Trivia: Stations where passengers headed for a completely different destination end up on a regular basis

[Hassocks5489]

I have in my collection a recent travel ticket from Manchester to Worle, plus an accompanying Excess ticket to Wool. The passenger apparently wanted to go to Wool but the clerk misheard!

 

[AM9]

As I said before, I would be totally on board with London Liverpool Street being renamed London Broadgate or London Bishopsgate.

How about Lime St station being renamed Liverpool St Georges?

 

[Francis]

We have Adlington (Lancs) and Adlington (Cheshire). Both have stations, but this is not a train story, but one day I was just walking from my house to the chippy in Adlington (Lancs) when a car drew up and a fairly posh lady asked me directions to Poynton. I realised that there is a Poynton only near Adlington (Cheshire), so I said she needed to drive back to the M61, go all the way round the M60 and follow the A523 for Macclesfield - she was about 60 miles out of her direction.

She obviously didn't want to believe me, and thought I was a wind-up merchant. She drove 20 yards further up the road, stopped and asked another passer by!

Maybe in the end she was convinced.......

 

[BeijingDave]

How about Lime St station being renamed Liverpool St Georges?

Why is it necessary to rename Lime Street though? Lime can't be confused with anywhere else. Except possibly Limehouse?

 

[mike57]

We have Adlington (Lancs) and Adlington (Cheshire). Both have stations

I wonder if there have ever been any services that call at both Adlingtons, I know that was why Seamer station was so named in the 1840s because Seamer is actually over a mile away, and that area is actually called Crossgates

 

[snowball]

I realised that there is a Poynton only near Adlington (Cheshire),

However, as I pointed out a few days ago in another thread, there are Chorleys near both Adlingtons, so you missed an opportunity for a further layer of confusion.

Similarly there's a Swinton and an Eccles in Greater Manchester, and a Swinton and an Eccles in the Scottish Borders.

 

[Spartacus]

I wonder if there have ever been any services that call at both Adlingtons, I know that was why Seamer station was so named in the 1840s because Seamer is actually over a mile away, and that area is actually called Crossgates

Given that before the railway all there was at Crossgates (N Riding) was a quarry and pub I doubt it was ever going to be called Crossgates station, but at the time of Seamer's opening Cross Gates had been closed for 5 years anyway, after George Hudson had leased the route then diverted traffic over his own line, which would be more lucrative, for him at least) and only reopened 5 years after Seamer opened after Hudson's fall from grace had begun.

 

[urbophile]

Just imagine how much worse it would be if Liverpools terminus was called "Liverpool London Street"

Fortunate it wasn't. It could easily have been London Road which is just round the corner.

 

[BeijingDave]

Fortunate it wasn't. It could easily have been London Road which is just round the corner.

Manchester Piccadilly was, of course, once called Manchester London Road.

 

[mike57]

Given that before the railway all there was at Crossgates (N Riding) was a quarry and pub I doubt it was ever going to be called Crossgates station, but at the time of Seamer's opening Cross Gates had been closed for 5 years anyway, after George Hudson had leased the route then diverted traffic over his own line, which would be more lucrative, for him at least) and only reopened 5 years after Seamer opened after Hudson's fall from grace had begun.

Wikipedia could do with an update then



I realise that any Wiki article is only as good as its contributers, and there are no references to back the statement up, I must admit that locally the name conflict with Cross Gates W Yorks is assumed to be the reason it was called Seamer

 

[Dinsdale]

This probably doesn't answer the question properly but I do wonder whether anyone has EVER turned up in Hampden Park (Eastbourne) wanting the football stadium in Scotland.

Presumably, this is why tickets have a destination of Hampden Park (Sussex) to avoid anyone mistakenly buying a ticket from say Glasgow Central to Hampden Park. (Although the anytime return fare of £451.40 might give them a clue).

 

[Spartacus]

Wikipedia could do with an update then

View attachment 113737

I realise that any Wiki article is only as good as its contributers, and there are no references to back the statement up, I must admit that locally the name conflict with Cross Gates W Yorks is assumed to be the reason it was called Seamer

I think it's one of those assumptions that's easy to come to, but also disprovable, as there was no other Cross Gates/Crossgates open at the time it opened, and as I say, Crossgates wasn't even a hamlet at the time, which is more than can perhaps be said for Eastfield, which was just two farms, High East Field (North of the station) and Low East Field (South of the station).

The railways don't generally seem to have had much of an issue with similar or identical names either; stations on the two different lines up the Spen Valley shared the same identical names for 24 years. The ex-LNW stations at Heckmondwike, Liversedge and Cleckheaton gained the suffix "Spen" in 1924 while the ex L&Y ones became "Central"s, though Liversedge lost it's 'Central' status in 1961. Before the changes that MUST have been confusing, especially during the 18 months between grouping and the name changes!

 

[Neo9320]

The posters at Abbey Road DLR were there on opening day, so before any history of blunders. It was a good laugh by the DLR team, which has stuck. The posters (a couple of different ones) are classics in their own right, with several puns on Beatles' song names.

