Trivia: Instances where you have benefitted from a delayed train

[PTR 444]

Most rail users will have encountered some sort of delay, and probably unsurprisingly benefitted from one too. For example, say you arrive at your local station 15 minutes before your 09:00 departure but when you arrive there is already a train on your platform which is in fact the delayed 08:00. A signalling fault down the line has caused a 45 minute delay likely to last for the rest of the day, and while this would have inconvenienced many people, you are lucky that the earlier train was there because it doesn’t leave for another 5 minutes, meaning you have plenty of time to board it. The end result is that you can arrive at your destination 10 minutes earlier than planned. Assuming one has an anytime ticket and can use any similar departure, what examples have people benefitted the most from a delayed train?

 

[liamf656]

Similar to your example, I reckon there will be a lot of cases where a long connection time is shortened significantly thanks to delays as you explain

I used to travel a lot from Hull to Nottingham, and in the evening the wait in Sheffield used to be around 45 minutes, so on there rare occasions I’d arrive and the previous service to Nottingham was still due it made my day!

 

[62484GlenLyon]

Lots over the years. The latest example was this afternoon. I went for GWR's 13.19 from Worcestershire Parkway to Paddington. This was cancelled so I caught Cross Country's 13.14 to Birmingham New St. which was 6 minutes late. Had it been on time I would have seen it pulling out as I walked from the car drop-off point into the station. It saved me an hour's wait.

 

[SynthD]

I turned up a little early and found out that my intended train was not going to my destination. The train in the platform was delayed, so I hopped on and made it work far better than whatever onward travel was supposed to happen to my original journey.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

My Northern service from Bentley Yorks to Doncaster was delayed enough for me to miss the grotty Hull Trains Paragon that I’d booked on simply because it was cheapest by far, though I’d much rather travel with LNER. This was about the time the Hull 802s were really stinky with mould problems too.

That had been the last train of the day operated by Hull to London, so I knew I’d have to go home on LNER. A pair of 5 car Azumas rolled in a few platforms across to me - these I find far, far nicer than Hull Trains’ 802s, but I’d still rather have a 225, so as I knew one was due next, I walked very slowly to the help desk and unfortunately missed the Azuma too, and sure enough I was put on a 225 for the journey home.

 

[D365]

There was a period of time in 2016 when, due to frequent OHLE dewirements in the Retford-Doncaster section, my rail travel between Peterborough and Sheffield (home and uni respectively) was effectively being subsidised by Delay Repay!

 

[Kite159]

Plenty of times when making connections which would otherwise not been made if the second train was on time. Even if the delay was only a minute or two, just giving enough time to get across the platform (ie Winchester to Basingstoke to change onto an Andover train)

 

[mm333]

I used to travel from Lincoln to Leeds a lot. The connections at Newark, Retford or Doncaster were often that I would have just missed a northbound LNER but if that northbound was delayed, I could sometimes get home 30-60 minutes early!

 

[Anonymous10]

Last year my Weymouth to Gloucester (I was alighting at parkway) was delayed at Westbury around the end of Glastonbury weekend by 20 minutes. Can't remember why might have been to do with strikes signalling issues and the crowds but we arrived about half hour into Parkway fortunately my connection to Swansea was about 20 mins late giving me just enough time to hop onto that and then my train into pembrokeshire also ran late. Was offered delay repay but figured why bother claiming for 20 mins late as the journey had went pretty smoothly all considered.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Loads and loads of times in the old bashing days, making minus connections via sometimes frantic sprints from platform to platform

 

[Peter Mugridge]

A few times I've found the train ahead of one I was intending to get is running late and have been able to use it to get ahead of schedule.

Most recently this morning when a bridge strike in Hook Road, Epsom, resulted in the 10.19 Waterloo service departing five minutes late - I had been aiming at the 10.32 Victoria... and as a bonus, the 10.19 was superior traction in the shape of 707 018 + 707 024.

 

[Horizon22]

I used to connect at Guildford off a SWR service from Woking to a GWR/FGW service towards Redhill at the end of the morning peak. The connection was often stunningly short or not possible but I'd say half the time the GWR service was late and I could jump across!

