Missing trains

[Zoe]

How close has everyone been to getting a train but actually missing it? Back in 2004 at Taunton I was running for a train, there was one door left open but the dispatcher decided to shut it in my face and dispatch the train. To be fair the train was late and I simply got the next train an hour later. Has anyone been this close to getting a train but still missed it? I've heard reports of people going for the door handle but having the CDL activated just before they got their hand on it.

 

[rail-britain]

I arrived in plenty of time for a train, only to find it had departed three minutes early
There were five other people standing on the platform by the time it should have departed

Recently there was a case where the Inverness - Euston sleeper departed Falkirk "early", as the travel information and reservation tickets had been incorrectly printed
They were given a taxi all the way to London

 

[Oswyntail]

I am a fat man. Some years ago, I arrived on the Northern line platform at King's Cross with little time to catch my train at St Pancras. I ran up all the escalators, and all the steps (even pausing for the obligatory twisting of the ankle on the uneven surfaces) arriving on the platform as a) the clock showed 2 minutes till departure and b) the train was just starting to move. Giving up, without pausing to catch my breath, I asked the dispatcher why the train had let two minutes early. With a very extravagant gesture, he raised his hand over his head, then brought it down with his watch inches away from my face, tapped the face of it with his other hand, then turned and walked away without a word. His watch was three minutes fast.

 

[jon0844]

Not that long ago (maybe a year?), FCC did try dispatching trains early at King's Cross and they got all sorts of grief, even though they did put up some posters. It's one thing to shut the doors 30 seconds before departure, but they were letting trains go a minute or two early and it was incredibly annoying and somewhat pointless at 9 and 10pm at night, or later. If they ever did that on the last train of the night, I really do hope they were made to pay for cabs or a night at the local Premier Inn.

I never found out why they started to do it, and did have a bit of a go at a guy that I've never seen working there since! Was it an experiment? Was it Mary Grant being vindictive? Was it for a laugh?

Now they seem to be back to getting the driver to close the doors about 10 seconds before departure, which still allows the train to be moving on or VERY soon after xx:xx:00.

I don't mind missing a train when I had a fair chance to try and catch it, but running early is just playing dirty!

 

[LE Greys]

I remember one occasion when I was down the steps at Stevenage with a train in the platform, doors open. My mother (who is not as young as she once was) had a bit of trouble with the stairs, and I had to stand there as the doors closed and the train departed. The next one was only five minutes behind, but I my patience has to be inexhaustible when my mother is concerned.

 

[12CSVT]

On more than one occasion at Bewdley during Severn Valley diesel galas, where for some reason they don't seem to undersand that the haulage bashers like to be able to transfer from one train to another.

 

[Flamingo]

I've had someone run alongside me when leaving London at 18.00 shouting "I demand you stop this train!". He did a nice little dance around his briefcase as well after he flung it to the ground in a fit of pique. Longest he'd have to wait was 30 minutes, I didn't feel too sorry for him.

 

[jon0844]

I'd never embarrass myself by doing something that stupid! The shame of having the driver and other passengers just laughing at you as the train goes faster and faster and you fall off the end of the platform!!!

On the flip side, I've noticed at St Pancras on the low-level platforms (FCC) that some people get to the doors on a northbound train as they're closing and don't notice that the driver will sometimes unlock the doors after a few seconds so they can actually get on if they hurry.

Bar leaning out the window to shout back along an 8-car train, there's not much else the driver can do - and I've seen trains then leave without the person that was so upset for having arrived too late! It pays to hang around at times just in case the driver is in a good mood and can afford to lose another 10-20 seconds.

 

[4SRKT]

Many years ago when I was a student I used to commute to college on thumper DEMUs from Belfast to Jordanstown. This was before the railways in Belfast were linked up, and Larne line trains left from the dingy and depressing York Road station (on the site of the current depot). In those days this was a pretty dangerous part of Belfast and not somewhere anyone would want to walk to. NIR ran a Rail Link bus service linking Central and York Road stations via the city centre. The train would never wait for a bus, even if the bus was arriving as the train departed. I used to moan about this all the time to friends, who couldn't understand why I didn't just get the direct bus service or a black taxi. They didn't (couldn't) understand the concept of thumper bashing, so just thought I was mental. I wrote to NIR suggesting that someone had a butchers out of the station entrance and if the bus was in sight hold the train. The Larne line was totally self-contained, so there would be no knock on effects to other services. I got a letter back effectively suggesting that I got up earlier and took a different bus, much to the amusement of my friends.

 

[jon0844]

My local bus company won't wait either, and some (read: most) drivers will happily leave early. When I wrote to them they said it's acceptable to leave up to 3 minutes early if the driver cannot see anyone at the bus stop. A great policy at a train station!

 

[dan_atki]

My local bus company won't wait either, and some (read: most) drivers will happily leave early. When I wrote to them they said it's acceptable to leave up to 3 minutes early if the driver cannot see anyone at the bus stop. A great policy at a train station!

