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

[61653 HTAFC]

One of those anecdotal stories......
back in the 1970s some of the chaps I played rugby with told a tale that they'd got an unliked foreman at the aircraft factory they all worked at blind drunk on his stag night. Drove him to Taunton and bundled him naked onto the Scotland sleeper. Wasn't found until next day - his wedding day.
I know stories like this abound, but this had the aura of truth in that they named the victim and claimed to have carried out the act themselves

That sounds suspiciously similar to the plot of the British 1994 movie "Staggered" starring Martin Clunes...
IMDB link. Maybe they inspired the screenwriters?

 

[Wolfie]

I’ve had a lady confused as to why I was kicking her off the train at Holyhead. She’d got on at Shrewsbury and wanted Telford. She wondered why it was taking so long but assumed we were going a different way!!

Oops.... So she didn't notice all of the Welsh place names? How long for the next service the other way?

 

[trainophile]

Oops.... So she didn't notice all of the Welsh place names? How long for the next service the other way?

Thinking about this, I wonder if she didn't want to pay for a ticket to Holyhead so bought one to Telford and hoped no-one would call her bluff. Sounds like a good actress if she managed to look shocked at her destination!

 

[SoccerHQ]

Birmingham New Street to Bristol Temple Meads is double track whether routed via Camp Hill or University

From Kings Norton yeah.....

Would shave 5-10 off though if you could fly straight out New Street rather being stuck behind a stopper that's been delayed a few minutes at Five Ways or University. Camp Hill way you have to do the sharp right turn by the Blues ground at reduced speed (and sometimes have to wait a minute or two to cross the track given how busy the line is from international).

At least changing the departure time to xxx11 from xxx17 gives more breathing space from cross city line and 7-8 minute gap so the stopper is down by Bourneville by the time CX starts moving out of new street.

 

[Whistler40145]

From Kings Norton yeah.....

Would shave 5-10 off though if you could fly straight out New Street rather being stuck behind a stopper that's been delayed a few minutes at Five Ways or University. Camp Hill way you have to do the sharp right turn by the Blues ground at reduced speed (and sometimes have to wait a minute or two to cross the track given how busy the line is from international).

At least changing the departure time to xxx11 from xxx17 gives more breathing space from cross city line and 7-8 minute gap so the stopper is down by Bourneville by the time CX starts moving out of new street.

I sometimes wonder if there's capacity on the route via Kidderminster, except that would remove a stop at Worcestershire Parkway, but could include Worcester Shrub Hill as an alternative

 

[jtuk]

Someone getting on a Pendo at Euston pissed out of his mind assuming it'd stop at Milton Keynes, first stop Crewe

 

[father_jack]

Guard was a top bloke said it happened a lot, I showed him my ticket for Busby and he didn’t even charge me an excess fare. Result.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD SOMEONE ALREADY DISTRESSED OR DELAYED BE CHARGED UP FOR MAKING A GENUINE MISTAKE !!!

I know it's off topic but over the years I have had several refunds to do (and associated wars with those involved) where someone has been charged up for making a mistake and boarded the wrong train or been overcarried. Usually you find it's the guards who like the ticket commission who do it most. The system was that they still got the commission even if the new ticket or excess was refunded but nowadays it gets cancelled.

Around 30 years ago at Preston
One of the platform staff assisting a blind lady and her chocolate labrador to her seat. Took too long, guard blew his whistle and we were away. Next stop Euston.
I asked the guard later if an extra stop had been requested: it had been, and declined
I wonder if he got paid overtime? Or had pay deducted for not being on the job?

I posted on another thread recently an anecdote involving an assistance person at Bristol TM years back who always did his utmost to get overcarried !!! Plenty of Baths and Tauntons.

However there was a Wales and West/Wales and Borders 1109 daily service to Manchester via the Marches (Newport-Hereford-Shrewsbury etc), it was a very popular train despite what some in the industry say about through trains, a 2 car 158 often with suitcases stacked in front of the doors. Anyway the plan was hatched successfully and the train departs with himself on board- first stop Abergavenny, best part of an hour !!!!