 

[richw]

Not necessarily in the spirit the OP is looking for, but a recent delay of 8 mins missed a connection at an intermediate interchange station on a journey with my children.
The next onward train was 2 hours later. We opted to visit the town centre of the station we now had a nearly 2 hour wait, have a nice lunch and look around. Quite a nice town to look around, somewhere I wouldn’t have chosen to visit.
It broke a long journey with small children in quite a pleasant way.
And 100% delay repay to go with it resulting in a 300 mile journey being effectively free.

Yes I got home 2 hours late, but over £200 delay repay, and a very pleasant break of journey.

 

[Techniquest]

The immediate example that came to mind, out of a huge amount of options over the years, is a connection in Newport off a train from Hereford onto the westbound morning FGW Pullman service to Swansea one time.

On this occasion, I'd been due to miss it by something like 65 or 73 minutes, I forget the exact number given this was more than 15 years ago. Some issues further east meant that I joined the HST with the Pullman service much to my delight

I'm sure there's been many times when a delay has worked in my favour, such as reducing a long wait to something much more tolerable or making a connection further up the line work out on a long journey, but to be honest I don't remember them all right now.

Wait, no, I do remember one other right now. Another one from years ago, when I used to live in rural Herefordshire. I'd arrived on the first bus of the day with a known lengthy wait of around 50 minutes due, onto the 0845 or whatever it was at the time to Birmingham New Street. Delays elsewhere meant that the 0709 was running something like 38 minutes late, so I got to the Midlands much earlier than expected and that pleased me hugely

Clearly the coffee's now kicking in, as I remember one from earlier this year. While in North Wales, I'd gone with my Blue Beauty and I was ticking off a 230 and a couple of stations as part of my adventure. Due to a rather significant misjudgement on direction, thrown off by an enormous overpass of the A55 causing me to think the other roundabout was the wrong one, I was a bit late getting to Flint. Fortunately, the 175 I was due to connect with was a good few minutes late itself I'd known it was late, otherwise I'd have needed to go at a pro cyclist speed to make it, but the extra 3 minutes delay really benefitted me

 

[317 forever]

Last August Bank Holiday there had been an incident, IIRC near Watford Junction, causing heavy delays that morning and quite a few cancellations into the afternoon. I had a TfW/LNWR ticket from Manchester to London. As some LNWR trains were cancelled, including the one I arrived for, they allowed us to use our tickets on Avanti. I therefore reached London earlier than I would have done on my intended train.

 

[Jimini]

I had one a few weeks back, travelling from Reading to Coventry (when Nuneham Viaduct was still shut). I was having a little bit too much fun in the pub and hadn't twigged that there was a ~25 min break in fast services to Paddington, which meant that I wouldn't make it to Euston in time to get the last fast train to Coventry (the 2130).

As I trudged my way down to plats 10/11 at Reading, my prayers were answered as a late running (by 15 mins or so) service from Cheltenham to Paddington rolled in, swept me up and got me to Paddington in time to get over to Euston for the 2130. Had the Cheltenham train not been delayed by 15 mins I'd have missed it by a country mile, and subsequently would have got home some two hours later!

 

[dk1]

It was always good to see the XX:43 Euston-Scotland via the West Mids running late if on the following XX:40 Manchester knowing you were ahead of it at Stafford & going to make a cheeky connection at Crewe.

 

[RGM654]

On 9th June I took the 14:56 GC from Kings Cross, intending to change at Doncaster for a XC to Cleethorpes (for the following day's railtour to Morpeth). We ran slowly to about Stevenage as a result of some signalling problem, so I expected to miss my connection and be an hour late at my destination. In that case I would have made a delay repay claim from GC, who in turn presumably would have got something back from NR. But the XC was delayed even more, so I did make the connection and was only 43 minutes late at Cleethorpes. Thus the lateness of the XC got me to my destination a bit earlier. I'm unsure whether I was morally entilted to my 50% delay repay from XC for that leg.