I once missed a bus by a minute where it left about 3 minutes early. I was appoaching from the direction the bus was going and tried stopping him again but he shrugged his shoulders at me, leaving me to wait an hour for the next one (which, as Sod's Law would have it, was late...).

Upon complaint, I was told it was a 'cardinal sin' within the industry for a bus to leave early!

As for trains, the one I missed by the skin of my teeth that did annoy me was in Southampton, having run down the hill to Central and got through the barriers just as the guard's local door was closing in front of me. Another time I nearly missed a local hourly service but the guard saw me arrive on the platform and let me through his door!

A very close one I did have was earlier this year where buses were replacing trains between Basingstoke and Woking. As luck would have it, the bus arrived in Woking early and there was a 12 car London bound 450 on platform 2, due to be shutting its doors as we were all on platform 5. We all ran over the bridge and got to the bottom of the stairs (level with about coach 7) just as the doors had slammed shut. Whilst the dispatcher was arguing with someone about the train leaving, I looked to my right and saw the guard's local door still open in coach 3 so I legged the 4 coaches and just about made it as the dispatcher gave the guard RA...

 

[jon0844]

Upon complaint, I was told it was a 'cardinal sin' within the industry for a bus to leave early!

My father-in-law is a bus driver and yes it is! But, my local bus company (which isn't really a proper bus operator) has its own rules, despite having many services paid for the by local county council - which doesn't seem bothered by anything. The most they've ever said is that when the buses are fitted with GPS, they'll be able to track them, but they've talked about that for years and I can't see any local buses in Herfordshire getting this for many more years yet.

Some of the drivers are fantastic, mind, but others are clearly working there because they'd never hold down a job with a 'proper' bus operator.

These are the ones that moan while driving about everything, swear at other motorists, even get out of their bus and kick at other buses (I wish I'd got a video of when a female driver lost it and started punching on the back of an Arriva bus that she felt had taken her spot) and have told me that soon I won't be able to use my PlusBUS ticket on their buses because it's being phased out as people like me aren't paying my way (and then, a few days later, the same driver is on a bus that is fully liveried up in PlusBUS promotions!). Although it hasn't happened for some considerable time, we even had drivers using their mobile phones while driving.

 

[sprinterguy]

The Tyne and Wear Metro is awful for leaving people behind, which is largely the fault of the ticket machines: TW Metro ticket machines seem to be tediously slow at printing tickets in comparison to others elsewhere, and are also rather temperamental about accepting coins in the first place. I reckon that the ticket machines have been designed to print a ticket at a pace that means if it starts printing as the Metro pulls into the platform, it finally spits the ticket out just as it pulls away again! Many is the time I’ve had such an experience, though fortunately, the longest you ever have to wait for a following service is 15 minutes, and with the service more frequent than that in many areas of the system, the odds are that such an occurrence is going to happen every now and again.

The drivers definitely aren’t at fault though: On many of the Metros’ open stations, the ticket machines are set back from the platform in a sort of alcove linked to the entrance, meaning that anybody buying a ticket when the train is at the platform is invisible to the driver. Quite a few of the Metro drivers understand this problem, and if they see someone at the ticket machine as they bring the train into the station, they will hold the train until that person has got on. It’s also a regular occurrence where a reasonable sized group of people are buying tickets when the Metro pulls in for one member of the group to stick their leg in the doorway to stop the Metro leaving before all of their companions have bought tickets.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

On many occasions I have seen - fortunately not the train I was aiming to catch - tail lights clearing the platform several seconds before the scheduled departure time at Epsom.

For example, the tail lights of the 8 car long 09.50 clearing the platform at 09.49:42..... ( not today, before anyone starts checking the computerised logs! )

But that doesn't mean I haven't arrived at a platform just in time to observe the tail lights receeding into the distance, usually at Waterloo as a result of a delayed inbound or tube...

 

[AndyJB]

On more than one occasion at Bewdley during Severn Valley diesel galas, where for some reason they don't seem to undersand that the haulage bashers like to be able to transfer from one train to another.

To be fair, this didn't really occur (to the best of my knowledge or my experience) during the 2009 gala. Hopefully it won't occur in future ones!

 

[SouthEastern-465]

I was running late one morning and just as I ran down to the station paltform I saw the doors shut, I thought it was going to depart, and than the driver tooted the horn and waved his hand and waited an extra couple of seconds for me to get on. I had alot of respect for the driver for doing it otherwise I would of been late.

 

[talltim]

Recently there was a case where the Inverness - Euston sleeper departed Falkirk "early", as the travel information and reservation tickets had been incorrectly printed
They were given a taxi all the way to London

A sleeping taxi I hope

 

[4SRKT]

Obviously I know that bus companies can be a bit free and easy with their timings from time to time, but I think we expect more from railway companies. In the example I gave however it was a railway company not waiting for a bus run by that same railway company, whose only reason for running the bus was that the railway company was lumbered with operating out of a terminal that was, quite literally, in the middle of a warzone.