Alas for him the signaller heard the radio chatter and stopped the train by signals at Filton Abbey Wood, much to the assistance bloke's disgust............

 

[Wolfie]

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD SOMEONE ALREADY DISTRESSED OR DELAYED BE CHARGED UP FOR MAKING A GENUINE MISTAKE !!!

I know it's off topic but over the years I have had several refunds to do (and associated wars with those involved) where someone has been charged up for making a mistake and boarded the wrong train or been overcarried. Usually you find it's the guards who like the ticket commission who do it most. The system was that they still got the commission even if the new ticket or excess was refunded but nowadays it gets cancelled.


I posted on another thread recently an anecdote involving an assistance person at Bristol TM years back who always did his utmost to get overcarried !!! Plenty of Baths and Tauntons.

However there was a Wales and West/Wales and Borders 1109 daily service to Manchester via the Marches (Newport-Hereford-Shrewsbury etc), it was a very popular train despite what some in the industry say about through trains, a 2 car 158 often with suitcases stacked in front of the doors. Anyway the plan was hatched successfully and the train departs with himself on board- first stop Abergavenny, best part of an hour !!!!

Alas for him the signaller heard the radio chatter and stopped the train by signals at Filton Abbey Wood, much to the assistance bloke's disgust............

Any particular reason this guy wanted to do that? To avoid working?

 

[trainophile]

I didn't know assistance staff travelled on the trains, I thought they were based at stations to help passengers board and alight. However that might be the point of the story - if he helped them to their seat and then 'accidentally' didn't leave the train quickly enough?

 

[sw1ller]

Thinking about this, I wonder if she didn't want to pay for a ticket to Holyhead so bought one to Telford and hoped no-one would call her bluff. Sounds like a good actress if she managed to look shocked at her destination!

That’s very possible but to be fair, she got back on the same train with me and we left 40 minutes later. Still makes me chuckle to think about it.

 

[blakey1152]

Furthest I've been taken past my intended stop was about 3 years ago on a Fathers day trip to Walton-on-the-Naze. The outbound trip was flawless unfortunately, the return trip was a bit of a disaster...
Something had happened on the stretch between Thorpe-Le-Soken and Walton-on-the-Naze so this part was replaced by replacement bus, As the bus arrived at Thorpe-Le-Soken the next London bound service had left (Surprisingly they never held up the train) - The next train to London was then delayed and terminated at Colchester and we wanted to alight at Stratford. We were told on board that the train arriving at one of the platforms was the stopping service to London and would call at Stratford.
We went over there and the dot matrix display implied that it wasn't stopping there however station staff then assured me that because of the delays it will be stopping at Stratford so we got on board.
Needless to say, the train sailed through Stratford and straight into Liverpool Street.

All credit to Greater Anglia who after I put in a complaint about the entire fiasco refunded me for the entire trip.

 

[father_jack]

Any particular reason this guy wanted to do that? To avoid working?

 

[Wolfie]

Furthest I've been taken past my intended stop was about 3 years ago on a Fathers day trip to Walton-on-the-Naze. The outbound trip was flawless unfortunately, the return trip was a bit of a disaster...
Something had happened on the stretch between Thorpe-Le-Soken and Walton-on-the-Naze so this part was replaced by replacement bus, As the bus arrived at Thorpe-Le-Soken the next London bound service had left (Surprisingly they never held up the train) - The next train to London was then delayed and terminated at Colchester and we wanted to alight at Stratford. We were told on board that the train arriving at one of the platforms was the stopping service to London and would call at Stratford.
We went over there and the dot matrix display implied that it wasn't stopping there however station staff then assured me that because of the delays it will be stopping at Stratford so we got on board.
Needless to say, the train sailed through Stratford and straight into Liverpool Street.

All credit to Greater Anglia who after I put in a complaint about the entire fiasco refunded me for the entire trip.