 

[Bill57p9]

Not me that benefitted personally, however I remember an XC journey from Bristol to Birmingham that was diverted via Kidderminster in the days before central door locks. The train was signal checked at Smethwick Rolfe Street, a door opened and a family jumped out. The guard protested at which point the mother pointed out Smethwick was their final destination and a change at New Street had just been avoided.

I did go through a period last year of using AWC to reduce my travel costs through Delay Repay!

 

[75A]

Not me that benefitted personally, however I remember an XC journey from Bristol to Birmingham that was diverted via Kidderminster in the days before central door locks. The train was signal checked at Smethwick Rolfe Street, a door opened and a family jumped out. The guard protested at which point the mother pointed out Smethwick was their final destination and a change at New Street had just been avoided.

I did go through a period last year of using AWC to reduce my travel costs through Delay Repay!

Initiative, I like it.

 

[Bald Rick]

Walking into St Albans station to find services in some (but not complete) disarray, such that there are about 1000 people waiting for a fast train to London on platform 3 with little chance of getting in the next train and possibly the one after. Then very late stopper pulls in to platform 1 from the turnback siding: if there’s nothing within 15 minutes in front of it on the up slow, and another stopper or semi fast not far behind, it’s odds on turned into a non stop to St Pancras.

 

[Purple Train]

1) Connection at Shortlands, from Beckenham Junction to Bellingham. 1154 Southeastern from the Junction was due in a minute before the 1155 Thameslink. Fortunately the Thameslink was 90 seconds late so I made it. Due to engineering works, the Thameslinks were running 1tph terminating at Victoria, so I was fortunate there.

2) Quite a long time ago now. Had a morning engagement in Newark and an evening engagement in London. Got to North Gate to find up services heavily delayed. I think it was the service following the 12.15 that I caught, running some 40 minutes late. Got me into London earlier than I should have been - and it was an HST!
Many times I've sneaked a negative connection at the likes of Bethnal Green. Nearly managed to pull a corker off at Tottenham Hale last London day, but up Stansted Express left many minutes late with me stranded on the footbridge.

The only time I can remember arriving late for what I wanted and finding it late was on the Clacton branch - if the person so nearly responsible for losing me an hour is reading this, I haven't quite forgiven you

Note: My phone autocorrect is made of cheese and I'm too tired to even put in correct punctuation, so I hope this is legible!

 

[johntea]

Today was an interesting one for me

15:36 LNER from Harrogate to Leeds 9C, then a gentle stroll to 15A for the delayed 15:58 to Knottingley (departed 16:08)

The interesting part was the guard on the Knottingley service was the same one that had covered the 08:59 (Northern) Leeds to Harrogate I caught in the morning!

 

[davyp]

Just pre-covid booked on Euston to Stockport - heard on news wires down near Watford so went to Euston early and found my train cancelled. Went to ticket office and changed ticket for earlier train that was running at no cost. Arrived Stockport at time of original train, AND received compensation for cancelled train. Result.

 

[MikeWM]

I made a -1 connection at Nuneaton a few years back - ie. my intended train was due to depart 1 minute before the arriving one. My entire plan for the day was dependent on getting that, so it was a really silly plan in many respects - but for once the gamble paid off, the arrival was a minute or so early and the departing train was about 3 minutes late.

Last year I was on a very late Birmingham->Liverpool LNR that announced just after leaving Wolverhampton that it was terminating at Runcorn. The following one was cancelled entirely. Fortunately the Euston->Liverpool Avanti was also about 15 minutes late, so a quick shuffle onto that at Stafford got me to Liverpool almost when I should have got there in the first place. (Meanwhile the Avanti overtook the LNR on-route, so anyone for Liverpool who stuck with it until Runcorn - where it did indeed terminate short - was going to be stuck there quite a while :-/

 

[Chris Hamilton]

I’m currently spending some of my spare time wandering the network, filling in the map. Bit of a bucket list to travel over every single passenger line in the country.
Anyway, a few weeks ago I set out to do the Cumbrian Coast, Blackpool branches and Windermere.