 

[Sun Chariot]

About 14 years

​

ago, whilst I lived on the old West Anglia Great Northern route, I witnessed a chap miss a train he was already on...
It was a Christmas Eve and the last Harlow bound service. A group of not-sober City sorts joined at Liverpool Street and, barely had the train moved off before said chap was in the land of nod.
As the train rolled into Brimsdown, the group shook this guy awake and shouted "quick, get off, Broxbourne, your stop!" Drowsy, he thanked them and stumbled out.
The cold air brought him to his senses just after the doors closed. His friends hollered with mirth as the train departed Brimsdown. I reckon his Christmas Day started badly...

 

[DiscoStu]

In about 1991/2, I was running for a connection at Birmingham New Street (I think I was trying to get up to Chester for 56049 which was working a Holyhead - Euston to Crewe)

I think my connection was leaving from about platform 4, and I ran so fast down the stairs I couldn't stop when I got to the bottom. The train was still in the platform as I got there but I ran at full pelt into one of the big white pillars and practically knocked myself clean out .... as I tried to undaze myself, the train pulled out

 

[deltic1989]

one night a few months ago i was over in Nottingahm with my mrs (as she lives there) my plan was to get the last train back to Lincoln at 22:25, I had my return ticket so we arrived at the station at 22:20 and said our goodbye's, I located my platform and jogged from the booking hall down to platform 2 just in time to see the tail lights of the train clearing the end of the the platform. I looked at my watch and swore so loud i startled a passing dispatcher, the reason for my outburst......... my watch read 22:22. i stormed back into the booking hall and called for a taxi, costing me £58 and the following day wrote a strongly worded letter to east midlands trains, a couple of weeks later i got a cheque for £67.20.

 

[EM2]

This issue with watches interests me. The dispatcher would surely be referring to the platform clock before giving the Right Away, and at the station where I work, they are all radio clocks that get the Time from NPL signal

 

[oldrailman]

This issue with watches interests me. The dispatcher would surely be referring to the platform clock before giving the Right Away, and at the station where I work, they are all radio clocks that get the Time from NPL signal

Hi, I was a despatcher at New Street for 12 years. We were briefed to keep one eye on the platform clocks while waiting departure time. We would start the door close sequence approx 30 seconds before departure. This certainly applied upto 2001 when I left.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I have seen some of those digital clocks consistently displaying slightly different times on adjacent platforms quite regularly; not a huge difference - maybe 10 seconds or so, but that is enough to make me wonder how reliable the relays in them are.

Having said that, I do often use those clocks to calibrate my watch!

 

[jon0844]

Before the new software, every screen at Hatfield showed a different time! One was 3 minutes out.

That's about the only thing that IS working okay since they switched over, although I haven't thought to check if the time is actually right!

 

[Flamingo]

We were told to lock doors 30 seconds before departure, then a few years ago when we had some punctuality issues it got changed to 40 seconds before departure. The trains are taken off trhe screens in Paddington I believe up to 2 minutes before departure so we don't have last-second runners.

 

[Zoe]

The trains are taken off trhe screens in Paddington I believe up to 2 minutes before departure so we don't have last-second runners.

I've seen access to platforms at Paddington get blocked off 2 minutes before departure.

 

[deltic1989]

ive seen someone get their arm trapped in a pacers jacknife doors before. he was screaming like a lunatic and banging on the door thinking the train was going to pull off, fortunately the guard saw it all and released him. And i got a dirty look off this fella as he got on, as i was paralysed with laughter.

 

[plymothian]

30 minutes late arriving into Gare de Nord leaving 20 minutes for what should have been 50 min transfer to Gard de L'Est. Ran down Eurostar platform, out the (wrong) side door, right along the front of the station down Rue d'Alsace got to Est 5 mins to spare and the ticket machine wouldn't accept my card! 30 seconds after train departed the machine spat out my ticket.

 

[jon0844]

About 14 years

​

ago, whilst I lived on the old West Anglia Great Northern route, I witnessed a chap miss a train he was already on...
It was a Christmas Eve and the last Harlow bound service. A group of not-sober City sorts joined at Liverpool Street and, barely had the train moved off before said chap was in the land of nod.
As the train rolled into Brimsdown, the group shook this guy awake and shouted "quick, get off, Broxbourne, your stop!" Drowsy, he thanked them and stumbled out.
The cold air brought him to his senses just after the doors closed. His friends hollered with mirth as the train departed Brimsdown. I reckon his Christmas Day started badly...

A few years ago, I was asked by a group of lads to tell one of their drunk mates that we were at Cambridge, when we were still at something like Potters Bar. They then moved behind him to hide as we came in to the station, and as he looked up and asked where he was.

I played along and said 'Cambridge'. He then jumped up, but didn't get off the train luckily, and they all came over laughing - so it worked out fine.

You've now got me wonderingr what would have happened if he had jumped off because of what I said!!