You'd have probably been entitled to a full delay-repay refund.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

In the early 2000's when Pendolinos were new I fell asleep on one if my first 390 rides to Euston, and genuinely got overcarried to Wembley Depot! Was woken up by two drivers who were changing ends in the reverse siding by Wembley Central.

They were fine with it and said its been done a couple of times before at night, but this was early evening, so instead of putting me in a taxi back as they've done before, they put me in the DVT (class 90 set) that they were taking from Wembley to Euston!

They were great crew, and rather annoyed at the platform staff for not checking the train was empty!

 

[Requeststop]

I was wondering if she was deaf and missed the constant calling of each and every station on the route from Shrewsbury to Holyhead.

 

[sw1ller]

I was wondering if she was deaf and missed the constant calling of each and every station on the route from Shrewsbury to Holyhead.

It’s entirely possible the auto announcer was not on or the PA broken. Added to the fact she probably had earphones in and in a world of her own. She had a nice day out anyway, some nice scenery near Chirk and after Abergele. Haha.

 

[GW43125]

An exceedingly tired and jet-lagged me once managed to forget a diversion was happening (in my defense, the guard made a mistake, and said over the PA we were going to Tonbridge), and only when we left Ashford did I realise we were heading for Maidstone and not Tonbridge (I was travelling with a friend who wanted to go to Redhill). In the end an incredibly apologetic me and rather confused guard let us stay on to Waterloo East and try that way. Not that I'm complaining, as I got home half an hour quicker!

There was also one on the King's Cross programme where one of the assistance people ended up on a run to Grantham and back!

There's also plenty of stories of people boarding the non-stop New Street-London wanting Coventry.

 

[LMS 4F]

On a Yorkshire Coastliner bus from Thornton le Dale to Leeds, I was getting off at York, as we sped along the A64 a woman asked me when we would arrive in Whitby.
I explained we were going the other way and due to the time there would not be any Whitby buses for the rest of the day.
My wife and I persuaded her to get off with us in York
and we ran her back to where she was staying.
A mistake easily made as the stop she got on on Pickering there would have been a Whitby bus 15 minutes later.

 

[EllieAquitrain]

Not a train, but about five years ago I was on the 102 bus in North London, going home very late from school in Edmonton. Fell asleep, missed my stop in Muswell Hill, and woke up at Golder's Green, an hour down the line, and couldn't run for the bus back in the direction I'd come from just across the road as I had a heavy instrument case!

 

[kevconnor]

By no means anywhere close to the furthest over carry the below link, at 13:50, have some overcarries on the Northern line at Morden on the last services of the night. Worth a watch for what some staff must need to go through to wake up some particularly sleepy passengers.

The Tube (2012) - 1x01 - Weekend - video Dailymotion

Watch The Tube (2012) - 1x01 - Weekend - The Tube BBC Series on Dailymotion

www.dailymotion.com

 

[Taunton]

I seem to have loads.

Colleague in the 1980s left me and others in a London bar to get last dmu of the day home from Marylebone to Gerrards Cross. Fell asleep, woke up to find the old Derby Suburban unit powering through the black nothingness, way after arrival time. Brakes came on, he got ready for wherever it was ... Bicester North. Legged it to the exit where, by now about 1am, there was one taxi. Cost him the best part of £100 back up the M40, even then, to get back.

But the next day in the office, describing his brilliant heroic recovery, I showed him the timetable. Still single line then, right alongside them at Bicester was the last southbound, in the loop, waiting to cross. And due to stop at Gerrards Cross a while later.

Meanwhile, 1970s Edinburgh-Glasgow 2x27 push pull days. These always left Waverley platform 14, while across the platform, a bit hidden on the left, was the following Met-Cam stopper to Stirling. On the hour didn't even stop at Falkirk. Off we go. Approaching Linlithgow at about 90mph-plus, passenger gets up, languidly puts coat on, and has the moment of revelation that we are not going to stop there. Guard came to advise, that the best thing was to stay on in Glasgow, go all the way back to Edinburgh, blasting through Linlithgow yet again, and start again.

