Trivia - Furthest you've seen someone carried beyond their intended stop

[philthetube]

In hindsight, I wish I'd stayed on the train in this case!

My brother and I got the Northern Line Charing Cross Branch from North London to meet our dad at Waterloo (I think to go to the rugby at Twickenham). We missed the stop deep in conversation, and got very frustrated by the long (by tube standards) gap between stations to Kennington, then got off and crossed over to wait for the first northbound train. We did still make our train at Waterloo, but only just. I only realised a day later that if we'd stayed put I would have got to go round the Kennington loop, and that we probably ended up getting back on the same tube train anyway!

There is room for three trains in the loop so that would have been risky, and there is always a chance of the next northbound train arriving from Morden.

 

[TUC]

I do find it intriguing to see South Easterners here who think that going from one part of London to another is being over-carried a long way.

 

[Czesziafan]

March 1974. Travelling back to boarding school (a sort of juvenile penal colony modelled on a Soviet Gulag and run by a Stalin lookalike) at Coventry on the 17.40 Euston to Shrewsbury: fell asleep shortly after passing Watford and woke up to an empty train with the distinctive sound of a 47 up front. I had missed New Street and Wolverhampton and we were approaching Wellington. Did I have some explaining to do to angry staff when I finally showed up at the camp gate at 00.20!

 

[rogercov]

A few years ago I arrived at Euston fairly late in the evening and was walking across the concourse when a guy came up and asked me the way to "Piccadilly Gardens". My first reaction was to ask if he meant "Piccadilly Circus", but this was not the case. I said "Piccadilly Gardens is in Manchester" and he replied "that's right". When I pointed out that he was at London Euston, he looked very confused.

It turned out that he had come from Stoke-on-Trent and had gone in the wrong direction. I'm guessing that he might have had a few drinks (but not obviously so), and may have spent the journey asleep. I was a bit sorry for him and I never knew what happened to him. I'm guessing he caught the first train back to Manchester the following morning.

 

[DerekC]

Back in the 70s sometime I was on the last train from Kings Cross to Newcastle, getting off at Darlington (can't remember why). At York a drunk, very confused and very Glaswegian squaddie fell into the compartment and poured out his troubles. He had been on home leave and had to get back to barracks (Catterick) by 06:00, as I remember. He had gone to sleep an the way south and overshot Darlington. Somewhere about Northallerton he went to sleep again.

He would probably have ended up in the sidings at Newcastle, but I woke him up and we both piled off at Darlington. There was no army transport and the taxis wanted more cash than he had on him, so he got in my car (was a bit worried he might throw up) and off we went. By Catterlck, which wasn't too far off my way home, he had gone to sleep again and when woken up couldn't remember which barracks he was at - so I took him to the guard post at the first one we came to and handed him over. They were very friendly and told me not to worry - they would lock him up for the night and as long as he was on Her Majesty's property at 06:00 he wouldn't be AWOL, even if at the wrong barracks!

 

[nicolaboo]

Coming home from the Skirl 'O the Pipes III tour, I fell asleep on the nightly 1S19 coming out of Birmingham NS. I should have changed for the Euston - Picc, at Stafford; but was awoken by the ticket collector… as we left Carstairs!
So I ended up doing extra journey's consisting of Stafford to Edi, Edi to Carstairs to Carlisle to Preston to Vic. Good job I'd already booked the following day off as a rest.

 

[NWPTrigger]

On a stag weekend to Newcastle a few years ago we left a sleeping, intoxicated friend onboard he ended up being woken up in Edinburgh.

 

[Jamesrob637]

I do find it intriguing to see South Easterners here who think that going from one part of London to another is being over-carried a long way.

The same South-Easterners who think 3 pints is a lot on a Saturday night

 

[AC47461]

Back when the European from Harwich to Scotland was diverted to run via the GEML, it stopped at Shenfield, then next at Watford Junction after going round the North London line. The Shenfield stop was around 0830 and of course to your average punter it looked very much like a Norwich-Liverpool Street service. I observed several people dive across the platform onto it from my Southend Vic-Liverpool St on more than one occasion, thinking they would get a quicker run to London, and indeed on the one time I used it to visit my then Girlfriend in Milton Keynes someone did it then.

Visiting the same GF, I normally used the then (this is 1987) only intercity service to run via the Northampton loop. This was one of the pick up only services at Watford and on one occasion I caught this train when there were high winds and a 50mph speed restriction. Two young lads jumped on proclaiming they could just jump off at Watford, only the stop was cancelled to reduce the delay and they had a panicked ride to MK, although the guard was good with them he did explain they should not have been on the train to start with.