American visitor to our office did exactly this. Another American had given instructions to meet in a restaurant, just calling the address Edgware rather than Edgware Road. I got involved as it unfolded, and the easiest resolution was to tell him to get a black cab from the Edgware station rank, and later write an explanation for the (substantial) expenses claim.

Another longstanding issue is Burnham. Everyone in Taunton knows it as a place near Highbridge, and even calls Highbridge station that, but on the Western Region it's a station near Slough. One parcel (remember those?) sent from Taunton was more explicit to overcome this, and written as Burnham-on-S to avoid confusion, alas with a slightly wobbly S - it ended up a couple of days later at Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex. The Somerset station used to be called Highbridge for Burnham, but has now retreated to just Highbridge.

It’s still Highbridge & Burnham

 

[Killingworth]

Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire regularly makes the news with people ending up there, or en-route up the M1, looking for Chelsea.

And too late for that warm up battle in 1066!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

How about Lime St station being renamed Liverpool St Georges?

The Liverpool station isn't the source of the confusion though.

 

[Taunton]

Anyone headed for Canary Wharf will now, with the advent of Crossrail, end up in potentially one of three, completely unconnected and far apart stations, with a considerable dogleg to get between any of them.

 

[PeterC]

I did make the Hereford/Hertford mistake once. Not travelling but the was a show touring that I wanted to see which I only heard about after it was on the road. I misread the flyer and thought that the only gig left was at Hereford

 

[geoffk]

Or they could have got Mottingham in SE London

or Knottingley

 

[Deafdoggie]

I did make the Hereford/Hertford mistake once. Not travelling but the was a show touring that I wanted to see which I only heard about after it was on the road. I misread the flyer and thought that the only gig left was at Hereford

And then there's Hartford & Hertford!

 

[Gloster]

Do people ever get confused between Henley-in-Arden and Henley-on-Thames? I presume that both are just known locally as Henley. And there is another with four possibilities where getting it wrong would really get on your Hampton.

 

[Rescars]

An international example: Las Vegas (NV) is one of the largest cities in the USA (and possibly the entire world) to not have any intercity railway service, however Amtrak does manage to serve another, much smaller Las Vegas in New Mexico. I wonder how many rail passengers have ended up there expecting to see the High Roller or the Stratosphere tower?

A long time ago so many parcels for addresses in California (USA) ended up at California station (named after the local pub) on the Epsom Downs branch that the station was renamed Belmont.

 

[imagination]

Hayes and Harlington is often referred to as just Hayes.

That must have led to a few people getting put on the wrong train before now.

 

[py_megapixel]

I wonder if there have ever been any services that call at both Adlingtons

There definitely have. The first stopper out of Stoke every weekday morning runs through to Blackpool calling at both.

 

[MadMac]

A long time ago so many parcels for addresses in California (USA) ended up at California station (named after the local pub) on the Epsom Downs branch that the station was renamed Belmont.

I saw an article some years ago about a letter posted in Glasgow for an address in Alexandria near Dumbarton eventually getting there nine months later via Egypt…..

Kirknewton on the Edinburgh-Carstairs line was originally renamed to Midcalder due to confusion with another Kirknewton in the Borders, regaining its original name in 1982.

 

[RH Liner]

Sutton Parkway is a fair old step from Sutton (Surrey), but I doubt whether anyone has made that mistake.

 

[ChrisC]

A bit off topic as not rail related. I do remember many years ago being on holiday in the rather remote small village of Winsford on Exmoor in Somerset. A large lorry, struggling to negotiate the narrow country lanes, arrived in the village looking for a factory to deliver to. He should have been in the town of Winsford in Cheshire. That was years before the days of satnavs

 

[peterblue]

I was once (almost!) sold a ticket to Worcester Park in south-west London when I wanted Worcestershire Parkway. I knew how much it should be, so I only realised the ticket office's mistake once I was shown the price.

 

[Nova1]

I think at one point there was a problem of tourist passengers asking for a ticket to “the lakes” when they wanted to go to the Lake District, probably surprised when they ended up at a canal feeder pond in Warwickshire…

The Lakes shows up as “The Lakes (Warwickshire)” now.

 

[Basil Jet]

Although in many ways I am a traditionalist, I do think it's worth recognising that the UK is a country with a lot of inbound tourism (which we should be grateful for), at least in non-pandemic times and things should be made as non-confusing as possible for tourists, and even domestic travellers who have poor knowledge of geography.

As I said before, I would be totally on board with London Liverpool Street being renamed London Broadgate or London Bishopsgate.

Liverpool Street is indeed an atrocious name for the station in question, but Bishopsgate is too similar to Bishops Stortford, which is of course a major terminus for trains from it. I would go for Broadgate (for the Liz station), Broadgate Eastern (for the Anglia station) and Broadgate Northern (for Moorgate).

 

[318259]

Germany has two cities called “Frankfurt”, at complete opposite ends of the country. Both have railway stations.

I wonder how many international business people in suits have ended up in Frankfurt (Oder) instead of Frankfurt (am Main).