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

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Mcr Warrior

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Those who perpetually use satnavs have little idea of the geography of the country.
Ain't that the truth, although they are nevertheless quite useful in providing an approximate time of arrival at any given destination whilst en route.
 
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KeithMcC

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I have very little need for a satnav to get me to the town I want, what they are useful for is finding the actual street in that town or city. Some ex colleagues in Germany on business set their satnav for Frankfurt and set off for their flight, but they had actually picked Frankfurt Oder which is a very long way off route! Not sure how far they gor before they noticed they were going in totally the wrong direction.
 

AlastairFraser

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Woke up a rather knackered passenger arriving into Man Picc the other day at 11pm, he had come from London and wanted to know when we were arriving in Birmingham :D.I looked at the next services on NRE for him, told him the furthest south he could get that night would be Crewe, then expensive taxi from there. He swore and went to find a railway representative at Man Picc.
 

73128

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Could a train from Kingston access the fast line at New Malden?
yes, there used to an up local to up main crossover in the platform - so with additional shielding around the wrong side conductor rails) until, i would guess, the 1970s (or perhaps slightly later).
 

MotCO

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yes, there used to an up local to up main crossover in the platform - so with additional shielding around the wrong side conductor rails) until, i would guess, the 1970s (or perhaps slightly later).

I didn't notice it in the mid 70's - but then again, I may not have been looking!
 
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I haven't been through the replies - are we counting people who got on the wrong train?

Commuting from Birmingham to Wolverhampton on the local stopper, I once woke a young lady up as I left the train.

Coat over her lap, headphones in, you know the type. Fast asleep.

Her first words to me:

"Oh, thank you, are we in London already?!"

For my own part, it's not that far I guess, but I did once fall asleep coming back from Euston to Lichfield late at night, and ended up in Stafford... I decided against calling my folks out to rescue me, and instead kipped on a mate's floor who was at Uni there and went back the next day.

My girlfriend went out with a mate of hers in Birmingham once and, on the return, got off at Wolves leaving her mate to get off at Penkridge. Between Wolves and Penkridge she fell asleep again, despite us calling her, and when we eventually got through to her she was struggling to navigate Crewe station in a drunken stupor. I can't navigate Crewe when I'm stone cold sober!
 
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Mcr Warrior

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I haven't been through the replies - are we counting people who got on the wrong train?
Quite a few on this thread seem to have.

Depends what's meant by "carried beyond their intended stop".

To me that suggests that the train does indeed normally stop at the intended stop and the passenger has failed to get off the train (for whatever reason, maybe they've fallen asleep), or that the train was originally booked to call at the intended station and gets diverted en route, or maybe it's a train that passes through the intended station but doesn't then stop (because it's not booked to stop or because control has decided that some stations should be skip-stopped to "recover the timetable").

A passenger jumping on a different train and travelling in completely the wrong direction doesn't seem to be what the OP was originally after.
 

Fawkes Cat

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A passenger jumping on a different train and travelling in completely the wrong direction doesn't seem to be what the OP was originally after.
428 posts in is probably a little late to be trying to argue what precisely the OP meant.
 

ctrh136

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The worst one I've ever done is ending up at Gatwick Airport when I was taking a late night Thameslink train from Blackfriars and was supposed to get off at Purley - I managed to sleep through my alarm and ended up waking up just as we left Horley! I was lucky there were engineering works so the train was only going as far as Three Bridges rather than Brighton as it usually does.
I remember when I was going on holiday with someone from Gatwick Airport - they took the train from East Croydon but accidentally ended up on the old Brighton Express service that didn't stop at Gatwick - so he had to make his way back up from Brighton. Luckily we had enough time in hand to make the flight.
 

Esker-pades

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Worst one I saw is someone who wanted Altnabreac but didn't realise it was a request stop. When the train sailed through, she was clearly miffed. Staff decided that the best thing to do was for her to stay on the train through to Wick and they'd drop her off on the return journey to Inverness. Her journey was extended by nearly 4 hours.
 

puffing billy

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Maybe not the furthest but possibly the longest time. In the early 70s on a Saturday night, caught the last train from Victoria to Canterbury only to be woken up by the guard at Dover Marine (as was). Very disconcerting to wake up that close to the sea. It was October when the clocks changed so I spent an extra hour in Dover that night (I was a penniless student and couldn't afford the taxi fare to get back any quicker).
 

northernbelle

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Someone wanting Cardiff and boarding the 1233 Reading - Penzance back in the day - first stop Exeter St Davids.

People regularly board first stop Taunton services when requiring Newbury or somewhere towards Bristol...
 

Class800

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I've 'only' made two such errors ever:

Overcarried to Abbey Wood from Woolwich Arsenal when fell asleep on way back from night out (was in the day when many trains did not call at Plumstead)

Got on at East Croydon wanting London Bridge, wrong direction (poor platform information?), first stop Gatwick.

