Trivia: Furthest station away from their intended destination that you have seen someone accidentally end up at.

[185143]

Someone in lockdown 1 was travelling from Grimsby to somewhere in Essex and ended up in Manchester. Think he was Romanian and didn't understand he had to change at Doncaster. He made the last Euston and the Train Manager agreed not to charge him, so I hope that ended fairly well for him as he seemed a nice bloke.

A *ahem* friend managed to not only get on the wrong train at Reading aiming for Maidenhead, but wake up on the approach to Paddington. On a Saturday night with no trains back...

Ended up on an XC Manchester-Stafford once, didn't know Stockport was under possession until we passed Mauldeth Road.

I've known people more than once end up on a Liverpool fast out of Manchester Oxford Road and get carted off to Birchwood instead of Scotland.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

It seems like a high percentage of these stories are alcohol related!

Err .... yes!

Me:
One trip from Cardiff Central to Newport - fell asleep and ended up at Reading (luckily I wasn't charged).
Another trip from Cardiff Central to Newport - fell asleep and ended up at Severn Tunnel Junction (this time, I had to get a taxi back, although I can't remember how much it cost)

A friend:
Underground from Richmond, intending to change and go to North London; fell asleep and ended up in the sidings somewhere in East London. (I can't remember how he got home)

An unknown person:
I got on a London train at Swansea to go to Newport. A chap was sitting, fast asleep, near me; the train passed through Neath, Port Talbot and Bridgend and then got to Cardiff Central. His mobile phone kept ringing from around the Neath area until probably Bridgend, but the problem was that as he was asleep, he didn't hear it; it was probably someone ringing to remind him to get off at Neath! He was so much asleep that several of us, including the guard, tried to wake him, but we all failed. He was last seen on Cardiff Central walking down the platform to get a train back to (I guess) Neath ... whether he got there, I've no idea!

 

[Spartacus]

Doesn't every other LNER service call at Darlington as well?

Yes, you're right, though there used to be more, which probably makes more passengers aware to check it calls there, I can't remember even hearing about anyone who's unexpectedly done the up fast at Darlo.

I have previously mentioned a friend in the early 1980s who had been up in the north and decided to come back to Exeter on one of the Friday/Saturday overnight holiday trains that came down to the South-West. Everything stops at Exeter, even if it doesn’t say so in the timetable, thinks he: not this one. He had a nice trip through to Plymouth and back.

Another York related one, going back some while, is when there used to be a Summer Saturday Glasgow - Scarborough - Glasgow service, NOT booked to call at York. Officially it was booked to do it it's run round in the through roads, but more often than not used a platform, but was always a banana skin for those who thought they could use it for York. It was often a class 40 too, so would have a fair number of cranks on board, who would either have to play dodge the guard to the next stop, or jump onto the ballast at York, which was preferred probably depended on the guard!

 

[AC47461]

When my (now) wife worked in London, she managed to get on a Colchester bound service instead of a Southend Vic one, realised her mistake as she sailed through Shenfield but promptly got off at Ingatestone. Not many miles out of the way but this would be fine except going another 6 or 7 minutes to Chelmsford would have given her a much quicker return, and so she sat there for some considerable time watching the trains go by before finally one stopped to take her back to Shenfield to change.

A gentleman who lived opposite my late parents always enjoyed a drink, especially at Christmas. On one occasion after some lunchtime revelry he did actually ring his wife to say he was on his way home. This should have taken him an hour at best, so more than 3 hours later, with his wife panicking he finally turned up. He'd apparently fallen asleep around Ilford, but woken up at Seven Kings only to realise some time later when looking at the time that he'd gone all the way to Southend, back up to Liverpool Street, and was now on his way out again...

I've personally only missed my home stop by one, waking up as my train left Rayleigh. Knowing the timetable well at that time I knew I'd have about 3mins to get over the footbridge at Hockley to get the last up train back to Rayleigh, only to check my watch and notice we were running 5mins late, and see the last train back pass me as we rolled into Hockley. Cab ride home...

 

[Class800]

What is the furthest away from their destination that you have seen someone end up at (or even yourself if this has ever happened to yourself)?

Just a few weeks ago when i was in Horsham arriving on the last train of the day just after midnight a man was woken up in Horsham after arriving on the last train of the day. He had boarded at Peterborough and was only travelling one stop to Huntingdon but had fallen asleep and ended up in Horsham miles away. He said he had just done a long shift at work and was really tired and ended up falling asleep and ending up in Horsham miles away.

Unfortunately for him it was the last train of the day and there were no trains back so he had to take a taxi all the way from Horsham to Huntingdon to get home. I would hate to think how expensive that taxi must have been. It must have cost him maybe even £400 or £500 i think.

