Ridiculous Train Travel Mistakes

[STKKK46]

Hi All

Was just reading on another forum a funny topic regarding the stupidest things you've ever done/seen people do which made me think about putting a topic here...

7 or 8 years ago, me and the Mother were going up to meet my Dad to watch the Villa play at Middlesbrough on a night game. My dad was working up north so agreed to pick us up from Middlesbrough station. Our change was at York, and it was a tight change. Made our way over to the platform and found a train pulling in, about the right time and Middlesbrough was on the board. It pulled a bit further down the platform, so we ran down and got on and settled down. What must have been about half an hour later without a stop we're starting to wonder where we are so ask when we'll be stopping at Middlesbrough. Next stop? Selby. Don't know what train we'd got on, but when the train went further down the platform, must have been on a different section. So, we had to get the train back to York where the old man, not exactly happy, picked us up and off we went. Selby is still a living joke to this day for us.

Anybody got any similar/better/funnier stories to share? I'm sure I have, it's just thinking of them!!

 

[NSE]

Yeah, to this day I still don't undertand why this happened. But here we go.

Similar platform system exists here in Cambridge, although it can change, platform one normally serves the xx:45 Fast to KGX from Kings Lynn. My friend wanted this service, however a Cross Country service to Birmingham was sitting in platform 4. Of course they are two seperate locations for a train to stop, but one continuous platform. My friend decided "eh its all the same platform", and boarded said Birmingham train. To this day I do not know why, I can only assume he had music in his ears and did not hear the announcers, but I then recieved a phone call from him in Birmingham asking how to get to London. Why he stayed on the whole two and a half hour journey is beyond me but there we go!

 

[bnm]

Oasis, Knebworth 1992.

After the gig, joined the huge crowds walking the 2.5 miles to Stevenage station where extra trains had been put on to ferry folks back to London. Despite the crowd management and directions by police and rail staff, myself and two friends managed to board a train heading for Peterborough!

We did wonder why it was so quiet, but just thought that as it was an extra service we were the first to board. Only on pulling out and seeing no other concert goers had boarded did we bother to ask one of the few other passengers where the train was headed.

Got off at Hitchin and discovered there were no further southbound trains that night. Had to get a taxi back to Stevenage and rejoin the queues for the London trains. Told a police officer what we'd done, he took pity on us and let us jump the queue!

 

[CliveJones]

I got on the wrong train at Solihull going in the wrong direction. Which is pretty bad for someone who works for the TOC on that line!

(But damn that station is disorientating!)

 

[Techniquest]

Fortunate he had the money to pay for the fares to do that really!

Done the wrong train thing before too, way back in April 2007 (that long ago, good grief the memories that come flooding in...), and the OP will like this one if only for the fact it involves Selby! During my Freedom of the North East bash, I had planned to do the Kings Cross to Hull HST from Doncaster to Hull. A tight change of train to come back to Doncaster was to be had at Hull, however due to a trepasser on the line further south we left on the HST around 14 minutes late. With the connection out of the window, I got off at Brough.

At this time, Hull TPX services had started to be operated by 170s, and I much preferred the 185s. So imagine my joy when a 185 comes from Hull on the next Manchester service. However, I didn't realise until some minutes after boarding that we didn't go to Doncaster on this service. Thanks to the guard on board, I got told that to get to York I could alight at Selby for a Northern service to York from there. York was necessary as I was booked into a bed and breakfast there.

The reason I had wanted to get back to Doncaster was because of HSTs being diverted over the little-used curve between Hambleton West and South Junctions, which would have meant less reliance on getting it covered on that Harrogate to Kings Cross Saturdays Only HST. Still, I finally ended up at York somewhat earlier than originally planned and had an excellent night's sleep.

Thankfully I tend to check where the train's going before getting on these days!

 

[thewolf]

A friend in a bit of a rush, managed to somehow get on the late running VT to Euston (next stop: Euston!) at Stoke instead of the XC back to Birmingham.

He said the guard was very sympathetic and he only ended up paying for a ticket back from Euston to New Street which was only £10 or so on LM. Said that if he wasn't carrying a holdall full of clothes with him he would've enjoyed a free day out in London ha.


Not up there with 100 mile detours from catching the wrong train, but I did once go into zombie mode at New Street and despite seeing that the Walsall train was from platform 2a, assuming it was on 1a as it always used to be. Walked down the steps onto the platform to see my train across the tracks and just being whistled off. I spent the 30 minute wait for the next one contemplating the stupidity involved in what I'd done

 

[STKKK46]

Unfortunately I keep myself aware when at stations so I'm struggling to think of any more! One though is getting stuck in London. Again after a Villa match, we stayed for a few drinks afterward before heading back to Euston for the International train. We get to Euston at 21:43. The exact time of the last train. We usually check the times but didn't feel there was any need to, you'd think there'd be trains back. Ended up staying night and coming back in the morning - less than ideal!!

