Asleep on the Train

[DerekC]

Having recently slept through my destination (admittedly only from Petersfield as far as Havant) and having been allowed to come back on the next up service at no charge by the friendly SWT guard - I wondered:

a) whether there is a policy about this, and:

b) (on a lighter note) what is the longest such overrun any member has personally experienced?

 

[Clip]

Think theres been many a thread on here about the distance - I once had a colleague go all the way to Brighton from Kings X Thameslink when he shouldve changed at ldn Bridge to get to Sydenham

There is no real official policy(not at any toc I worked at ) but its called discretion by the guard

 

[LA50041]

Having recently slept through my destination (admittedly only from Petersfield as far as Havant) and having been allowed to come back on the next up service at no charge by the friendly SWT guard - I wondered:

a) whether there is a policy about this, and:

b) (on a lighter note) what is the longest such overrun any member has personally experienced?

Going home after office Xmas party, boarded last Liverpool Street-king's Lynn train intending to alight at cheshunt and was woken at Kings Lynn around 2am, next train back was 5.30 something

 

[Spamcan81]

Having recently slept through my destination (admittedly only from Petersfield as far as Havant) and having been allowed to come back on the next up service at no charge by the friendly SWT guard - I wondered:

a) whether there is a policy about this, and:

b) (on a lighter note) what is the longest such overrun any member has personally experienced?

Slept through my Letchworth stop and ended up in Cambridge after the last train back so had to get a rather expensive taxi.
Mate of mine got on a train at Kings Cross for Hitchin and woke up some considerable time later still in Kings Cross having been to Peterborough and back while blissfully unaware of his travels.

 

[Merseysider]

a) No official policy AFAIK but generally speaking guards employ discretion and can tell genuine cases apart from those who are chancing it.

b) A couple of members have ended up in depots

 

[Nippy]

Don't know about the policy but, amongst others, I got on a TL train at Brighton intending to alight at Kings X. Went to sleep passing Brighton Depot, woke up somewhere on the approach to Bedford. Or Reading to Hayes, waking up at Paddington, then missing Hayes again waking up at Slough. I made it back to Hayes at the third time of asking.

 

[Wookiee]

A colleague of mine fell asleep on an East Croydon to Clapham Junction train, intending to change for a Portsmouth direct service, fell asleep and found himself in Eastbourne last thing at night having been in and out of Victoria.

 

[blue87]

Never done it on a train but got woke up by the driver at the terminus of my last bus home one night, luckily the driver was nice enough to drop me off by my house on it's way back to the garage.

 

[cuccir]

The 05:40 from Edinburgh stops only at Newcastle (07:04) and Kings Cross (09:40). I bet at that early morning time there must be someone who's slept through Newcastle only to find themselves travelling to London

 

[matt_world2004]

Always you get dumb *******s on a friday assume that the last metropolitan line service ,which goes to chesham is going to uxbridge, this is despite the uxbridge service being on the other part of the platform, the driver announcing it and me telling them that the train goes to chesham

They get quite combative when this is pointed out to them and always insist on staying on the train. One group even suggested that if I was right they would get a night bus from Chesham

 

[joke2711]

Early 90s ... Warrington Bank Quay to Wigan ... woken at Carlisle.
Not the most sensible thing I have ever done!

 

[Busaholic]

One group even suggested that if I was right they would get a night bus from Chesham

Good luck to them with that!

 

[6Gman]

Doesn't just happen to the public.

Well-known tale from my childhood of a Llandudno Junction Driver and Fireman riding passenger to Crewe.

Woke up, looked out of the window, and said ...

"Ydi Stafford yn dwad o flaen Crewe?" *


*Does Stafford come before Crewe?

(Also raised questions about their route knowledge ... )

 

[Envy123]

I once was supposed to meet an old friend of mine at Upminster, but he fell asleep and woke up at Shoeburyness.

 

[cockneyviking]

I once was supposed to meet an old friend of mine at Upminster, but he fell asleep and woke up at Shoeburyness.

Many years ago Edinburgh to Carlisle, set an alarm clock, woke up at Wigan North Western, fell asleep again and finally got off at Crewe

 

[47271]

Slightly different, I've heard a couple of stories of northbound Inverness sleeper passengers getting forgotten about by their attendant and overshooting stations like Dunkeld and Pitlochry. Or getting remembered at the last minute and keeping the train waiting in the station while they get dressed and off. No pressure!

There was one Dunkeld passenger who ended up in Pitlochry a few years ago. They tried to find him a taxi, easier said than done in Pitlochry just after 6am. In the end his wife had to get out of bed at home and come and collect him. I think that I would've been asking for my money back on that one.

 

[SSp]

Back when I was a student in Aberystwyth, taking the last train back from Newtown.

I woke up in Borth, thinking 'excellent, I've had a nap and can stay out a bit later now...'

Until I realised the carriage was empty and we were going the wrong direction :-/ Apparently would have ended up in the Machynlleth depot...

 

[Lee_Again]

Maybe not the longest but I once overslept Stevenage (from London) and woke at Hitchin. Not a problem but I had unknowingly been to Cambridge and was now on my way back. The train continued to Stevenage but I didn't realise this; I thought I had just passed Stevenage.

This of course put me on the 'wrong' side at Hitchin. I wondered aimlessly around the station lost, looking for the exit. I knew I didn't need to use the underpass (I was already on the correct side - Wrong!!). But having given up and by now completely confused I must have walked back and forth through that underpass for 20 minutes trying to find a way out; This is after numerous beers and who knows what else!!