I took a train from Carlisle to Barrow and then from Barrow to Preston, where I had planned to change to the Blackpool North branch, then walk to Blackpool South, head back to Preston and up to Windermere. All this had to happen before the final train from Oxenholme to Motherwell that would meet my local service home to Carluke.

It started going south at Barrow, the train I was supposed to meet was cancelled, so I wasted over an hour waiting on the next one. By the time I got to Preston, it was looking likely that I wouldn’t have time to walk across Blackpool to stay on my schedule at South. It’s a broadly 45 minute walk, and there was going to be about 45 minutes between my arrival at North and departure at South if I got the next train. Miss that, I’m there for an hour, which means no chance of Windermere.

When I got off at Preston, I noted that there was a 15 minute late service to North about to roll in. I legged it down the subway and dove onto the train as the buzzers sounded. This late running service bought me an extra 10 minutes in Blackpool which meant i could still walk along the front to South and visit Windermere before getting the last available connection home.

Hardly life and death, but nice when it all comes together like that.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Not necessarily in the spirit the OP is looking for, but a recent delay of 8 mins missed a connection at an intermediate interchange station on a journey with my children.
The next onward train was 2 hours later. We opted to visit the town centre of the station we now had a nearly 2 hour wait, have a nice lunch and look around. Quite a nice town to look around, somewhere I wouldn’t have chosen to visit.
It broke a long journey with small children in quite a pleasant way.
And 100% delay repay to go with it resulting in a 300 mile journey being effectively free.

Yes I got home 2 hours late, but over £200 delay repay, and a very pleasant break of journey.

Also perhaps this different type of incident - and abroad, if that counts. A delayed train causing a missed connection in Germany (having left Hamburg at lunchtime planning to arrive in London that evening) meant I couldn't reach Brussels in time for the last Eurostar to London. So I ended up being put up in a pleasant hotel in Cologne for bed and breakfast (with time to explore a city I didn't already know), with taxis laid on evening and morning between the station and the hotel, all courtesy of DB; then - because engineering work meant no Brussels Eurostars the next morning - DB rerouted my ticket so I had a free ticket to Paris (hence unexpectedly visiting an extra country on that trip and getting an extra train ride); and (after I'd paused for a nice Parisian meal) Eurostar in Paris got me back to London from there. A nice surprise extension (nearly a full extra day) to my trip. So I don't complain about German trains often being late these days!

 

[cuccir]

Regularly on my commute between Durham and Newcastle, particularly pre-Covid when the service was almost at 'turn up and go' levels of 5 trains an hour. During disruption a few times a year I'd find myself on a severely delayed service by a few hours, but which actually showed up 5 minutes before the train I'd have been planning on getting.

Less common now that there's 7 trains over 2 hour period, but still happens from time to time. A few months ago there was major disruption which closed the ECML between Durham and Darlington all morning, but it had started just after I'd checked National Rail in the morning, and then I'd forgotten to do my usual double-check before leaving for work. I arrived at Durham unaware of it all, and happened to be there 5 minutes before the last 'turned around' service - which was not actually advertised on National Rail Enquiries or departure boards, and had been meant to leave Durham for Bristol about 45 minutes previously - was sent back up to Newcastle. I had an easy journey on a largely empty train and arrived promptly for work, but the majority of people on board were unimpressed to find themselves back in the city that they'd set off from an hour previously.

 

[507020]

This year I visited Cardiff and on the way back used CrossCountry between Bristol Parkway and Tamworth and intended to board a direct Pendolino to Wigan North Western, however it was so late that it would have missed the last train to Southport and I would have been stranded in Wigan all night. But that also ran late! My ticket was split at Wigan, so other than an annoyingly long wait at Tamworth, I got delay repay all the way from Cardiff from Avanti and the rest from Northern.

 

[LittleRedTrain]

Have had this quite a few times when heading from the North East towards Reading (with CrossCountry's abysmal post-Covid timetable).
CrossCountry train from the York direction arrives at New Street at xx04 or xx08, just missing the onwards xx03 connection towards Reading.
However, the Manchester-Reading/Bournemouth service is often delayed enough that, with a quick sprint between platforms at the B-end of New Street, it's possible to make the connection and get home an hour earlier!