Fail to stop at High Wycombe (30/06)

Andy Pacer · 2 Jul 2026

After the recent discussion regarding an Avanti failing to stop at Liverpool South Parkway, came across this one from this week missing High Wycombe

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:L37713/2026-06-30/detailed#allox_id=0

Train passengers baffled after train driver 'forgets to stop at High Wycombe' station

Passengers on a train were left stunned after it accidentally missed a scheduled stop at High Wycombe, forcing dozens of travellers to double back…

www.bucksfreepress.co.uk

"Passengers on a train were left stunned after it accidentally missed a scheduled stop at High Wycombe, forcing dozens of travellers to double back on their journeys"

RailUK Forums

MerlinRail 804 · 2 Jul 2026

Andy Pacer said:
After the recent discussion regarding an Avanti failing to stop at Liverpool South Parkway, came across this one from this week missing High Wycombe

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:L37713/2026-06-30/detailed#allox_id=0

Train passengers baffled after train driver 'forgets to stop at High Wycombe' station

Passengers on a train were left stunned after it accidentally missed a scheduled stop at High Wycombe, forcing dozens of travellers to double back…

www.bucksfreepress.co.uk

"Passengers on a train were left stunned after it accidentally missed a scheduled stop at High Wycombe, forcing dozens of travellers to double back on their journeys"

The 17:45 Oxford calls at Beaconsfield and then skips wycombe and goes on to call at Saunderton on Tuesdays - Thursdays, so maybe the driver got the two slightly confused?

adc82140 · 2 Jul 2026

Not necessarily the fault of the driver. I was on a "Fail To Call" at Twyford a few years back. It was one of the few HSTs that was scheduled to call, turns out the driver had been given a diagram with a typo.

RJ · 2 Jul 2026

I was on a Chiltern train to Oxford a few years ago that failed to call at Princes Risborough - the auto announcement said that was the next stop, I said “no it’s not” after noting the train was still sailing along at linespeed. The anchor was dropped as soon as the announcement played but it was way too late. The train continued to Haddenham to let people off then was taken out of service once it reached Oxford. Something else odd happened on that journey, the train came to an abrupt halt in the Neasden area and the driver said something about something having to be reset.

Haven’t looked at Chiltern’s timetable recently but last time I did a few years ago, the service patterns were very complex and varied wildly from hour to hour during the peaks, so it’s understandable that mistakes can be made - and as noted it’s not necessarily down to driver error.

The only other time I’ve been on a train that failed to call was a 376 that didn’t slow down at all for Waterloo East until it was virtually a carriage length from the stop marker where it felt like an emergency stop and the wheels locked slightly. That one was a bit less understandable as Waterloo East is a much harder stop to miss, though it has been suggested that lineside vegetation may had affected adhesion…! The driver announced that the brakes didn’t come on, but they seemed to be working ok from Lewisham and for the remainder of the journey into Charing Cross.

The odds of it happening are vanishingly rare so I suppose it is considered a newsworthy event.

172007 · 2 Jul 2026

We have had the complete opposite, where trains have stopped at Bordesley, yet the Birmingham City Football game has been re-scheduled weeks before.

We have also had re-scheduled games and drivers don't have short term plan jobs to stop, but guards do and the opposite.

74A · 2 Jul 2026

I was on a train that stopped when it wasn't scheduled to. Thats pretty unusual !

sammyg901 · 2 Jul 2026

RJ said:
Haven’t looked at Chiltern’s timetable recently but last time I did a few years ago, the service patterns were very complex and varied wildly from hour to hour during the peaks, so it’s understandable that mistakes can be made - and as noted it’s not necessarily down to driver error.

Yes the Oxfords each have a different calling pattern in the peak and do miss out some more usual calling points. Some also have a different calling pattern M&F and at least the 1745 also has a different pattern on some Wembley event days! Keeps the driver on their toes

Mcr Warrior · 2 Jul 2026

adc82140 said:
Not necessarily the fault of the driver.

Possibly not. Although it does seem to have been the case in this particular instance (post #1).

So, what's the recourse for affected passengers? Claim an hour's worth of 'Delay Repay' if they're so inclined?

class ep-09 · 2 Jul 2026

Without naming any depo , route or operator - I saw diagrams issued for the train crew for entire week , where 8 intermediate stations at which all trains call, were missing and next stop on the diagram was 55 miles away in both directions

If followed to the letter and not questioned by the crew - there would be 100’s of “fail to call” that week .

zwk500 · 2 Jul 2026

Mcr Warrior said:
So, what's the recourse for affected passengers? Claim an hour's worth of 'Delay Repay' if they're so inclined?

Correct, Delay Repay as appropriate for however long it takes to catch the next train going back from where they ended up being overcarried to.

Forty29 · 2 Jul 2026

MerlinRail 804 said:
The 17:45 Oxford calls at Beaconsfield and then skips wycombe and goes on to call at Saunderton on Tuesdays - Thursdays, so maybe the driver got the two slightly confused?

Forgive me if l'm missing something but June 30th was a Tuesday so the driver was correct?

Mcr Warrior · 2 Jul 2026

MerlinRail 804 said:
The 17:45 Oxford calls at Beaconsfield and then skips wycombe and goes on to call at Saunderton on Tuesdays - Thursdays, so maybe the driver got the two slightly confused?

Forty29 said:
Forgive me if l'm missing something but June 30th was a Tuesday so the driver was correct?

That's as may be, but aren't we talking about the 17:15 (5.15 p.m.) departure from London Marylebone to Oxford on Tuesday 30th June 2026, which WAS scheduled to stop/call at High Wycombe.