Peterborough, Cambridge and Huntingdon taxi companies have all benefited from my excesses over the years.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Hartlepool-Newcastle, wound up in Heaton Depot, walked home
Newcastle-Grantham, wound up in Doncaster, last train of night, got girlfriend to collect me
Euston-MKC, wound up in Northampton, slept under a tree
Euston-Leighton Buzzard, wound up in Wolverton, bus and walk

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Some old boy met a Glasgow - St Pancras footex (way back) at Motherwell , wearing slippers and merely wishing to say "hello" to his son before going home - he was invited aboard for a wee dram and found himself fast asleep in London the next morning with every one else gone and the stock about to be taken out Cricklewood. He was given a "please pass to Glasgow" note , embossed with the station stamp and an indecipherable signature and gently pointed out where Euston was.

 

[duncanp]

I was travelling from London Victoria to Sutton after a night out and woke up at Carshalton. (the station before Sutton) The next thing I knew I woke up at Boxhill And Westhumble, at around 11:30pm. Like a stupid fool I got out, and then thought ".......Oh %^%@@!! I'm in the middle of nowhere at nearly midnight, how am I going to get home...."

Luckily there was a later train to Dorking, so I got on that and then paid £30 for a cab from Dorking to Sutton. Of course I had no ticket beyond Sutton, so it was lucky there were no ticket checks otherwise it could have been even more expensive.

On the London Underground, I have boarded a Northbound Victoria Line at Oxford Circus and woken up at Seven Sisters, only for the next station to be Finsbury Park. Meaning that I slept all the way to Walthamstow and back again.

An old boss of mine told a story of boarding a Bakerloo Line train at Wembley Park at 10:30pm (in the 1970's before the Jubilee Line) and being woken up at Elephant & Castle at 1:00am. Meaning that he had gone up and down the Bakerloo Line twice without realising it.

 

[NARobertson]

There will be few regular rail users who have never fallen asleep on a train. I have on a handful of occasions in probably more than 10000 journeys. In all cases there was an underlying reason. Namely the coach was busy and very stuffy. I sometimes find it hard to keep my eyes open in HSTs, these are now very old and the air-conditioning is now so poor that the oxygen content of the air in carriages falls. This is obvious on stepping out at the destination where one is immediately revived in the fresh air.

Another reason for very occasionally not getting off at the correct station when darkness has fallen is being diverted by the book or paper one is reading. However, going past the right stop and then going back again is a pure waste of time and certainly not of any advantage.

Obviously such occurrences are not in any way blameworthy. If they might be a criminal offence then all I can say is that there is something seriously wrong with the Law in this country,

Neil Robertson

 

[181]

Slightly different, I've heard a couple of stories of northbound Inverness sleeper passengers getting forgotten about by their attendant and overshooting stations like Dunkeld and Pitlochry. Or getting remembered at the last minute and keeping the train waiting in the station while they get dressed and off. No pressure!

It's said that the mountaineer Charles Evans once found himself standing on Stirling station in the snow in his pyjamas, while the sleeping car attendant threw his luggage out of the window as the train pulled out of the station.

Just last year at Cologne Hbf. I made a somewhat hurried exit from the train and had to stop on the platform to do up the laces of my walking boots, as the attendant hadn't allowed quite enough time. The train was terminating there, but I suspect they didn't want to occupy a platform in the morning peak for any longer than they had to.

In 40+ years of train travel I've only missed my stop once (no trains back from Oxford at that time of night, but as it was a Saturday there was a bus); I wondered whether it was a sign of the onset of middle age.

 

[Signalmans Eye]

1962 left Euston around 20.00hrs (change crewe for Manchester) fell asleep I awoke to the guard calling tickets please I looked out of window we had just left Chester, Holyhead next stop. 07.05 Hhead - Manchester arr 11.10hrs.

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Carlisle to Crewe is my best and only significant "over doss" on night 6 of a seven day Scottish Rover back in 1980.

A friend recently did Victoria to East Grinstead, back to Victoria and had a second trip to Grinny before being awoken by the train crew around midnight. They kindly took him back on the ECS and dropped him at Oxted.

 

[aar0]

A mate got on the XC at Plymouth to get off a Birmingham, and fell asleep. Was kindly woken up by the guard, in an empty carriage, in Edinburgh. He was very confused, but was put on the next train (it may even have been the same train he was on) going back South, and called his dad to say he might be a little late for his pick up... He'd also slept through several alarms, and had many, many missed calls!

 

[High Dyke]

When the Network South East days used to be held I had two oversleeps in the same trip.

For the first I caught up with a couple of mates doing 73's on Gatwick Express journies. After a couple of trips to/from Victoria they bailed out and left me to it. I woke up passing through Clapham Jn heading toward Gatwick, but I'm now heading out of London. I bailed out at East Croydon and managed to jump on a train to London Bridge as it started to depart (yes stupid I realise now...). That got me a rollicking from the guard.

Then as i returned from Kings Cross to Huntingdon on the last train of the night I fell asleep at St Neots and awoke as we pulled into Peterborough. Sadly the local constabulary didn't want to help in my plight to retrieve my car from Huntingdon station. A phone call to an unimpressed parent saw them drive the 30 miles or so from Grantham to pick me and then drive onto Huntingdon to collect my car.