Great posts by the way, exactly the sort of stories I was looking for!!!

 

[Wyvern]

For about two years I caught the train from Derby to Lincoln St Marks each weekend. It was a regular thing so I dint need to read the timetable too closely - or so I thought.

On one occasion it happened to be about dinnertime and, as we left Nottingham, I saw tall floodlights. I thought "That's funny. I dont remember a footaball ground anywhere." When we passed through a tunnel I decided to find the guard.

It was the one train where you changed at Notts - I was on my way to Melton Mowbray. Well, I thought, I might as well buy me a pie!

 

[Welshman]

That was a little while ago, when you could get a train from Nottingham direct to Melton Mowbray!!

Equally, from my past, I remember as a teenager exploring the Yorkshire rails and arriving at what is now the closed staion of "Ferrybridge for Knottingley" on the old Sheffield-York main line, and wanting to catch a train from "Knottingley for Ferrybridge" on the Goole-Wakefield line [it's now renamed "Knottingley" of course].

Incredible now, I made the silly mistake of thinking there was a printing error, and they were both the same station. Of course, on arriving, I discovered to my horror I faced a 1.5 mile dash for a 10-minute connection! I made it - just. But remember it even today!

 

[Wyvern]

That was a little while ago, when you could get a train from Nottingham direct to Melton Mowbray!!

Or Lincoln St Marks

 

[snail]

I was a victim of the super-efficient Swiss system a few years ago at Interlaken.

We were staying in one of the villages on Lake Brienz so knew we needed to get the stopper, not the schnellzug. The fast train left 2 minutes before, from the same platform. We arrived at the last minute, to see the platform staff taking down the schnellzug sign and replace it with the local stopper info. So we jumped on, just as the train left. No need to say what happened next...

 

[Scotrail84]

Oasis, Knebworth 1992.

No chance of Oasis ever playing Knebworth in 1992. Oasis played Knebworth in August 1996.

 

[cuccir]

Arrvied into Bucharest one morning with two friends having got an overnight train from Varna (Bulgaria). Our train to Cluj-Napoca (in Transylvania, NE Romania) was due to leave in an hour, a nice fast train that would take us there fine. However, there was a train about to go to Cluj when we got in, though it was clearly a stopper. Anyway my friends were having none of this and decided to run to get on. I was a bit hesitant but they jumped on anyway. As the train started to pull away I had to run and get on (am quite proud to have jumped onto a departing train at some point in my life!).

Anyway, we were of course passed by the nice fast train, and stopped at every single station. It was like choosing a London Midland train to Crewe over a Virgin, though at least the toilets on London Midland trains have toilet paper and are not a hole cut into the carriage floor!

 

[londonbridge]

As posted in another thread,I'm a member of the Sunderland Supporters Association London branch. When we used GNER we had an arrangement for home matches were they would reserve us upto 40 seats and the travel officer would phone in the final numbers travelling on each trip a few days before the match. Coming back to London after the match we always used the 18.35 from Newcastle. Anyway,one Saturday night we were on the way home when two Scottish lads in Man city colours got on at York and started saying they had reservations for two of the seats we were using. The assumption was that GNER had double booked the seats,but there were two empty seats in our carriage which they happily took. Conversation started up and eventually someone asked where they were heading. The reply: Dundee! They jumped off at Doncaster but we didn't tell them there were no trains to Dundee left at that time in the evening.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I got on the wrong train at Solihull going in the wrong direction. Which is pretty bad for someone who works for the TOC on that line!

But that pales into insignificance compared to the occasion in the late 1970s when Sir Peter Parker, late for a train to Carlisle for a very important meeting with Cumbria County Council ( or whatever it was called ), tore through the barriers at Crewe waving his gold pass and boarded the train just as it was being given the off......







......non stop to Euston!


This was in pre-mobile phone days; he had to resort to throwing a message wrapped around something out of a window while passing through a station in order to get his apologies for not making it telephoned through to the meeting!

 

[YorkshireBear]

Me and girlfriend coming back from cleethorpes during summer blockade. We got on the coach at the right time and fell asleep. Not realising two coachs left at same time one non stop one all stops. therefore we were in doncaster an hour and 15 minutes early, not we didnt realise this it just passed us by cos we thought we had got the right coach and the guard said nothing to us just said good thanks.

Then at doncaster we get on the connecting 1942 to meadowhall instead of 20 42. The same guard that said our tickets were good on coach and didnt mention we were an hour early looks at our tickets and charges us £34 for two adult singles from cleethorpes to meadowhall.