In the early 80s I was on a railtour with what is now the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel in Suffolk. They had hired a Class 105 DMU to go to Didcot Railway Centre, via a thrash up the MML, then Bedford - Bletchley - Oxford - Didcot. All the seats were sold out but as we left Shenfield where my Dad and I picked the train up, two guys didn't have seats. Turns out, despite clear announcements (I remember them distinctly) and an odd looking train, to ladies decided it was the London train and had got on. After much fussing, they were eventually deposited at Cricklewood....

I've only slept past my home stop once, and it was just one stop. I woke as the train left my stop at Rayleigh, but thought I'd be OK as I should get to the next one just before the last train up was due. Except we were running about 5mins late and the last up was already pulling out as we arrived. There was no cab rank at Hockley then, but there was still a member of staff on duty back then and he took pity on me and got Rayleigh to send one.

 

[BayPaul]

Can anybody beat this for relativity?
Has anybody only intended to travel 1-2 Tube/overseas metro stops and ended up 20 miles/40 kilometres away?

Not quite the same, but I boarded a train at Luton Airport Parkway (my local station at the time), heading for Gatwick to catch a plane. It was only when I was passing through Farringdon that I looked at my boarding pass, and realised my flight left from Luton... So about a 60 mile round trip, when I should have gone exactly zero!

 

[NorthKent1989]

A few years ago around 2014, I was coming very late at night I had to get to Balham from Victoria......except not only did I get the wrong train but I ended up in East Grinstead as I had passed out drunk, entirely my fault, it wouldn’t have been as bad had it been East Croydon though

A kind guard gave me the number to a local taxi service which I called, he came ten mins later, only when we were passing through Caterham I think it was I had to get out as I felt sick, turned out I wasn’t but I needed the air, but the taxi driver understandably didn’t want to go further and drove back to East Grinstead, he gave me my money back but I had to call another cab to take me to Balham, I got home at 3:30am and vowed to never drink again, a Vow I have yet to start.

 

[TC7]

I was on a train down to Hastings from Charing X but due to engineering works the train went through Catford Bridge and Beckenham Junction before re-joining the normal route at Sevenoaks. Had a poor lad come up to me asking how long until the train got to Hayes. Poor lad had seen the train go his normal route then it had suddenly turned off and started going through Bromley South etc. Worst still once we got to Sevenoaks and we found out that there was a lineside fire at Bickley and there were no trains north until further notice, so god knows what time he eventually got to Hayes

Had another one when I got an evening XC train from Coventry to Manchester, guy woke up at Stockport asking when the train arrived at Winchester, so he got a nasty surprise, not sure if there was another train that far south for the rest of the day

 

[fishquinn]

Just remembered the time a while back when I was travelling on an evening XC from Berwick to Edinburgh (one that arrives at about 21:10). Somewhere around Musselburgh (about 5-10 mins from Waverley) I had a passenger come up to me and ask if we were nearly at Cheltenham. Turns out there'd been a bit of confusion with platforming at Leeds and she'd managed to board the 18:08 Edinburgh instead of the 18:11 Plymouth and had just been relying on her phone for arrival time at Cheltenham (booked for 20:52 hence the coming to me at about 21:00). I took her to see the guard and explained the situation but at that time of night in Edinburgh the only southbound left was the sleeper and the next Cheltenham train wasn't til 6am the next morning. With more time left we might have been able to figure out something better but we were soon pulling into Edinburgh so it was a case of telling her to speak to station staff and the guard on the sleeper or to find a hotel for the night.

 

[lewisf]

A friend of mine fell asleep on the Thalys from Amsterdam, intending to change at Brussels for the Eurostar but instead ending up in Paris!

 

[adamedwards]

The famous family story is of my grandparents with my Mum and brother travelling across Germany by train. Grandad went to the buffet car and went off with tickets and passports towards Mannheim whilst Granny and kids headed elsewhere. Granny could only manage "Mein Mann ist in Mannheim" to the guard, but somehow Grandad got back to them.

 

[Parham Wood]

Not the longest over carry and maybe not an over carry at all. Two foreign tourists boarded at Paddington and got carried to Oxford. Shame that they wanted to go to Oxford Circus! True story.

 

[Beebman]

I remember one day around lunchtime during the 2012 Olympics I was on the eastbound Circle/District platform at Embankment when a small group of foreign tourists (who I thought might have been from a Latin American country) asked me how to get to St James's Park so I directed them over to the westbound side. It was the day of 'Super Saturday', August 4th, and a day or two later a thought struck me which led me to check the football fixtures for that day - and at 17:00 Brazil played Honduras in a quarter-final match at St James's Park Newcastle! Were those people from one of those countries and were they actually trying to get to Kings Cross for a train north? They'd left it a bit late if they were, so did they think that the game was being held in London, and as there was a station on the Tube map called St James's Park did they think it was being played there?