I am interested if anyone else has seen any examples of passengers ending up very far away from their destination either by falling asleep or simply boarding the wrong train by mistake or travelling to the wrong station with the same name as another or anything like that?

Once fell asleep on train London Bridge to Woolwich Arsenal and ended up at Abbey Wood (it was in days when Plumstead was limited stop).

Wrong station, no, but nearly, due to a Sudbury vs Sunbury ticket office confusion

 

[philjo]

My cousin told me about a work colleague who was returning home one Friday evening from City Thameslink to East Croydon.
He woke as the train was approaching Bedford, so had travelled to Brighton and back whilst he slept!
Unfortunately he had just missed the last southbound train back so had a 3hour wait for the next one.

 

[181]

I seem to remember once getting off a Eurostar train in Brussels and overhearing part of a conversation between a passenger and a member of staff from which I got the impresison that the passenger had intended to go to Paris. (I think the Paris and Brussels trains had departed within a few minutes of each other from opposite sides of the same physical platform at Waterloo, so you can see how it could happen).

People may be interested in the similar but not identical thread from early last year here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...ne-carried-beyond-their-intended-stop.212873/.

 

[Paul Jones 88]

When I lived in Staplehurst as a teenager, I was coming back from a party in Bermondsey a little worse for wear, the last thing I remember was Tonbridge, I fell asleep and ended up in Ashford, no trains back to Staplehurst until the morning, I was skint so I had to find a bench up the road to sleep on.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Oban instead of Fort William, the person being in the wrong portion of the train after Crianlarich - despite the multiple mentions on the PA, probably by the guard when checking tickets etc. The person spoke good English so that wasn't the reason. Basically as the train pulled into Oban the person asked the guard what time the train would arrive at Fort William.

 

[AC47461]

I often wonder what happened to the passengers that used to dive across from P1 at Shenfield from my Southend Vic - Liverpool St train onto the Inter-City service on P2 obviously thinking it was Liverpool Street bound when in fact it was the European from Harwich to Scotland during it's brief sojourn via the GEML and the North London line. The next stop was Watford Junc (which might have been pick up only), then Milton Keynes.

A similar situation occurred when I was much younger when I went with my Dad on a railtour for members of what is now the East Anglian Railway Museum to the GWR centre at Didcot. On the way out it went via the MML to Bedford, then down the Varsity line to Bletchley, Oxford and down to Didcot, all in a humble 2-car Cravens Class 105 DMU. After we left Shenfield (which was the last Pick Up and where we got on) there was a bit of a problem as there were two more people than there should have been, and no more seats. Eventually it was established that there were two ladies who had got on at Shenfield as well who wanted to go to Liverpool Street. I've never been too sure how they managed to get on such a short train unnoticed (or indeed why they did given the numerous announcements at Shenfield), but after some discussion they were somewhat unceremoniously dumped off the train at Cricklewood....

 

[Thebaz]

One friend of mine, who lived at Finsbury Park claimed to have once ended up in a siding in Letchworth after a heavy night. Not being familiar with layout at Letchworth I'm not sure if this is actually possible.

Another friend who lived at Anerley went back and forth between Charing Cross and Caterham a few times after a night on the sauce before managing to wake-up and alight.

Drink near always seems to be involved doesn't it!

Well here's one time that it didn't - I had a near-miss myself back in the last days of VEPs on southern metro services; joining a service at Brockley and requiring a change at New cross Gate to go back to Carshalton Beeches, I shut my eyes just for a second..... and awoke to the sound of the conductor giving the driver right away at New Cross Gate! I leapt up flung open the door and jumped out a split second before the train pulled off. Wouldn't be able to do that these days!

 

[Matt_pool]

I caught the last train on a Friday evening from Paddington going back to Bath. Managed to stay awake as far as Chippenham then dozed off and woke up as the train was entering Severn Tunnel. For some reason it was a Cardiff (or could have been Swansea) service that went to Bristol Temple Meads, then back out to Bristol Parkway and then to Wales. Anyway, next stop was Newport, S Wales where I arrived at about 1am - 1.30am with the next train to Bristol at about 5.45am. It was January and absolutely freezing. I managed to get back home to Bath at about 7.30am and went straight to bed. Good job it was a Saturday and I didn't have to go to work.

Once I was getting an EMR service from Crewe to Derby. The guard started coming through to check tickets and came across a foreign couple who were trying to get from Stoke to Manchester. They got on at Stoke but then didn't change trains at Crewe and just stayed on the train which was heading back to Derby. So the guard told them to get off at the next station, cross over to the other platform and get the next train to Crewe, but this time to get off at Crewe.

I can just imagine them spending the rest of the day going backwards and forwards between Crewe and Derby on a knackered EMR 153 all day if the guard hadn't spotted their mistake.

 

[RailAleFan]

Me.

