Passengers making mistakes

[PermitToTravel]

Mojo maniacmartin and I recently saw a gentleman on the 2220 from York who intended to travel to Doncaster but overshot and woke around Belle Isle

I've also woken a few sleepers on the N7 at Northolt who wanted to get off somewhere east of Marble Arch

 

[DelayRepay]

One December, I'd done a lot of journeys for work and a few personal journeys and my wallet was full of used and unused tickets.

I carefully sorted these into three piles:
Used tickets and receipts to save for my expenses claims
Used tickets and receipts for personal journeys which could be thrown away
Unused tickets for future journeys

I then promptly threw the unused tickets in the bin, and put the used ones back in my wallet... I only discovered this when I was getting ready to go to the station the next day so had to buy some replacement tickets. My originals had been cheap advances but as I was replacing them close to the date of travel, the replacements cost more.

That little error cost me about £100 - a mistake I won't be making again!!

 

[nicobobinus]

Having been down in Portsmouth from London when I was studying there (a journey I was commuting at the time) and in possession of a YP discounted day return, I went out to the SU with some coursemates for a 'few' drinks after lectures. Come 10pm and I was not in a good way.. I realised I needed to get back to P&S for the last train to London, made my farewells and staggered out across Guildhall to the station.

When I got there I was aware of delays affecting trains, but did not have sufficient vision to work out what the departure screens in the station were actually saying - lots of yellow times and flashing lines where the usual trains should have been listed on the departures. A 444 turned up, sacrificing logic for hope I mentally matched its presence with when the last up to London should be due and hopped on, sat down and went into a doze...

..an undetermined period later I was awoken by a couple of train crew. The train was empty. Looking outside I could see other trains but a notable lack of station. For where was I? How far had we travelled? Fratton depot. I was led out, mumbling apologies and being made aware that there were definitely no more trains to London at whatever time it actually was. Cue a night spent getting some half sleep on a newspaper somewhere discreet in Guildhall Square, then trudging down to Portsmouth Harbour at about half past four for the first train to London. Yesterday's day return had expired meaning I needed a new ticket.. I was down just shy of £25, even with a YP discount applied. In future I would spend the extra pound or so as an insurance policy and get an off peak return for those journeys.

The icing on the cake was, having fallen into a deep sleep on the first train to London, I then finally awoke heading back south somewhere in the Wimbledon area...

 

[Clip]

Just missin gthe last train south when up North watching the football. Brand new ticket and hotel for the night set me back a pretty penny hence. Now I never travel on advances as Its just too risky when I go back home.

 

[neilmc]

When Virgin worked the Cross-Country network I once booked two advances from Stockport to Bristol and back rather than an off-peak return. When I picked up the return part on arrival at Temple Meads the machine printed the actual time I'd collected the ticket which coincided with the time of a Manchester train, so when I (carelessly I admit) checked the ticket I took this to be the time of the train I had booked for and ended up on the wrong train, having to buy a new full-fare single.

However when I complained to Virgin about the time confusion they refunded me the cost of the mistake.

 

[455driver]

You should have gone to Waterloo for BNS!

But it was an 'any permitted' ticket so they went via Crewe, Glasgow, Edinburgh, York, Leeds, Peterborough, Norwich, Basingstoke, Reading and twickenham!

It was a few years ago when there were direct trains between Norwich (or somewhere over there) to Basingstoke!

 

[quarella]

A couple of years ago I took the God-brat, then aged about 12 up to London. Science Museum, Tower Bridge exhibition etc. Travelling on staff boxes and Priv Oyster myself. Not sure how he would cope with London, and with a good personal record of arriving at Paddington to see the tale lights disappearing I bought an off peak ticket for him and a Zones 12 Travelcard, reserved seats for the outward journey and keep them all safely in my ticket wallet with my staff pass etc.
Early afternoon digging out the travelcard on the Underground I discover that at some point, making sure he was safely through the ticket gates I had dropped the return half of his ticket back to Neath. No idea where so it was brave the United Nations of Paddington booking office and buy a single at around £20.00 as I recall though not as close to a return price as Supersavers were when I worked in a booking office.

More expensive was when I first had my boxes and with a toothbrush and change of undies just went off travelling around "Because I could."
Hadn't thought of overnight trains or making sure I could get home and found myself in Birmingham New St at 2230 not sure what to do but thinking it is probably a better location for accommodation at this hour than somewhere smaller. I went outside the station and asked a policemen if he knew of any hotels. He directed me to one which was nice but £50.00 was a bit of a shock coming from a seaside town where B&Bs were advertising £12.00 and one hell of a dent in my £5.25 per hour 25 hour contract. (I did more hours on that contract than I did when I went full time).