I still dont know how we thought it was an hour earlier than tickets..... first did give us £25 in vouchers though so i dont mind too much.

 

[TheManWho]

I once had a passenger arrive at Stratford (London), only to ask if Stratford-upon-Avon was within walking distance

 

[STKKK46]

I once had a passenger arrive at Stratford (London), only to ask if Stratford-upon-Avon was within walking distance

Bet you were somewhat... speechless?!

Another one I've had is this, nothing too special but here goes..
When we were 16/17 me and a few mates were going down to Newquay. I sorted out the tickets and times and everything was going perfectly to plan until we got to Par... Somehow we'd ended up there an hour early. Don't know how or why but it just happened. So we decided to go and find a pub, not knowing Par was so small. We ended up at a pub about 3/4 a mile away and sank a nice couple before heading back to the station with what we thought was reasonable time to spare. Complete with stop at Off Licence, it was not in any way reasonable. So 2 of my mates ran ahead to grab our bags from the hotel we'd earlier been kicked out of for not being old enough and to try and hold up the train.

After about 5 minutes our slow stroll was interrupted by them calling us - the train was waiting for a late train from London. Of course that sprint was absolute chaos and we ran over the bridge at Par as the HST was pulling away. Could have been the most appalling missing of a train I'd ever done, but luck played its part to say the very least!

 

[Tracked]

Nearly missed a train a few years ago, a mix of it being the sunday the clocks go forward, being hungover and having had about 3 hours sleep (these last two are connected, naturally ).

I'd gone to the station to see if there was a cafe open and saw my train in, it seemed to be in quite early but as it was a sunday I reasoned this was because there weren't as many sunday services.

Of course any idea of looking at the clocks on the station hadn't passed my mind, why I'd only looked at my watch a few minutes beforehand and it said 10:00, I'd have plenty of time for the 11:10*

I went and sat on the train and started drifting off to sleep, about 5 minutes later it starts moving, cue a few moments of panic before the announcement and the realisation of what day it was ... :roll:

Could've been worse I suppose, if I'd missed that I'd miss the connection I had reservations on.


* the time may not be exact there

 

[Eagle]

Back in my youth when I barely knew the rail network (okay, 22 months ago) I tried to negotiate my way from Haymarket to Bournemouth without a timetable. On the way up I'd taken the sensible route with XC changing at Birmingham for the VT service (although I was planning to change at Wolverhampton because it was easier, I'm glad I didn't because the VT was first stop Crewe for some reason). Journey time seven and a bit hours.

So for the journey back I assumed, this being an intercity kind of route, that Edinburgh–Birmingham was hourly, so if I turned up at Haymarket any time before about 1300 I should be fine. I was in the city centre near Waverley but decided to walk over to Haymarket in case the barriers at Waverley didn't let me in because technically I'd be starting long. (There are of course no barriers at Waverley, but I didn't know this.) Walking was a bad idea; I'd forgotten how far apart the stations were, particularly since Princes St was being dug up for the trams (plus ça change ), it took rather a while. I arrived at Haymarket at about 1120 and couldn't see Birmingham on the departures board—in fact, other than one train to London there were no upcoming trains out of Scotland. So I went and found VT's paper timetable and discovered that unlike what I'd assumed their trains to Birmingham were two-hourly, the next one was in an hour and 45, and it didn't stop at Haymarket. hock: So the next departure wasn't until past 1500, which wouldn't be enough time to get back to the south coast. Panicking, I saw a XC timetable which had a picture with Haymarket and Birmingham on the front and flicking through it and to my relief I found a continuous column of numbers stretching between Haymarket and Bournemouth. I would have to take the NXEC train to London, which was leaving in one minute, and get off at Newcastle. Then this is the huge mistake: I ran for the train putting the timetable back in the rack as I did so. Having not read beyond the fact I had to change at Newcastle. :-x

I spotted this mistake within seconds, but it was too late, I was on the train and it was rolling. So I had to work it out for myself (at this point my knowledge of the NR network was slim). I got off in Newcastle as instructed, and saw a train departing in 50 minutes that ended in "Banbury, Oxford, Reading". Aha. This looked familiar, I thought. So after a long wait I got this train all the way down England to Reading, the time now being about 1830 or so. Again, as soon as I got off I heard an announcement for Basingstoke and I thought I can definitely find my way home from there. So I took the FGW stopper and at Basingstoke. Next train to Bournemouth was in 20 minutes, but it was a XC, and one that had just come from Reading. So a completely unnecessary change with heavy luggage there. I finally arrived in Bournemouth at around 2040. Total journey time over nine hours.

If I'd been perceptive I'd've noticed on the departure board at Newcastle an earlier train to Plymouth which called at Birmingham, which is what the timetable wanted me to do, and I'd've probably got home an hour earlier.

