The wrong Peckham

[Bald Rick]

Fairly recently a British couple turned up at Sydney, Nova Scotia, expecting to see a large bridge and a pointy opera house.

Then there the old story of a reporter for Loaded Magazine going to cover the famous French Film festival, and finding himself in Caen.

On topic railway wise, there are regular visitors to Ashford, Surrey, looking for the Eurostar terminal.

 

[Statto]

Although it was a fictional comedy drama about a removal firm about 20 years ago & nothing to do with trains, one of the characters went on a job to Brighton, got to Brighton & tried to find the address only to find the address was actually New Brighton Merseyside.

 

[Mintona]

I have been aware of passengers attempting to travel from Kings Cross to Foxton being on trains between St Pancras and Folkestone.

I also once encountered a lady on my HS train (St Pancras - Faversham) with a ticket from Southend on Sea to Stroud Glos, although her intended destination was Strood Kent.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Stratford (atte Bow) - to quote Chaucer - as opposed to Stratford on Avon.

 

[trainophile]

On the Travelodge website earlier this evening, looking for directions to walk from Sunderland railway station to the Travelodge in Sunderland city centre - only it gave me a journey of 9.6 miles, from:

9.6 mi - about 3 hours 13 mins
Railway Station, Station Road, Chester le Street, County Durham DH3 3EE, UK

To get the directions from Sunderland station (0.5 miles to the hotel) I had to input Sunderland train station. Weird :-x .

 

[yorksrob]

With there not being a station at East Peckham (it being about two miles from both Yalding and Beltring), I wouldn't be surprised if the member of staff had never heard of it.

My late Gran used to live in East Peckham. Her post used to go on detours to the wrong Peckham before being redirected back. It was a nice cycle ride from Yalding as I recall.

 

[6Gman]

Again not railway related but we once had a book signing event with a TV celebrity in our Yeovil shop. Her security phoned up to say they'd arrived but couldn't find anyone - turned out they were at The Oval.

Oh please give us a name!

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Every so often people turn up at Manchester Victoria looking for a train to Castleton, having already asked at Piccadilly (or looked online) and made their way across the city centre, only then to be told that the trains go to Castleton (Manchester) and not, as they wanted, to Castleton (Derbyshire) and now they need to go back to Piccadilly to get a train to Hope.

I sometimes get people asking to go to Oxford, and when they hear the price they are somewhat shocked, usually at that point they change their minds and settle for a ticket to Manchester Oxford Road.

 

[moogal]

I remember living in Hinckley several years back and being amused that rail tickets explicitly named it as "Hinckley (Leics)" ... given that as far as I could tell there wasn't another Hinckley in the UK.

 

[EM2]

I remember living in Hinckley several years back and being amused that rail tickets explicitly named it as "Hinckley (Leics)" ... given that as far as I could tell there wasn't another Hinckley in the UK.

There is Hinkley in Somerset though.

 

[KeithP]

Clapham Yorks, or Clapham London?

 

[greatkingrat]

Possible confusion with Hinchley Wood (Surrey) or Hindley (Greater Manchester)?

 

[Sloppyjag]

In the mid-80's I had a spell working in the travel centre at Stirling station. One day this old chap (slightly the worse for a few drinks) came in wanting a single to "Ayr Middle". The guy serving him tried to confirm that he meant Ayr in Ayrshire as there wasn't a station called "Ayr Middle". He just kept saying, "Naw! Ayr Middle!" and getting more and more frustrated.

Eventually, one of the three of us working there on the day thought to ask, "Where's it near to?"

He replied, "Ayr Middle, near Bathgate."

So he wanted to go to Armadale, a station which had been closed for 30 years and still 20 years away from being reopened. We sold him a ticket to Falkirk and told him to get a bus from there.

 

[Pinza-C55]

I went to Sunderland station in 1978 and asked for a return to Bempton (near Filey) and he gave me a return to Benton (near Newcastle). I said "No, Bempton not Benton" and he replied "There's no such station" so I told him to get out his BR map so I could show him. He had to void the Benton ticket and I got a lovely NCR return to Bempton.

 

[Tracky]

Tywyn and Towyn confuses passengers from Birmingham who change at Shrewsbury or not and end up a long way (by rail at least) from where they want to be.

Towyn doesn't even have a station, they want Prestatyn or Rhyl for the caravan park between.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
In the same areas thee are Pensarn and Abergele and Pensarn.

 

[cookie365]

VT staff at Piccadilly (the right one) are always asking why I'm getting on a London train when my ticket is for Preston Park.

 

[Hartington]

Grove Park is in south east London. Right? Well yes but back in the 1950s Chiswick (south west London) station was "Chiswick for Grove Park" because it's in a part of Chiswick called Grove Park. One day my dad met a rather confused gentleman and after some discussion it turned out this man should have gone to south-east London.