 

[Frothy]

A few years ago I was flying into Birmingham from Palma de Mallorca and had a booked advance ticket Birmingham International - Hope Derbyshire for ~£8 with booked portions BHI-BHM and BHM-Sheffield. The flight was only 40min or so late but I missed the the booked trains, cheekily bought a BHI-Sheffield ticket.

Cost £25. At the time, this was a big deal. Then again, I haven't as many years to rack up an impressive slew of expensive mistakes...

 

[amateur]

My most expensive mistake?
Being born or being on this planet!

 

[tsr]

My most expensive mistake is probably forgetting to refund a handful of CDRs on the Southern website (as part of their money back guarantee) and losing about £36. I decided that buying tickets for my (at the time) part-time commute at the station was probably wiser thereafter, unless there were any special online-only deals!

Luckily, I have never had a major issue caused by sleeping on a train, although I have been known to leave it to the last permissible moment before vacating a Caledonian Sleeper cabin, due to overenthusiastic and long-winded conversation over the consumption of haggis the night before...!

 

[PermitToTravel]

You live a wild life!

 

[fairysdad]

Tiverton Parkway to London a few years ago. Advance tickets. Got the day wrong to start with, and got tickets for a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday. So had to change them. Then realised that I actually bought tickets for the wrong week. (Bizzarely though, I had the correct return date, so not sure what happened there.) So decided that instead of paying out another tenner on changing the tickets, I'd get a Megatrain ticket from Exeter to Waterloo, plus a single from Tivvy to Exeter.

Unfortunately, the day I was travelling was a bit of a damp one, and there were some freak storms in east Devon, causing ice and snow to fall in one village, and - more importantly for me - flooding the line at Stoke Canon. Needing to get to London regardless, I had to get a walk-on ticket to Paddington, couldn't get a refund on the Megatrain service (as that was still running fine) and couldn't get a refund on the advance tickets that were still in my pocket as they were dated a week earlier.

Can't remember how much it cost me, but it was probably my most expensive mistake.

 

[Trainfan344]

You could have bought a railcard from any station with a ticket office for £30

I could have done, or I could have waited a few days like I did and got a free 4 year railcard, I know which one I preferred.

 

[dvboy]

One December, I'd done a lot of journeys for work and a few personal journeys and my wallet was full of used and unused tickets.

I carefully sorted these into three piles:
Used tickets and receipts to save for my expenses claims
Used tickets and receipts for personal journeys which could be thrown away
Unused tickets for future journeys

I then promptly threw the unused tickets in the bin, and put the used ones back in my wallet... I only discovered this when I was getting ready to go to the station the next day so had to buy some replacement tickets. My originals had been cheap advances but as I was replacing them close to the date of travel, the replacements cost more.

That little error cost me about £100 - a mistake I won't be making again!!

Reminds me of when I put a load of Advances through a washing machine. Managed to piece them back together somewhat and use them thankfully.

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=90809&highlight=washing

 

[reb0118]

Having to spend in the region of £40odd quid because I didn't sort my railcard out in time and had advances booked with railcard discount.

You could have bought a railcard from any station with a ticket office for £30

I could have done, or I could have waited a few days like I did and got a free 4 year railcard, I know which one I preferred.

Personally, I would have bought a new railcard at £30 and still have been £10 up on the deal. I would have kept the 4 year railcard safe and used the yearly card until it expired. That said we are all wise after the fact.

 

[quarella]

Forgetting to change the date on the APTIS machine and doing 50 tickets for a group for the wrong da . Very expensive timewise having to non issue and log that lot.

 

[londiscape]

I was going to go with 'shacking up with an ex' but DarloRich already got that one further upthread...

 

[tsr]

You live a wild life!

Hahaha! This thread does not do justice to some of my more amusing (but cheaper) escapades, but I will admit that my last couple of Caledonian Sleeper adventures did not make use of anything on the menu more exciting than haggis. As for the tickets, I guess I am just too careful and precise! I don't really like sleeping on journeys other than Sleepers and so I rarely overshoot my destination.

 

[Tetchytyke]

You mean apart from the divorce?

Not really my mistake, but Stagecoach Newcastle's, but having allowed 45 minutes leeway to catch a train from Newcastle to Stansted Airport several buses blobbed and I missed the train. It could have been worse, the ticket seller at Newcastle station was adamant I could only buy a peak ticket as I'd missed my booked train but I went away, thought about what to do, then went back and found someone who wasn't a fool who sold an off-peak ticket (£125 for two of us).

It wasn't expensive in the end though. As we knew someone high enough up in NXEC at the time we got the £125 back in RTVs

 

[maniacmartin]

Personally, I would have bought a new railcard at £30 and still have been £10 up on the deal. I would have kept the 4 year railcard safe and used the yearly card until it expired. That said we are all wise after the fact.

