Getting on the wrong train

[Whistler40145]

I was travelling from Preston to Milton Keynes in the late 1980s/early 1990s on a Summer Saturday. There were two trains, one stopped at Wigan North Western & first stop London Euston & the second stopped at Crewe and Milton Keynes Central, not quite sure how it happened, but there was a problem with the station platform display screens, so the train arrived, I got on, thought nothing more about it until we stopped at Wigan North Western! I thought oh Sh*t, I'm on the wrong blasted train & the last place I want to be is London Euston, I breathed a sigh of relief when the Class 81 failed at Bletchley! I gingerly crossed over to the MK bound platform & returned to Milton Keynes.

Here's another corker!

Picture the scene, as a teenager, we had a Caravan in the Lake District near Ambleside, my Mum doesn't drive, so we caught a train from Blackpool North to Preston with Bikes, no problem, waited for our train to Oxenholme (no direct Windermere trains then). I thought this was wonderful, my Mum asked if the next train went through Oxenholme, we got on and put our bikes in the Guards Van, we set off and got looped in Oxheys Goods Loop for a faster service to pass us, much to our dismay, we went through Oxenholme non-stop and ended up in Carlisle for two hours! I've never let my Mum forget, I'm now 42!!!

My last one didn't actually happen to me, but I witnessed it!

I was travelling from Preston to Edinburgh in the days when trains used to split at Carstairs. We duly arrived in Carstairs, the train split with the rear portion going to Edinburgh, we set off out the platform & a passenger pulled the Emergency Chord, they should have been on the Glasgow portion, thankfully the rear carriage was still in the platform, so they alighted & ran back up the platform & joined the Glasgow portion!

 

[PeterY]

A friend once spent a day in London and caught the Met from Baker street to Watford. He realised it wasn't "Watford Junction" and went all the way back to Euston.

 

[route:oxford]

The most regular one was always the Virgin services from Birmingham New Street to Edinburgh.

They used to leave within a couple of minutes of each other - one going West, one going East.

There was always someone on the wrong train.

 

[tractakid]

Just started a full network tube challenge attempt. About 0600 AM at Chalfont and Latimer, got off from the train from Chesham. Saw a train approaching the other platform, dashed over with my teammates to catch it. Ended up back in Chesham. Fortunately, in this situation the stopwatch can be restarted but it did mean hours of planning the timetable went to waste!

 

[Chrisgr31]

Lol I often wondered why they used that class only on that line.

Well the electric trains run out of power just after Hurst Green! And there aren't any spare units to use on any other line.

Or if you mean elsewhere in the country the Class 171 is the same as the 170, just has a different coupler.
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Indeed. One unfortunate assumption that I've learned not to make is that 'every train leaving Waterloo East heading east is going to stop at London Bridge'. A couple of years ago I discovered the hard way that there are a couple of peak hour trains that don't stop until Sevenoaks....

Ahh that reminds me I go from Charing Cross to London Bridge most weekday evenings. Have once managed to get on the wrong train and found myself going non-stop from Waterloo East to Blackheath and back. Added ages to my journey time due to the timetable!

On one occasion I have also been "kidnapped" by South Eastern when the train didn't stop at London Bridge due to a security alert. Having spend ages getting back I now know if I am on the Hates service I can stay on it and change to the tram and get that to East Croydon1

 

[HST Power]

I was on Newcastle-London Flying Scotsman in 1980, this was non stop, needless to say somebody got on thinking it would stop at York

I've always wondered what would happen in a situation like this one. Did you have to stay on until London? Say you had no money to pay the fare due, what would happen then?

I had a 'near miss' yesterday afternoon boarding the wrong tube train at Green Park. I sat down, glanced up at the map, realised my mistake. Jumped off just in time!

 

[IanD]

The most regular one was always the Virgin services from Birmingham New Street to Edinburgh.

They used to leave within a couple of minutes of each other - one going West, one going East.

Both going to Edinburgh?