172007 · 2 Jul 2026

class ep-09 said:
Without naming any depo , route or operator - I saw diagrams issued for the train crew for entire week , where 8 intermediate stations at which all trains call, were missing and next stop on the diagram was 55 miles away in both directions

If followed to the letter and not questioned by the crew - there would be 100’s of “fail to call” that week .

And that is why the unions like to have diagrams in advance to scrutinise them for errors and rectify before they becone a problem.

Haywain · 2 Jul 2026

A friend who was a driver told me, years ago, that if a stop was forgotten the best thing to do was sail straight through at line speed as hitting the brakes and overshooting the platform would be seen as a more serious error than simply forgetting (I guess from a safety perspective).

Gareth1990 · 2 Jul 2026

The problem is I don’t trust an RPI not to give me a penalty fare or report me for prosecution if a train misses it’s stop and I have to double back…

43096 · 2 Jul 2026

Haywain said:
A friend who was a driver told me, years ago, that if a stop was forgotten the best thing to do was sail straight through at line speed as hitting the brakes and overshooting the platform would be seen as a more serious error than simply forgetting (I guess from a safety perspective).

I have been told the same.

It’s one of those things that happens: to err is human and all that. What doesn’t help is when it is an oddball call in an otherwise standard stopping pattern. For many years the first two up weekday Reading-Waterloos called at Putney when no other Reading trains did. Amazingly in all the time I did those trains it only missed once: we went straight through to Clapham. Train met at Waterloo by a technician in an Alstom hi-vis with a laptop, no doubt for an OTMR download from the 458.

GordonT · 2 Jul 2026

Gareth1990 said:
The problem is I don’t trust an RPI not to give me a penalty fare or report me for prosecution if a train misses it’s stop and I have to double back…

It would need to be a really knuckleheaded member of staff to impose any sanction against a passenger already inconvenienced by a circumstance which could be independently corroborated easily. Even in the unlikely event of being sanctioned an appeal would readily result in any loss being made good.

CR165022 · 2 Jul 2026

Mcr Warrior said:
That's as may be, but aren't we talking about the 17:15 (5.15 p.m.) departure from London Marylebone to Oxford on Tuesday 30th June 2026, which WAS scheduled to stop/call at High Wycombe.

Does seem to be that one. RTT shows it as not stopping and then the return journey 1Y74 being cancelled.

Haywain · 2 Jul 2026

Gareth1990 said:
The problem is I don’t trust an RPI not to give me a penalty fare or report me for prosecution if a train misses it’s stop and I have to double back…

So, if your train misses its stop are you going to walk back?

Gareth1990 · 2 Jul 2026

Haywain said:
So, if your train misses its stop are you going to walk back?

No, but I wouldn’t be giving my name to an RPI either…

sammyg901 · 2 Jul 2026

Based on the RTT timings I can't see that an SSO was put in place on a southbound service to pick them up - was 1hr 15 mins to wait for the next timetabled service as it was running late

Railguy1 · 3 Jul 2026

Why doesn’t the signal turn red to force the driver to stop for the station?

zwk500 · 3 Jul 2026

Railguy1 said:
Why doesn’t the signal turn red to force the driver to stop for the station?

If the signal was held at red after every train at each station for the following train to call, it would need the route to be set by the signaller after every stop at every station thats a lot of extra routes to set, massively increasing workload. Even with ARS it would have an impact on checking everything has set properly.
It would also mean trains approach each station on yellow aspects, slowing down journey times And would have a major impact on not-to-stop order management during disruption as well as a lesser impact on Special Stop orders.

If the signal was reverted to red in front of the driver when they approached too fast, it would trigger an emergency brake but almost certainly too late to avoid overshooting.

I dont think even ATP systems (including ETCS) supervise the braking curve for booked stops. But I may be wrong on that. Normally that'd only come in for ATO systems.

Surreytraveller · 3 Jul 2026

Railguy1 said:
Why doesn’t the signal turn red to force the driver to stop for the station?

Signals display the condition of the line ahead. Their purpose is not to indicate to the driver which stations to call at

800002 · 3 Jul 2026

Railguy1 said:
Why doesn’t the signal turn red to force the driver to stop for the station?

This wound also, significantly, affect end to end journey times.
The approach speed to the red aspect requiring a much more controlled approach for the protection systems than simply breaking as usual to a platform marker board.

Sledgehammer to crack a nut, if you will.

Purple Train · 3 Jul 2026

Plus, of course, not every platform has a starting signal.

stevieinselby · 3 Jul 2026

GordonT said:
It would need to be a really knuckleheaded member of staff to impose any sanction against a passenger already inconvenienced by a circumstance which could be independently corroborated easily. Even in the unlikely event of being sanctioned an appeal would readily result in any loss being made good.

Not to mention that there will often be dozens of other people doing exactly the same thing, so it would be very hard for a revenue protection officer to try to impose any sanction. Might be more of an issue if it's a very minor station that is missed where you could be the only passenger doing it.

centraluser · 5 Jul 2026

sammyg901 said:
Based on the RTT timings I can't see that an SSO was put in place on a southbound service to pick them up - was 1hr 15 mins to wait for the next timetabled service as it was running late

No SSO was required. The next train to High Wycombe pulled in to Saunderton about 30 seconds after the northbound train had stopped. The driver then waited for the 100+ people to cross the bridge and board, before leaving for HWY. Scheduled arrival time for those who should have alighted at High Wycombe was 1744. Actual arrival time via Saunderton was 1757. In the circumstances, about as quick a diversion as it could possibly be.

sammyg901 · 5 Jul 2026

Ahh that was lucky then!

74A · 5 Jul 2026

13 minutes late so no delay repay !

Fail to stop at High Wycombe (30/06)

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