 

[VauxhallandI]

The furthest I have done is Cambridge instead of Cheshunt but it was the last train so I ended up paying well over the odds for a Travelodge which I got very little use of as I had to get up very early to get to work again in London.

Not pleased with myself!

 

[Ian Hardy]

I've been on many trains from Birmingham New Street to Exeter St Davids (via Bristol Temple Meads) and none have gone via Camp Hill!

The XC trains from Manchester to the South West (mainly those terminating at Temple Meads) go via Camp Hill to avoid reversing in New Street, whereas the XC trains from the North East & Scotland via Derby run via Five Ways as to go via Camp Hill they would need to reverse in New Street.

 

[RSimons]

A school friend in the 1960s caught a train from Manchester to Stockport, only to find it was non-stop to Euston. He came back via St Pancras and the old Midland line so had a good round trip, all in the day time. As he was a railway enthusiast, we never really believed it was by accident.

 

[LondonExile]

Back when I was a student, a few of us were out drinking in Newcastle and planned on getting the last train back to Durham which was gone 1:30am getting you home for 2am ish.

We'd misjudged the time, and as we got into the station it was about to leave and we started sprinting for it. Only one of us managed to catch it (and it wasn't me!) At the time there weren't any Nightbuses, so we split a £50 taxi between us and thought we'd had a very bad end to the night (especially on a student's budget!)

Our speedy friend wasn't around in the morning, so being slightly worried we tried to call him to find out where he was. It turns out he'd fallen asleep as soon as the train pulled out of Newcastle and got woken up around 5:30 at Manchester Airport! Our taxi fare ended up a bargain compared to his ticket back to Durham, and we at least got some sleep that night!

 

[Fyldeboy]

Shorter than some over-carries but in 2019 a friend and I travelled from Bristol TM via PW to Swansea. What a day for her to have forgotten her mobile!
XC Voyager pulls into Bristol PW, absolutely heaving. She gets off but before I know anything, doors closed and we're pulling out of Station.
Being ex-traincrew, not over-worried - find the guard who arranges for an announcement for friend at BPW and scribbles a note for the guard on the next train so I can get back from Cheltenham Spa.

 

[northrob]

So many tales of people either falling asleep or catching completely the wrong train and thus sailing straight through your intended station or heading off in complete the wrong direction. However, have any of you been over-carried due to the train not stopping at its final stop? I have...

Some time back, the only train over the Halton Curve was an early morning train from Chester to Runcorn. After travelling across the previous night, there I was bright and early to catch this once a week service. I got on the rear carriage of the 2-car train and could see the driver (with his back to me) and guard chatting away in the front carriage before departure. Just before departure, they head into their respective cabs, the guard acknowledges me as he passes, closes the doors and away we go.

A little bit later, having traversed the Halton Curve and joined the main line, I start getting ready to leave the train when I realise that we’re appear to be accelerating instead of coasting into Runcorn station. I just put it down to the fact that the distance between Halton Junction & Runcorn is further than I thought...

Five seconds later, we fly through the platform at Runcorn as at the same time, the guard comes running out the rear cab apologising profusely saying that obviously the driver doesn’t know that I’m on the train. He explains that the train is now on its way to the depot, but will have to reverse at a station en route and so will drop me off there to catch a train back and explain to the guard what has happened (although, as I was on a rover ticket, it actually didn’t make much difference to me).

We roll through the station where the train will reverse and stop at far end of the platform. The guard tells me to get off at the very front of the train. A very sheepish driver appears from cab and also apologises. We all laugh it off as an unusual story to tell one day as I disembark and start to think where I’m heading next – they were lucky that it was just someone on a rover who had flexible plans and not someone who had a more time critical issue...

Oh and a more mundane one. Back in the 1990s, I raced out of the ticket office in York to jump straight onto the waiting train to London Kings Cross think that it would stop at Doncaster as only a few didn’t stop there after the morning peak. Yeah, it turned out to one of the few that didn’t stop – I guess that I was lucky that I only ended up at Grantham and not London...