That is confusing. Think I did a similar thing in Leeds when the Manchester trains all went to Victoria. Was supposed to go to Bradford but ended up heading off to Huddersfield because I couldn't be bothered to read the displays! Had to come back to Leeds as there was no Huddersfield to Bradford service at the time. (Excluding buses).

 

[pdq]

Last week an American couple got the 1626 Manchester to Scarborough train from P2, 1st stop Huddersfield, instead of the 1624 to the airport from the far end of P3.

Surprisingly, they didn't seem too fazed at the extra 80 mins or so being added to their journey, and the guard was very helpful getting all the options to get back.

 

[LexyBoy]

I probably end up in Swindon once or twice a year due to getting the wrong train at Reading. Fortunately my train now goes from a different platform to the non-stop Reading-Exeter trains so that worry is gone now!

Most recently I blame the over-optimistic departures boards showing the 0803 as "on time" when I arrived at 0803, so I run along, down the stairs and onto the train... the 0757. Other times it's been due to a last-minute platform change, general early-morning daze and (twice!) due to a failure to call at Didcot on the 0757, which I take no responsibility for!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

On one occasion I have also been "kidnapped" by South Eastern when the train didn't stop at London Bridge due to a security alert. Having spend ages getting back I now know if I am on the Hates service I can stay on it and change to the tram and get that to East Croydon1

(emphasis added)
Have to admit I've never been on that line before. I didn't realize it was so unlikeable

 

[TrainfanBen]

Making assumptions is a dangerous thing to do on the railway.

Can I extend this to life in general?


Never managed to get on the wrong train by mistake but I seem to recall one time at Birmingham New Street I walked onto a London Midland Class 350 and had absolutely no clue where it was going! (Luckily it was the train I had intended)

 

[WestCoast]

Happened to me quite recently at Birmingham New Street, on a very early start heading to Liverpool. Jumped on an LM 350, which had nothing on the destination displays. Turned out to be the London Euston train, with the one I wanted at the other end of the platform (perils of having a and b parts of platforms!). Fortunately, I could "turn around" at Birmingham International and head in the right direction!

 

[Hadders]

After a drink fueled day at a rugby match I boarded the wrong train at Kings Cross as I headed home to Stevenage.

I wanted the 2153 from platform 7 but as I came down the escalator (I do think this is a most elegant way of accessing the platforms at KGX) I ended up getting on the 2145 from platform 6 by mistake!

I knew I was on the wrong train as soon as the doors closed and we started moving earlier then expected. Unfortunately it was non-stop at Finsbury Park, 1st stop being Letchworth. Most frustrating to whiz through Stevenage at 100mph.

No harm done but it was a bit embarrassing.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I got on the wrong tram after the Greater Manchester Challenge in September for some reason. I wanted to go to Victoria to get a McDonald's and somehow ended up on the wrong tram. Not that it mattered as I just got off at St Peters Square.

 

[anthony263]

I have been travelling on a ATW class 153 from Bridgend to Swansea (This was back when we had the 08:09 Cardiff - Shrewsbury via Swansea & the heart of wales lines service) and there was a few people onboard who said they wanted to go to Shrewsbury. The guard said it was going to Shrewsbury but the very long way round so these people quickly got off at Port Talbot to travel on the 09:13 Manchester service

 

[HST Power]

I wanted the 2153 from platform 7 but as I came down the escalator (I do think this is a most elegant way of accessing the platforms at KGX) I ended up getting on the 2145 from platform 6 by mistake!

I knew I was on the wrong train as soon as the doors closed and we started moving earlier then expected. Unfortunately it was non-stop at Finsbury Park, 1st stop being Letchworth. Most frustrating to whiz through Stevenage at 100mph.

You were lucky this time - that one goes to Ely; many of them miss out Letchworth, many Royston also, and run non-stop to Cambridge!

 

[Crossover]

Can't say I have but a friend of mine who can be a bit hapless at times has on a few occasions almost got on the Stoke-on-Trent non stopper to Euston when he needed a service to Stafford whilst we were at uni!