Probably only about £5 up after the cost of getting a new passport photo is factored in, assuming that one can find a passport photo booth in a hurry.

 

[nw1]

On Thursday evening I boarded the 2049 from Wolverhampton to Manchester Piccadilly mistakenly assuming it called at Stafford (all other XC to Manchester trains Mon-Sat do). I think the guard was sympathetic (or not bothered about an excess) and I got away with paying for the fare from Stoke on Trent back to Stafford, and the extra hour it added to my journey.

It made me wonder what kinds of mistakes people have made getting on the wrong train and how much it has cost them?

Missing a pre-booked train at Dumfries, travelling back to Southampton. Cost me about £100. TBH I don't know why I booked the advance in the first place, it was only £10 or so cheaper than the regular return!

 

[Gathursty]

Any of you noticed a nearby passenger go sheet-white when they have missed their station and the next call is many miles way? Or a passenger stood on one platform whilst their intended target departs from another? Any travels on tickets clearly miles away from where they should be (don't include creative ticketing tales please)?

 

[trainophile]

The weekday TPE 1420 Man Picc to Cleethorpes often departs from the same platform but in front of the 1430 ATW to Milford Haven. However invariably a load of people pile onto the ATW, and when the TM comes through loudly informing people that this is the South Wales service and are they sure they are on the right train, most of them stampede off again, often with a degree of panic! . Don't think any have missed their correct train yet, but one day...

 

[Bishopstone]

Any of you noticed a nearby passenger go sheet-white when they have missed their station and the next call is many miles way? Or a passenger stood on one platform whilst their intended target departs from another? Any travels on tickets clearly miles away from where they should be (don't include creative ticketing tales please)?

The 'Gatwick Express' branded trains to and from Eastbourne, in the peak, that don't stop at Gatwick Airport caught a few people out. The 'Gatwick' part of the external branding was subsequently removed.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I shamefully - (35 years on the railways) - jumped onto a 465 at London Bridge today - intending to go to Blackheath - and ended up in Deptford - then Greenwich - and corrected myself with a bus ride......

People often pile onto a fast Bedford at St Pancras - intending to go to Cricklewood or similar - sigh - and point them them to the stopper on the up slow from no 1 !

 

[andrewkeith5]

The most memorable situation fitting your description that I have was on the second-last train from Reading to Gatwick Airport. This train stables at Gatwick overnight and so there is no return equivalent - unfortunately, for the young chap sitting on the adjacent table, who woke up just as the last train in the other direction passed us to ask if we had arrived at Guildford yet. We had - 20 minutes earlier! I believe he spent the night at Gatwick Airport in the end. Sadly the Train Manager was hiding in the rear cab and didn't respond when we knocked on the door so I've no idea whether he was landed a Penalty Fare or whether the staff at Gatwick took pity on him!

 

[Parallel]

This happens all the time at Bath Spa. As there are only 2 platforms, all the services to London Paddington or the South Coast depart from platform 2, but if the South Coast trains run a few mins late then they depart around the time the London Paddington trains are meant to so you quite frequently get people who get stuck on the wrong train. The same for the London Waterloo trains, someone has paid a hefty off-peak ticket to London expecting a high speed service and then ends up getting a tour of the south for over three hours

 

[user15681]

At Victoria recently, a couple wanting to go to Orpington (platforms 3/4) ended up on a train to Dartford (platform 7). How on earth they missed (they had a bottle of wine with them...) the large departure boards, announcements, platform departure screens and on train information is beyond me. It wasn't as if they'd accidentally gone to a platform next door by mistake either.

In the end they launched a foul mouthed tirade of abuse at the gate line staff, because it was totally all their fault, and in the end BTP were called so they could spend a night with them

 

[rick9525]

Late night at Piccadilly, York Service often comes in and goes out on the same platform as the Hadfield service which is sat at the arrival end for quite some time before York service comes in.
The monitor will update and show York service at the departure end a few mins before the service comes in but people still get on the 3 car electric until an alert guard will make a few announcements. Even when the York train is in people still get on the service nearest to them.

A few also mistake the Sheffield stopper and yet some get on and seem non the wiser there is a fast service.

 

[edwin_m]

Many years ago I got on a train at Ipswich expecting it to be the last train of the night to Cambridge, but that was the rear train in the platform and I had actually boarded a Felixstowe! I was able to alight at Westerfield and return quite soon but by then the Cambridge had left so it was a night in the waiting room. In mitigation I plead no on-train announcements with the old DMUs, quite possibly no destination shown on the blinds and probably little in the way of platform departure screens.

I once also narrowly avoided heading for Taunton from Bristol Temple Meads because the train standing under the indicator for Birmingham was actually one that was too long for the other end of the platform. I was able to jump off when they announced it but left my coat on the rack and had to pay £16 to Virgin XC to send it on.