 

[91103eastcoast]

Not as extreme as some of the other examples, but I have known a friend be overcarried from Bottesford to Grantham when travelling from Nottingham.
He assured me that the doors in the train didn’t open at Bottesford. A few weeks later I travelled somewhere with him and an EMT 158 turned up. he then remarks to me “you want to watch these, the doors don’t open when you want to get off”. At the terminus he tried to open the door using the vestibule to saloon button, not the button in the vestibule to open the external door, making it obvious that his previous overcarry was a result of him being unable to use a train door, not a train defect.

 

[mjmason1996]

Got a couple to add, although they wont be breaking any records set on this thread!

When I was at Uni in Liverpool, a mate of mine had to get a train to St. Helens to visit a technical college there as part of his research. Not terribly versed in train travel, instead of the local Wigan service, he hops on the virgin service to Euston! Also not familiar with the route, he breezes straight through Runcorn and Crewe on it before he suspected something was up! I think it was rugby station he eventually was able to get off and head back up north!

The second one was me! I fell asleep on the train during the short hop from Stamford to Peterborough and ended up in Cambridge with the guard waking me up! and if that isn't enough, there was no more trains direct to Peterborough that evening so had to go via Hitchin with an hour change, making a 12 minute journey into a nearly 3-hour one!

 

[185143]

So many tales of people either falling asleep or catching completely the wrong train and thus sailing straight through your intended station or heading off in complete the wrong direction. However, have any of you been over-carried due to the train not stopping at its final stop? I have...

Some time back, the only train over the Halton Curve was an early morning train from Chester to Runcorn. After travelling across the previous night, there I was bright and early to catch this once a week service. I got on the rear carriage of the 2-car train and could see the driver (with his back to me) and guard chatting away in the front carriage before departure. Just before departure, they head into their respective cabs, the guard acknowledges me as he passes, closes the doors and away we go.

A little bit later, having traversed the Halton Curve and joined the main line, I start getting ready to leave the train when I realise that we’re appear to be accelerating instead of coasting into Runcorn station. I just put it down to the fact that the distance between Halton Junction & Runcorn is further than I thought...

Five seconds later, we fly through the platform at Runcorn as at the same time, the guard comes running out the rear cab apologising profusely saying that obviously the driver doesn’t know that I’m on the train. He explains that the train is now on its way to the depot, but will have to reverse at a station en route and so will drop me off there to catch a train back and explain to the guard what has happened (although, as I was on a rover ticket, it actually didn’t make much difference to me).

We roll through the station where the train will reverse and stop at far end of the platform. The guard tells me to get off at the very front of the train. A very sheepish driver appears from cab and also apologises. We all laugh it off as an unusual story to tell one day as I disembark and start to think where I’m heading next – they were lucky that it was just someone on a rover who had flexible plans and not someone who had a more time critical issue...

Oh and a more mundane one. Back in the 1990s, I raced out of the ticket office in York to jump straight onto the waiting train to London Kings Cross think that it would stop at Doncaster as only a few didn’t stop there after the morning peak. Yeah, it turned out to one of the few that didn’t stop – I guess that I was lucky that I only ended up at Grantham and not London...

I have on a bus. Jumped on a Arriva bus in Southport on a Saveaway to kill a bit of time. Crossens was the destination.

I had no idea, and still don't know, where Crossens is. We obviously got there and some point and rather than returning in service, the bus went empty to depot. It was a Sunday afternoon and not especially busy so I wasn't concerned about the lack of passengers. After passing 3 or 4 pedestrian signs for Crossens pointing in the other direction with increasing distances I started to twig something wasn't right.

Google Maps showed us firmly back in Southport, round the corner from the Arriva depot. We then turned into the depot. The driver got a bit of a surprise when I pressed the bell!

I've ended up in Gillmoss depot as well. Bus had a fault on it and was being swapped. The driver thought the only people on the bus were the two people who just alighted, not knowing I was upstairs so drove off and before I knew we were no longer bound for Kirkby, we turned into the depot.