How many stations are there called "Witton"?

[Steddenm]

I remember in some 80s timetables this was shown as "St Margarets GLC" and I assumed it was some kind of Council facility. The 1982 GBPTT shows this (Table 147).

Similarly there was "Reedham GLC" between Purley and Smitham and I assumed that was another council facility. Can't see it in the 1982 GBPTT (it's Reedham (Surrey) on that one; Table 178) but do recall it from a bit later.

The GLC stood for Gteater London Council, an area before the London Boroughs were a thing from what I recall and were based at County Hall, next to where the London Eye is today.

 

[Statto]

One i find amusing is Norwich were you have trains to London Liverpool Street & Liverpool Lime Street, has anyone ever got these mixed up?

 

[Steddenm]

One i find amusing is Norwich were you have trains to London Liverpool Street & Liverpool Lime Street, has anyone ever got these mixed up?

Regularly. Often see passengers on GA services to Liverpool St with tickets to Liverpool Lime Street and vice versa on XC services going in the opposite direction.

 

[birchesgreen]

Chester & Chester Road, then you have Chesterfield, Chester - Le - Street, & Colchester.

Favourite one is Hope Flintshire, & Hope Derbyshire.

I remember a ticket inspector getting confused why i was heading towards Birmingham with a ticket to Chester Road once and not towards the north west.

 

[yorksrob]

And, for what its worth, Witton Albion FC are based on the outskirts of Northwich

Indeed - I've been there by train - but Northwich or Lostock Gralam are the nearest stations.

 

[Andy Pacer]

I’ve often wondered if any passengers have ever boarded a train at St Pancras and ended up on a Thameslink service towards Loughborough Junction instead of an East Midlands Railway one to Loughborough (or vice versa).

Good grief, I hope not! The Thameslink platforms are almost a separate station!

 

[RT4038]

One i find amusing is Norwich were you have trains to London Liverpool Street & Liverpool Lime Street, has anyone ever got these mixed up?

You may recall a 'Back to the Shop Floor' type programme featuring Giles Fearnley of Prism Rail, filmed at Cambridge, where an 8 car train arrived at Cambridge and split - front four cars to King's Lynn, rear 4 cars returned to King's Cross, and the confusion that caused.

 

[Andy Pacer]

One i find amusing is Norwich were you have trains to London Liverpool Street & Liverpool Lime Street, has anyone ever got these mixed up?

Regularly. Often see passengers on GA services to Liverpool St with tickets to Liverpool Lime Street and vice versa on XC services going in the opposite direction.

That's interesting and something I'd never really thought of despite all the times I've been in Norwich!

Interesting also that "often" people make it onto XC (presumably changing at Ely) without their error being spotted on EMR or GA from Norwich.

 

[BeijingDave]

Favourite one is Hope Flintshire, & Hope Derbyshire.

One could easily imagine a rambler from Cheshire buying a ticket to the wrong Hope.

 

[Andy Pacer]

One could easily imagine a rambler from Cheshire buying a ticket to the wrong Hope.

And losing all hope when they realise their error!

 

[BeijingDave]

I was going to mention Northwich but it never had a Witton station.

Stafford Rangers fans travelling to Witton could unwittingly ask for a ticket to Witton and be sold one rather than a correct ticket to Northwich (maybe Lostock Gralam?)

 

[yorksrob]

Appledore (Kent) is another really odd one that has a county suffix even though there are no other stations with similar names.

Strictly speaking, it used to be called Appledore Junction back in the day.

 

[Recessio]

I wonder if anyone's ever managed to mix up Worcestershire Parkway and Worcester Park?

 

[Andy Pacer]

I wonder if anyone's ever managed to mix up Worcestershire Parkway and Worcester Park?

Is there a common place to make the error?

 

[Recessio]

Is there a common place to make the error?

Well if you're going to buy a ticket to one, and you're typing in the name on a ticket machine, I think it could be possible to misread/misclick with how similar the names are when they come up in the search results. Especially if English/a Latin language alphabet isn't your first language. (Although, saying that, I'm not sure how many international tourists Worcestershire Parkway would get, let alone Worcester Park!)

 

[Haywain]

Good grief, I hope not! The Thameslink platforms are almost a separate station!

Well, I've known people go to Hatfield Peverel in lieu of Hatfield (Herts) from London and they are even more significantly different stations. And then there are people buying tickets to Leeds and asking for directions to the castle...

 

[SargeNpton]

I wonder if anyone's ever managed to mix up Worcestershire Parkway and Worcester Park?

Pretty sure that's why it is Worcestershire Parkway and not Worcester Parkway.

 

[Recessio]

Pretty sure that's why it is Worcestershire Parkway and not Worcester Parkway.

True.

Although its also not impossible that given Worcester Shrub Hill and Worcester Foregate Street, someone could think Worcester Park is just another station in Worcester. Maybe Worcester Park should have a "(London)" or "(Surrey)" added to it, like Hayes (Kent) or Sutton (Surrey).

 

[EbbwJunction1]

I mentioned Mottingham in SE London to someone today, who thought I was talking about a city in the East Midlands.