Intended: Stafford to Reading > Beer Festival > Reading to Stafford

Actual: Stafford to Reading > Beer Festival > Reading to Manchester Piccadilly

 

[AxelGrowth]

Not the furthest distance, but I once boarded a Merseyrail service at Chester and woke up back in Chester, with no more trains to my destination that night!

Bet you felt a bit numb in the stomach, I know I would!

 

[swt_passenger]

Wasn't there a case of an old woman a few years back who boarded at Kings Cross, the train running fast to York, and then getting flustered when she told the guard that she only wanted Stevenage, the guard letting her make the journey to and from York on her Stevenage ticket?

It was only after she was caught doing the same thing repeatedly that she was discovered to have been riding London to York return at a heavily discounted rate for several months!

You can just picture the scene in the mess room, when a guard happens to mention the old woman who accidentally went to York, and everyone else looks up and says, “er, same here”…

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not the furthest distance, but I once boarded a Merseyrail service at Chester and woke up back in Chester, with no more trains to my destination that night!

At least these relatively short urban ones can be resolved by way of a slightly expensive taxi or Uber. Much worse when you've got no way back.

 

[Brooke]

I was on an afternoon Glasgow - London train a couple of years ago.

A few college kids boarded at Wigan, then missed by a couple of seconds the doors closing in Warrington.

Cue a very long trip for them to London and back again before they got home for tea…

 

[Baxenden Bank]

I caught the last train on a Friday evening from Paddington going back to Bath. Managed to stay awake as far as Chippenham then dozed off and woke up as the train was entering Severn Tunnel. For some reason it was a Cardiff (or could have been Swansea) service that went to Bristol Temple Meads, then back out to Bristol Parkway and then to Wales. Anyway, next stop was Newport, S Wales where I arrived at about 1am - 1.30am with the next train to Bristol at about 5.45am. It was January and absolutely freezing. I managed to get back home to Bath at about 7.30am and went straight to bed. Good job it was a Saturday and I didn't have to go to work.

Once I was getting an EMR service from Crewe to Derby. The guard started coming through to check tickets and came across a foreign couple who were trying to get from Stoke to Manchester. They got on at Stoke but then didn't change trains at Crewe and just stayed on the train which was heading back to Derby. So the guard told them to get off at the next station, cross over to the other platform and get the next train to Crewe, but this time to get off at Crewe.

I can just imagine them spending the rest of the day going backwards and forwards between Crewe and Derby on a knackered EMR 153 all day if the guard hadn't spotted their mistake.

Mention of a knackered EMR 153 [or the one carriage wonder as a friend referred to it].

A different friend was going from Stoke to Derby, for the beer festival. Boarded a Pendolino to London, not much difference really between 9 carriages and one!
A work colleague was seeing her elderly parent/s onto the train at Stoke, settling them in and got carried away towards London.
Can't remember in either case whether it was a trip just to Milton Keynes or non-stop to Euston.

Giving credit where it is due, neither had to pay for the experience. Except for the amount of stick that the Derby visiting friend got whenever he planned a trip or caught a train after that.

 

[miklcct]

At least these relatively short urban ones can be resolved by way of a slightly expensive taxi or Uber. Much worse when you've got no way back.

My biggest mistake was boarding a train in the opposite direction at a station where the up and down lines are located one above the other (same horizontal location, different floors).

I was at Tsing Yi wanting a train to Hong Kong. The up and down platforms look identical except the signage and I had to enter a shopping centre and turned a few times to travel on escalators to the platform, so I lost my sense of absolute bearing at that station. I boarded a train and it started, and afterwards I saw it travelling on the Tsing Ma Bridge towards Tung Chung! And that's a long way (9 km) to the next station before I can turn myself back!

I mostly rely on geographical directions, and in unfamiliar areas, maps for finding my way, and I frequently lose my way when I'm in big indoor shopping centres when there are no external things to reference. I have also heard this is common among orienteers as well.

 

[peterblue]

I got caught out once, intending to go from Preston - Lancaster, but I managed to find a TPE service that bypassed it. Unbeknownst to me at the time as I thought every train did call at Lancaster, and so I wasn't reading the calling pattern. The first stop was Penrith and I had to go back!

 

[northwichcat]

Someone wanting Cambridge ending up on a Mid-Cheshire service going towards Chester. It sounded like he boarded the wrong train at Stockport and the guard didn't make an appearance until Northwich to notice his ticket didn't match the service he was on. Even the guard was unaware that Greenbank station is a 1 mile walk from a station on the Liverpool to Birmingham route.

 

[AJW12]

I’ve done the classic one a few times - made the mistake of getting on the Met at Finchley Road thinking “I’ll change at Harrow” and being woken up by the driver at Chesham. Oddly when I got a taxi and asked for Uxbridge the driver turned round and went “oh dear, you fall asleep?”. Didn’t appreciate that!