Of course, if I'd actually bothered to look at a timetable before setting off I'd've arrived at Haymarket fifteen minutes earlier and probably got home two hours earlier.

Not stupid as such, in fact finding my way across the country like that showed initiative, I'd say

 

[LE Greys]

I've done the wrong train thing a couple of times, normally involving one of the Peterborough fasts when trying to get to Hitchin, and ending up in St Neots. However, once was when I was at Waverley, and saw the northbound North Briton in the platform. I rushed to get my ticket, then thought she was still there when I left. A few minutes later, Waverley was moving in the wrong direction and I was disappearing into Calton Hill Tunnel. Lost three hours going to Newcastle and back, thankfully both guards understood.

I once had a passenger arrive at Stratford (London), only to ask if Stratford-upon-Avon was within walking distance

The other version I've heard was of an American visiting his/her cousin in England who lived near Northampton. Upon arriving at the station to pick them up, the cousin had a very long wait, before the American rang to ask where he was. They were at the station "on the other side of town" - Southampton.

 

[Matt Taylor]

Both of which are quite some distance from Hampton, which is considerably smaller than both of them.

 

[bnm]

No chance of Oasis ever playing Knebworth in 1992. Oasis played Knebworth in August 1996.

Yep. my bad. Not really a typo just my memory playing up! Was also at Knebworth in 1992 for Genesis. For that one we had coach travel!

Another thing that probably contributed to our mistake at Stevenage in 1996 was the copious amounts of red wine and a certain herbal substance that we'd consumed that day!

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


On a slightly (tenuous - not train travel) related note, this story from The Sun rather amused me:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...tead-of-Windsor-Castle.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=News

 

[DiscoStu]

Oasis, Knebworth 1992.

After the gig, joined the huge crowds walking the 2.5 miles to Stevenage station where extra trains had been put on to ferry folks back to London. Despite the crowd management and directions by police and rail staff, myself and two friends managed to board a train heading for Peterborough!

We did wonder why it was so quiet, but just thought that as it was an extra service we were the first to board. Only on pulling out and seeing no other concert goers had boarded did we bother to ask one of the few other passengers where the train was headed.

Got off at Hitchin and discovered there were no further southbound trains that night. Had to get a taxi back to Stevenage and rejoin the queues for the London trains. Told a police officer what we'd done, he took pity on us and let us jump the queue!

Oasis played at Knebworth in '96, not '92.

Crackin' gig though

Will post a story in a minute when I remember one!

Sorry - just realised somebody else mentioned this too.

 

[Eagle]

The other version I've heard was of an American visiting his/her cousin in England who lived near Northampton. Upon arriving at the station to pick them up, the cousin had a very long wait, before the American rang to ask where he was. They were at the station "on the other side of town" - Southampton.

I've seen someone on a SWT Exeter service bearing a ticket London Terminals–Gillingham (Kent). They noticed at approximately Andover when the guard finally came along. Probably because they confused Waterloo and Waterloo East, but still, they must have known that their Gillingham is in a rather different direction from London than Exeter, and know that their Gillingham isn't pronounced like the one the auto announcements in the station and on the train keep saying (in fact the announcer always refers to "Gillingham Dorset" which makes confusion even less likely).

 

[northernrail]

Got on a non stop service from Rochdale to Man Vic, meaning to get a stopping service to get off at Mills Hill

 

[DiscoStu]

Was travelling down from Glasgow to New Street on an overnight in about 1989/90 to be in place for all the early morning summer Saturday gen.

We'd been travelling round Scotland for a good few days so was really tired. Slept like a baby all the way.

I remember awaking to see that we were in New Street station, and the train was due to pull out any moment.

The problem was, I was sleeping across two seats in a bay of four with my legs hanging over the arm, and my legs had gone completely dead!! I couldn't move them at all so couldn't stand up to get off the train.

My mate and another passenger literally had to drag me off the train and dump me onto the platform where I had to lay for a couple of minutes til the sensation came back into my legs - very embarrasing!!

 

[bnm]

Oasis played at Knebworth in '96, not '92.

Crackin' gig though

Yep. See my <embarrassed> preceding post. Looks like the 'herbal substance' affects long term as well as short term memory loss!

And it was a cracking gig. 10 hours of live music from some excellent supporting bands as well as Oasis.

 

[Flamingo]

I got on a train from Bristol Temple of Doom to Cardiff once. Settled back, took out book. Looked out the window 15 minutes later - "What the hell am I doing in Bath?" Made it out the door just as the hustle alarm was going!

 

[Yew]

and a certain herbal substance that we'd consumed that day!

[

Its called Jagermeister