Did you have a cold at the same time? I recommend Tunes!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Good grief, I hope not! The Thameslink platforms are almost a separate station!

Could potentially happen at Luton or Bedford, though...?

 

[rower40]

You may recall a 'Back to the Shop Floor' type programme featuring Giles Fearnley of Prism Rail, filmed at Cambridge, where an 8 car train arrived at Cambridge and split - front four cars to King's Lynn, rear 4 cars returned to King's Cross, and the confusion that caused.

My claim-to-fame was getting a letter published in The Times, relating to the proposed renaming of Liverpool Street to "Broadgate" or similar. I pointed out the fact that trains from Cambridge (at the time) had destinations including Kings Cross, Kings Lynn, Liverpool Street and Liverpool Lime Street.

Back to the original topic:
There's a TIPLOC in the national list for a location "Witton Park". I can't find anything timed there, and it has a STANOX code of "00000", suggesting it's a bus stop or similar. Could it be that it's Witton Country Park Blackburn? And that the special shuttle buses for the annual Race-for-Life there appear in Railway timetables?

 

[D1537]

Back to the original topic:
There's a TIPLOC in the national list for a location "Witton Park". I can't find anything timed there, and it has a STANOX code of "00000", suggesting it's a bus stop or similar. Could it be that it's Witton Country Park Blackburn? And that the special shuttle buses for the annual Race-for-Life there appear in Railway timetables?

There's the village of Witton Park in County Durham, next to the railway between Bishop Auckland and Wolsingham.

The station there was called Etherley (closed 1965), but it was regularly referred to as Witton Park. There were also extensive sidings there, which closed in 1966, and they were called Witton Park Sidings.

 

[Andy1978]

Oh yes, once had Aberdour vs Aberdare confusion in the ticket office.

 

[Gwr12345]

There's the village of Witton Park in County Durham, next to the railway between Bishop Auckland and Wolsingham.

The station there was called Etherley (closed 1965), but it was regularly referred to as Witton Park. There were also extensive sidings there, which closed in 1966, and they were called Witton Park Sidings.

Witton Park was the official name of the station during its brief period of opening 1989-1991. It was one of only two stops on the line I think when operated by BR.
Completely out of use nowadays as the owner of the house demolished the platform.

 

[SargeNpton]

My claim-to-fame was getting a letter published in The Times, relating to the proposed renaming of Liverpool Street to "Broadgate" or similar. I pointed out the fact that trains from Cambridge (at the time) had destinations including Kings Cross, Kings Lynn, Liverpool Street and Liverpool Lime Street.

Back to the original topic:
There's a TIPLOC in the national list for a location "Witton Park". I can't find anything timed there, and it has a STANOX code of "00000", suggesting it's a bus stop or similar. Could it be that it's Witton Country Park Blackburn? And that the special shuttle buses for the annual Race-for-Life there appear in Railway timetables?

If my memory is correct, this is the station on the Weardale Railway. A few years ago there was a plan to run regular services on the line for locals, with through tickets from/to National Rail stations. Frosterley, Stanhope and Walsingham were allocated TIPLOCs, NLC, and CRS Codes for the same reason.

 

[martinsh]

Ware to Wye would be a good one as well!

Via Howden and Watford of course !

 

[Lower Qa]

I was travelling on a Heart of Wales Line train a while back. A passenger had requested Penybont, so the train duly stopped there, and the passenger got off. He then stood on the platform looking rather puzzled, and spoke to the guard, who ushered him straight back on the train again.

It turned out the passenger actually wanted Bridgend - or Pen-y-Bont, as it's known in Welsh.

At the time the only distinguishing feature between the two names was that one had hyphens, the other didn't. I suppose nobody ever thought that the two places could be confused, because Bridgend is more widely known by its English name, while Penybont is known by its Welsh name only.

But I wonder if this kind of confusion did arise from time to time, because the Welsh name for Bridgend station has now been changed to Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr. (Interestingly, the 'bont' in Pen-y-bont went from upper case B to lower case b at the same time...)

 

[vic-rijrode]

Newport-on-Tay as well.

There was a station on Teeside called Newport - alas closed to regular passenger trains in 1915, but open until 1956 for excursion trains. Site obliterated by the Newport Vertical Lift Bridge approach roads.

 

[duffield]

Regularly. Often see passengers on GA services to Liverpool St with tickets to Liverpool Lime Street and vice versa on XC services going in the opposite direction.

It would probably help if the departure boards at Norwich dropped the "Liverpool St." and "Lime St." and just displayed "London" and "Liverpool" given that doing that doesn't introduce any ambiguity. Maybe even advertise the Liverpool train as "Manchester & Liverpool" to further reduce confusion with "Liverpool St."

 

[vlad]

A few years ago I bought a ticket from Manchester Victoria to Castleton - the man at the ticket counter made sure it was Castleton (Manchester) I was after. Castleton (Derbyshire) doesn't have a station of course and Castleton Moor on the Whitby branch is a bit far for a day trip.