Did this at Amsterdam Schipol. A mate of mine said that all the trains went to Centraal (I was pretty sure they didn't but he had been before). Anyway after 4 stops I told him he was wrong because it wasn't that far. Turned out we where on a train to Utrecht. We jumped off at the next station and noticed a stag party and an older married couple off our flight and asked them if they had got the wrong train as well. Turned out they followed us because we looked like we knew where we were going. I promised I'd ignore my mate in future as he didn't have a clue about public transport, and then did the same in Barcelona a couple of years later because he had been there before.

Honestly, never again. Ha ha. He has followed me ever since if he has been somewhere before or not. Never had a problem again.

Funny that - when I was at Amsterdam Schipol with family earlier in the year, everyone was following like sheep (we hooked on to a large group of American tourists)...if you're going to do it wrong, may as well do it as a group!

That said, it wasn't helped by the fact that was a dewirement somewhere nearby and the station was chaotic...trains arriving out of sync with the boards seemingly equally wrong. Free WiFi was useful to check that we were going in the right direction...according to Wikipedia!!!

 

[nicobobinus]

One evening about 9 years ago, dashed out of the SSL platforms at King's Cross St. Pancras with an eye on the 1806 all shacks to Cambridge, intended stop Finsbury Park and a change to Harringay. Pegged it up to platforms 9-11, saw a 365 on the usual platform (nice change from the usual 317, I thought), piled on. 18:06:30. Thanked my luck at a delayed dispatch, grabbed a seat. Waited. A couple more minutes pass. Alright, not unheard of on this train. Dispatch, and off we go.

A few minutes later as we pass over the Holloway Road, I notice that the train isn't slowing down - it's picking up speed. The string of lights indicating the platforms at Finsbury Park blur past. I pull off my headphones and speak to the guy sitting next to me

"Sorry, is this the Cambridge train?"
"Nope, Peterborough"
"er..oh. Do you know where the next stop is?"
"Biggleswade"
"ah"

That'll explain the 365 then, I thought. And the four minute delay. The 1806 all-shacks had got away on time, I was on the 1810 about-as-fast-as-WAGN-gets to Peterborough.

Biggleswade station isn't very exciting on a winter's night. ISTR shoving a couple of quid in the PERTIS machine to cover my back but happily I didn't encounter any WAGN revenue staff on either leg, and vowed never to make that mistake again. I got back to my corner of North London about two hours later!

 

[fowler9]

Can't say I have but a friend of mine who can be a bit hapless at times has on a few occasions almost got on the Stoke-on-Trent non stopper to Euston when he needed a service to Stafford whilst we were at uni!



Funny that - when I was at Amsterdam Schipol with family earlier in the year, everyone was following like sheep (we hooked on to a large group of American tourists)...if you're going to do it wrong, may as well do it as a group!

That said, it wasn't helped by the fact that was a dewirement somewhere nearby and the station was chaotic...trains arriving out of sync with the boards seemingly equally wrong. Free WiFi was useful to check that we were going in the right direction...according to Wikipedia!!!

Ha ha, never mind mate. It is not a mistake I'll be making in a hurry. I've got in to the habit of researching my destination in detail now. Apart from the time my girlfriend booked us flights to Katowice and said it was Krakow. Doh! Ha ha. Seriously, never again.

 

[bb21]

I've always wondered what would happen in a situation like this one. Did you have to stay on until London? Say you had no money to pay the fare due, what would happen then?

I had a 'near miss' yesterday afternoon boarding the wrong tube train at Green Park. I sat down, glanced up at the map, realised my mistake. Jumped off just in time!

You will probably have your ticket endorsed by the guard for the way back.

A more recent example was at Salford Crescent about two months ago. Made it there on the 1604 arrival from Piccadilly, and noticed on live departure boards en route that the 1603 Victoria-bound service from Southport was expected in at 1609 so waited half way down the platform where there was no screen. Came 1609 and 156466 pulled in. In a moment of excitement because it was a 156 rather than the usual Pacer, I dragged my companion onboard without hesitation. Away we went over Windsor Bridge South Jn and the train took a right. Doh! We were on the 1609 to Hazel Grove.