Think the worst was ending up at Bournemouth once when only wanting Woking. It wasn’t even that late so a lot of funny looks. Work “networking over drinks” sessions without eating food before are not a good idea, kids…..

 

[DanNCL]

I don't think it's all that unusual for people to get on 1E01 at Newcastle and end up at Kings Cross, because 'every' LNER service calls at York.

I've seen people wanting to go to Durham end up on that service! It's especially common when 1E01 and 1Y14 turn up in the wrong order, which occasionally happens if there are issues with 1Y14.

Yes, you're right, though there used to be more, which probably makes more passengers aware to check it calls there, I can't remember even hearing about anyone who's unexpectedly done the up fast at Darlo.

A single southbound service still skips Darlington on a Sunday. I have made that mistake myself before... Thankfully York isn't anywhere near as much of a pain to head back north from than London would have been!

 

[Clansman]

The day of the Scotland vs Czech Republic game last year, I watched in Edinburgh. Came across a lad who fell asleep on the last XC service the night before intending to get off at Derby after boarding in Bristol.

How he slept for 7 hours on a Voyager I will never know. An achievement in itself if you ask me.

 

[507020]

I got caught out once, intending to go from Preston - Lancaster, but I managed to find a TPE service that bypassed it. Unbeknownst to me at the time as I thought every train did call at Lancaster, and so I wasn't reading the calling pattern. The first stop was Penrith and I had to go back!

I went on a TPE service that bypassed Lancaster once, on a Sunday morning. Fortunately I was going to Carlisle, but I had to stand the whole way because of the amount of people who were going back to Glasgow after trips to Liverpool and Manchester. Double 397s would have been appreciated!

Someone wanting Cambridge ending up on a Mid-Cheshire service going towards Chester. It sounded like he boarded the wrong train at Stockport and the guard didn't make an appearance until Northwich to notice his ticket didn't match the service he was on. Even the guard was unaware that Greenbank station is a 1 mile walk from a station on the Liverpool to Birmingham route.

How hard would it have been to confuse “Northwich” with “Norwich” with it being the destination of the EMR service he could have got to Cambridge on, changing at Ely?

 

[xotGD]

Everything stops at Wolverhampton doesn't it? Well there used to be a Summer Saturday service that was non-stop from New Street to Preston. Fortunately the guard made an announcement prior to departure and I was able to bale.

 

[Rescars]

Some while ago a work colleague who lived somewhere near Sandbach used to travel home from New Street on a Liverpool train, changing at Crewe. Following a demanding day (and quite a liquid lunch), he slept through Crewe and stayed asleep until he was woken by the carriage cleaners dealing with the train as e.c.s. at Downhill sidings, Edge Hill. The way home from there involved a sheepish phone call and being collected by car by his wife. In one week he managed the same trick on three consecutive days! History relates that his wife decided that enough was enough after this and they divorced shortly afterwards.

 

[sk688]

first avanti back after a night out in london , trying to get back to MK from Euston.

Woke up 5 minutes after Milton Keynes , next stop was Stoke-on-Trent.

Tend to have an alarm set now to avoid this happening again , or will use the LNWR stopper , or even Thameslink to Bedford or Flitwick and the X5 or 34 bus instead , to avoid this now.

 

[Some guy]

I got caught out once, intending to go from Preston - Lancaster, but I managed to find a TPE service that bypassed it. Unbeknownst to me at the time as I thought every train did call at Lancaster, and so I wasn't reading the calling pattern. The first stop was Penrith and I had to go back!

That’s very similar to the 13:30 Euston to Glasgow. That service strangely doesn’t call at Lancaster so passengers had to pick up a train from oxenholme just to get back to Lancaster

 

[Joey Beauchamp]

I've got two (unfortunately!)

Spent a Sunday in Oxford at Cowley road carnival. Saw my then girlfriend onto a national express to Northampton (where she lived) about 7pm. Had a couple more drinks then caught the last Northbound Crosscountry, attempting to travel one stop to Banbury. I remember seeing the spire of Kings Sutton church, so only about 3 minutes before arriving at Banbury. Staggered off train, thought to myself "the steps shouldn't be this way round" then saw a sign: Coventry. Instantly sobered up. No trains back, so only option was heading to Northampton and crashing with my girlfriend, who suggested I'd have been more sensible getting the coach with her if I wasn't capable of getting home by myself. Amazingly she still married me a couple of years later!

Other time I was heading back from Kenilworth Road, aiming for Pevensey and Westham. I sat in the wrong portion of the Ore train deliberately because it was less busy, knowing I'd have plenty of time to move when the train divided at Haywards Heath. Luckily some kind person woke me up when the majority of the train cleared out at Hove, otherwise I could've ended up in Littlehampton.