child I used to think the Bluebell Railway was in Yorkshire on account of the line running to Sheffield Park.
 

norbitonflyer

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Berwick, its namesake on the Tweed and North Berwick

West Kilbride is nowhere near East Kilbride
 
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steamybrian

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As a child I used to think the Bluebell Railway was in Yorkshire on account of the line running to Sheffield Park.
Similar one is that Leeds Castle is in Kent not in Yorkshire.....!
(nearest station is Hollingbourne)
 

Mikey C

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I'm pleased that the new Reading Green Park station has "Reading" in the title, thus avoiding confused tourists wandering around the outskirts of Reading, looking for Buckingham Palace ;)
 

Ken H

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Long closed was Alcester station in Warwickshire. Locals pronounce it as 'Olsta'. Often confused with Ulster
 

Mat17

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Reddish North, Reddish South? Long wait for a return service at one of them.

Stood in Piccadilly some years ago I once heard the tannoy announcements say what sounded like 'Hester', I couldn't work out whether it was Leicester or Chester until listening to the other stops, which turned out to be the train to St. Pancras, so clearly it was Leicester.
 

birchesgreen

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Waterloo station on Merseyside, not to be confused with that other one down south (though officially that is London Waterloo).

Do they still have signs at Alton telling people this isn't the station for the theme park?
 

DunsBus

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Berwick, its namesake on the Tweed and North Berwick
Indeed. The first Berwick you mention shows on journey planners as Berwick (E Sussex) whilst the second Berwick - my local station - added the "-upon-Tweed" bit in 1955 to avoid confusion with the Sussex one.

As for North Berwick there's been a good few tales about visiting football supporters ending up there and asking for directions to Shielfield Park, Berwick Rangers' home ground, only to be told that they actually need to be forty miles down the road.
 

S&CLER

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Appley Bridge and Apperley Bridge.
years ago I recall reading that the BBC radio programme Any Questions was broadcast from one of the Wellingtons (the Somerset one , if I.m not mistaken) and one of the panelists travelled to the other Wellington (Shropshire). He found out his mistake and arrived half-way through the recording, to cheers from the audience.
 

snowball

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As a child I used to think the Bluebell Railway was in Yorkshire on account of the line running to Sheffield Park.
The distance between Leeds Castle and Sheffield Park is not wildly different from the distance between Leeds and Sheffield - both reasonably near to 35 miles.
 

Galvanize

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Strood (in Kent on the Bank of the Medway) and Stroud in Gloucestershire on the Golden Valley Line.
A true story, I was in Primary School, and on a Monday morning, we’d have a Show and Tell session…so one time I said we’d been to visit my Great-Grandmother who lived near Stroud.


Anyway…to my annoyance the Class Teacher tried to correct me
“Oh…I think it’s pronounced STROOD!”
“No, Stroud…we went on a train from Paddington!”
“Really? I thought you could get a direct train to Strood from here. Strood in Kent?”
“No it’s not in Kent!”
“Where is it then?”
“It’s near Gloucester I think.”
“Oh, really I’ve never heard of it!”

Another common mistake…the Two Rainhams…I was once travelling on a Southeastern service several years back, and just after Rochester heading into London, the Guard came round doing tickets. In the next bay of seats was a Little old Lady who bought a ticket thinking she was going to Rainham in Essex to visit an old friend, but as it was a journey she wasn’t used to making…was directed to London Victoria and went to the one in Kent instead. She was on her way back home from the Wrong Rainham! The Guard was absolutely fine with her story, and accepted her ticket. She remarked that she didn’t remember the journey taking twice as long as the previous one…nor did she remember seeing Rochester Castle from the window!
 

Scouseinmanc

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Eccles and eccles road
Angel and angel road
Eccles and beccles
Southport and southend
Tattenhall and tentenhall
Portsmouth and Portsmouth arms
Staines and Steyning?
Stratford and stretford
Chester and Chester-le-Street
Morden and Moreton
Brighton and new Brighton
Cambridge Heath and Cambridge central / north
Blackpool north and south - in fact, anything with a north, south, central, etc)
Enfield chase and Enfield town
Margate and moorgate
Higham ferrers and bere ferrers
Alton (staffs) and Alton (hants)
Lymington and lyminge
Bishop Auckland and Bishop stortford
Hinckley and hindley
Oxford and Otford
Saltash and saltaire
 

Gloster

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Although it is not directly part of the thread, there are going to be cases when people get confused between somewhere that has a station and somewhere that doesn’t, or has a station with a different name: Emsworth and Hemsworth, Pewsey and Bewsey, etc.
 

swt_passenger

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As for North Berwick there's been a good few tales about visiting football supporters ending up there and asking for directions to Shielfield Park, Berwick Rangers' home ground, only to be told that they actually need to be forty miles down the road.
Must be fun telling the people who’ve made such a mistake that they actually need to go to another country…
 

Eloise

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Nottingham and Mottingham

Spent many a happy wait listening to the Sutton Loop announcemeant as “Sutton, Surrey, calling at… Wimbledon, Wimbledon Chase, South Merton, Morden South, St Helier, Sutton Common, West Sutton and Sutton”

Sutton and Sutton-in-Ashfield
 

Western Sunset

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Anyone mentioned the two Reedhams yet?

I was once on an all-line rover and travelled on the overnight York - Aberystwyth. I asked the guard to wake me at Machynlleth (so I could go up the Cambrian Coast), but I obviously mispronounced it and I awoke at
Borth.
 

Trackman

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About 25 years ago at Preston I asked for a ticket to Bolton, but he was going to give me a ticket to Poulton (le-Flyde); before the ticket was issued I querying it as the price was wrong.
 

johnnychips

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I think out of all this lot, the biggest dangers are

- Liverpool Lime St and London Liverpool St when coming from Norwich or Ely
- Gillingham (Dorset - hard G) and Gillingham (Kent - soft G)

As for the latter, I used to run a summer school in Shaftesbury, and pick the Belgian staff up from Gillingham. I really had to emphasise which place they should book their tickets to and make sure their final train’s destination was Exeter and get on at Waterloo. I - or rather they - never had a problem, but I don’t know if you could have got a train from Waterloo East or St Pancras (where their Eurostar arrived) to Gillingham (Kent).
 
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