 

[Lampshade]

I went to see Liverpool v Blackburn Rovers at Anfield a few years ago, after the match on the train from Sandhills up to Ormskirk there was a Rovers fan who was clearly not familiar with the area, he asked me if the train was going to Ormskirk and whether he could change there for Preston. As there is/was no Sunday service between Ormskirk and Preston, I told him "Ahh, not on a Sunday, you need to go back down to Central and go from Lime Street" as we were pulling into Kirkdale, there was no time to try and explain things better - he looked somewhat unconvinced but he bailed at Kirkdale.

To this day I wonder if he made it.

 

[Ediswan]

I was once on a confused southbound Victoria Line train which was making "The next station is ..." annoucements for a northbound service. Most people were ignoring the problem. But some Americans who had just boarded were looking worried and needed re-assuring.

 

[lord rathmore]

My brother and I were on a Manc Piccadilly - Euston. 2 young women had got on late with enormous suitcases, but when the guard saw their tickets he told them it didn't stop at Stoke, but they could get out at Stockport, go back to Manchester and they'd be able to get the next Stoke service, result was total panic. We saw them rush out at Stockport and jump in a taxi.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

My brother and I were on a Manc Piccadilly - Euston. 2 young women had got on late with enormous suitcases, but when the guard saw their tickets he told them it didn't stop at Stoke, but they could get out at Stockport, go back to Manchester and they'd be able to get the next Stoke service, result was total panic. We saw them rush out at Stockport and jump in a taxi.

Amazing how large the suitcases are that some folk try to bring aboard Piccadilly - Euston trains.

Surprised though that there wouldn't have been some following Stockport- >Stoke-on-Trent service and there being any need to travel back to Manchester.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Amazing how large the suitcases are that some folk try to bring aboard Piccadilly - Euston trains.

Surprised though that there wouldn't have been some following Stockport- >Stoke-on-Trent service and there being any need to travel back to Manchester.

Especially seeing as Stockport is a same-platform change most of the time!

 

[vlad]

I was once on a confused southbound Victoria Line train which was making "The next station is ..." annoucements for a northbound service. Most people were ignoring the problem. But some Americans who had just boarded were looking worried and needed re-assuring.

A couple of years ago I was travelling from London to Richmond on a Hounslow Loop service. A woman got on somewhere like Clapham Junction, where presumably the train was advertised as going to Hounslow. Unfortunately the automated announcement said the train was for London Waterloo, so she started panicking....

 

[JetStream]

Worst I've seen is someone get on at Cardiff, and at Nantwich (at almost midnight...) ask when the train would be arriving at Paddington...

 

[778]

Last year I was intending to get off at Waltham Cross, but I the doors would not open. They would not open at the next station (Cheshunt), but I managed to get off at Broxbourne (held the button for a bit longer, and the doors opened). I had to catch the next train back to Waltham Cross.

Do you have to hold down the black buttons on a 317, for the doors to open?

 

[baz962]

A colleague of my cousin ended up stranded in Bedford late at night. He had boarded a southbound Thameslink service at Blackfriars, due to alight at East Croydon. He had slept all the way to Brighton and back north to Bedford!

Why stranded . Thameslink are 24 hour's from Bedford , albeit a four hour ish gap Saturday into Sunday.

 

[185143]

Last year I was intending to get off at Waltham Cross, but I the doors would not open. They would not open at the next station (Cheshunt), but I managed to get off at Broxbourne (held the button for a bit longer, and the doors opened). I had to catch the next train back to Waltham Cross.

Do you have to hold down the black buttons on a 317, for the doors to open?

I believe so

 

[Essan]

Just remembered the time a while back when I was travelling on an evening XC from Berwick to Edinburgh (one that arrives at about 21:10). Somewhere around Musselburgh (about 5-10 mins from Waverley) I had a passenger come up to me and ask if we were nearly at Cheltenham. Turns out there'd been a bit of confusion with platforming at Leeds and she'd managed to board the 18:08 Edinburgh instead of the 18:11 Plymouth and had just been relying on her phone for arrival time at Cheltenham (booked for 20:52 hence the coming to me at about 21:00).

I can't help thinking that in a few of these cases - especially where someone has boarded an intercity train and ended up going in the wrong direction - that a little basic knowledge of our country's geography would have at least made them realise their mistake much earlier. In this case, for example, I can perhaps understand that arriving in York she may have thought the train was taking a slightly roundabout route down the east coast mainline, but by Darlington or Durham? Surely she ought have twigged by then? And were there no annoucements made at any time?


Anyway, I have very much enjoyed reading this thread even if with a strong sense of schadenfreude!

 

[PG]

And were there no annoucements made at any time?

• Headphones too loud?
• Announcements inaudible?
• Tuned out the announcements after hearing See it, Say it, Sorted for the umpteenth time?

a little basic knowledge of our country's geography

That's like common sense to some people - not as common as it ought to be...

 

[1955LR]

Those who perpetually use satnavs have little idea of the geography of the country.