Not the same thing but at East Croydon I got the slow via Crystal Palace to London Bridge rather than the fast by mistake - lack of clear information
 

D6130

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I've never had the courage to put this in writing before, but I now have my wife's official permission, so here goes: It's not by any means the furthest overcarrying that I've ever known, so therefore, strictly-speaking, probably OT, but it's quite amusing anyway. Several years ago, my wife was travelling on her own to our house in Italy to do some work before I joined her about a week later. She had travelled from Yorkshire on the first train in the morning (before 06 00), taken the Eurostar to Paris and then the afternoon Milano-bound TGV to Bardonecchia, where she had booked into a small hotel for the night, before travelling on to Tuscany the following day. Hearing the announcement that the train was approaching Bardonecchia, by which time it was dark outside, she gathered up her luggage and moved to the door vestibule. She had been seated in the last carriage and when the train came to a stand she couldn't see anything out of the small window in the door, so she assumed that the train had stopped on a signal outside of the station. After a couple of minutes, the train moved off again and - to her horror - she saw the station buildings, illuminated platforms and nameboards gliding past as the train rapidly gathered speed out of the station. The door at which she had been standing had been at the very end of the platform, with no visible signs of where she was. In a bit of a panic, she rushed off to find the train manager, who advised her to alight at the next stop, Oulx, about ten minutes further on, where she would be able to catch a local service back to Bardonecchia after a few minutes' wait. The conductor on the local train was very helpful and didn't charge her an excess fare and she arrived at the hotel about forty minutes later than planned. However, to complicate matters even further, there was a strike by FS traincrew in the Piemonte region the following day and on enquiring at Bardonecchia station, she was assured that the train on which she was booked onwards to Milano (the early morning TGV from Paris) would not be running beyond Modane. Therefore she booked an extra night at the hotel and decided to go for a walk in the mountains above the town to pass the time. While on the walk, she spotted her TGV departing from the station dead on time! Luckily she was allowed to travel on the same train the following day without payment of any additional fare.
 

GtNortherner

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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’ve seen several people almost get caught out this way on 317s, and I almost have been myself at least once! I always found that if you just pressed the button and quickly released it, you just got a “psst” sound and not much movement from the doors... the trick seemed to me to be to hold the button until you actually saw the doors move.

I’ve only had one accidental overcarry myself - fell asleep on the last GN service out of Kings Cross (which at the time seemed to stop everywhere), and woke up just as it was pulling into its destination of Peterborough at just after 3am - mercifully there wasn’t a long wait for the first Southbound of the new day...
 

Jim-s

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I could probably fill a page on this thread with journeys I have fell asleep on myself, many a short trip on the geml that turned into a long one, couple of best being Chelmsford to witham one night that ended up as overnight stay in Norwich where I eventualy woke up,
another good one was traveling from witham to Braintree and ending up in London Liverpool st, that ended up as a night on a bench too

Many a journey on the central line waking up going in the opposite direction and realising that I had passed my destination twice
 

CBlue

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My brother was travelling to Liverpool aboard a Virgin West Coast service, and as they approached Crewe was asked by the couple sat opposite him who had also boarded at Euston "When do we get to Leeds?"

Despite his explanation that it was a Liverpool service they were adament they were on the correct train.
 

Spartacus

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A little off topic but that reminds me of a short film I saw on tv, must be 30 years ago now. The basic premise is a girl about 20 boards a train at the last second then makes the usual enquiry about the destination. Middle age gent opposite her confirms she's ok for said station. A few minutes pass before he confesses he's an habitual liar and she's on the wrong train. She goes barmy while he stays calm, before eventually apologising, explaining that he was only trying to pass the time, she's on the right train, just as they arrive into her station. She gets out, swearing at the man with a well timed tone from the driver, before noticing she's at the wrong station after all, with appropriate curse/tone as the train disappears! It really stuck with me for some reason, think it's called Train to Lymington, but was filmed on the Chiltern.
 
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allotments

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recently found a fellow passenger expecting to alight at Stafford but next stop was Euston

sequence of trains had been changed last moment at Crewe so boarded wrong train
 

adamedwards

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Not strictly a wrong train, but many years ago I sat on a 317 going no where from Kings Cross Platform 8. All lines blocked due to something further up the line. After about an hour of going nowhere a man ran up the platform and threw himself onto the train clearly thinking he'd just caught the train an hour later and asked "Is this the fast train to XXX?" Entire carriage laughed at him which he was somewhat nonplussed by!
 

MadMac

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Where to begin.....

Fellow I worked with many moons ago was the son of a driver and related this tale of woe. Firstly, some background: the station now known as Lochwinnoch (between Paisley and Kilwinning) was previously known as Lochside, and had few services stopping there, one of which was the last Glasgow-Ayr DMU of the day. Aboard the train one night was a chap in a somewhat “tired and emotional state” (only readers of a certain age will get that one) and the guard, in an effort to be helpful, enquired where the fellow was going, to which he responded “Lochside”. The guard duly made sure that he got off at Lochside. Unfortunately, the gentleman was actually hoping to get to the district of Lochside in Ayr.....

I was also told of a chap with a couple of suitcases who, about 15 minutes after leaving Glasgow Central, enquired of a fellow passenger “This is the London train, isn’t it?”. A rather odd question to ask on the Class 116 DMU forming the 17:22 Glasgow Central to West Calder as it struggled up the Bellshill line from Uddingston!

Oh, and as road travel has been mentioned, there was a report some years ago of a police traffic car happening across a car moving rather slowly late one night on the M25, and stopped it to enquire if they were having some difficulties. The occupants were an elderly couple trying to get to Newcastle - IIRC, the relevant exit(s) are/were only signed “The North”. Further discussion revealed that they were on their THIRD circuit and would have been arriving in Newcastle at about that time if they’d taken the M1!
 
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