Then, in the late 1960s I was working in a travel agency when a US citizen arrived who asked which underground train he should catch to Edinburgh and was surprised when we explained not only the how but how long.

 

[Kite159]

I wonder how many people have been confused and arrived at the wrong Whitchurch

 

[NSEFAN]

Whilst on a journey from London to Southampton, a distressed lady boarded at Woking, saying she wanted to get to Lymington and had been kicked off an ex-Portsmouth train by a rude guard. It was Eastleigh before it emerged that she actual wanted Leamington! By this time the last XC had long gone, so I can only assume a taxi was required!

 

[Peter Sarf]

There is also Rainham (in Kent) and Rainham in Essex. They are not that far apart as the crow flies or if you can swim (across the Thames estuary) otherwise its travel via London. Thinking about it it is best to go via the Gravesend-Tilbury ferry .

I used to live in Strood and both Peckham in SE London (Peckahm Rye station) and East Peckham (often referred to as Peckham) up the Medway valley are about as well known as each other in Strood.

The knowledgeable ones amongst us also knew there was an alternative Gilllingham to the one a few stops down the line from Strood - as mentioned in an earlier post.

 

[30909]

Here’s my tuppence worth, there are more than five places with LEIGH as the main part of their name Leigh Surrey, Kent, Lancashire, Leigh (on sea or old) Essex, Leigh (Park) Hampshire. However they are pronounced differently it’s LIE in Surrey and Kent and LEE elsewhere. On topic Leigh Kent and Leigh (on sea) Essex have stations too!

 

[313103]

I wonder if any one has gone to the wrong Newport?

Newport (Gwent), Newport (Essex) & Newport (Isle of Wight).

 

[450.emu]

back in the day in Year 9, (I went to school in Acton, west London) a schoolmate trying to buy a ticket to Northfields on the Piccadilly line to get home, bought a ticket to Southfields (near Wimbledon) instead :roll:

 

[hassaanhc]

People living in Burnham on Sea, Somerset have a habit of asking for Burnham station (meaning Highbridge and Burnham), which is of course in Buckinghamshire.

There is also a Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex, on the Wickford to Southminster branch.

 

[GatwickDepress]

The audio announcements at Hastings sometimes says Berwick-upon-Tweed instead of plain Berwick when announcing the Brighton stoppers. To my knowledge, nobody's confused the two though!

 

[Shimbleshanks]

A Chinese academic without any English pitched up at Paddington and asked to go to “Turkey”. Her expectation was that she would be put on a train to the right terminal at Heathrow for a flight. She was ushered on to a train, dozed off, and awoke to find herself hurtling through a bucolic landscape.

Her watch indicated that she had been travelling for a couple of hours, and she made the fantastic deduction that the train had gone through the Channel Tunnel and was heading for Turkey. Ah well, no matter; she put her feet up and enjoyed the view. All seemed in order when she glimpsed the sea and a few palm trees, and the train finally reached the terminus. She had arrived in Torquay.

 

[londonbridge]

I recall reading a story of a couple who booked flights to the Caribbean from "Birmingham" for what they thought was a bargain price, only to be turned away when arriving at Birmingham UK airport because their tickets had an origin of Birmingham, Alabama

 

[Taunton]

I've told this one before, but in the 1980s the peak hour DC Lines local service from Watford Junction to Broad Street was diverted to Liverpool Street. One of the morning trains gave a good connection there into the boat train for Harwich and the Continent, and was favoured as an easy route by families from Hertfordshire sending au-pairs back home to Europe.

Unfortunately, having said farewells at the Watford barrier and been directed for Liverpool Street towards the DC lines bay, right across the island platform on the Down Fast the morning express to Liverpool Lime Street was drawing in. Shouts from the porters of "Liverpool-blah-Street". And off they went, next stop Runcorn, whose staff had to deal with the outcome on more than one occasion.

 

[DarloRich]

I know of a case where a job was booked at Berwick upon Tweed and the contractors went to Berwick in East Sussex.

Imagine lots of: where are you? Berwick! Where are you? Berwick! At the station? Yes! At the station! So am I. Berwick station? yes Berwick Station. I cant see you. Can you see the big bridge? What bridge?.................

Result: Job rearranged

 

[skyhigh]

Last year I arranged to go to St Ives with a very, very geographically inept friend. I went to Cornwall, he took a train to Huntingdon and a bus from there to St Ives, Cambridgeshire.

It turned out that this was because from where he lived, if you put 'St Ives' into Google Maps, that's where it sent you. Common sense obviously didn't feature.