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Trivia: Easily confused station names

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telstarbox

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Wye and Rye spring to mind. But recently I worked a service up the Chatham Main Line and was asked clearly for a ticket to ‘Farringdon’, so I sold one. As the train approached Bromley South, the passenger approached me with a slip of paper with an address on it. It turned out she wanted Farningham Road. Doh!
Darenth or South Darenth would be a more useful name for that one.

If it hasn’t already been mentioned, Sheffield and Shenfield.
Mrs T (who is from Essex) went to uni in the former but a relative thought she was off to the latter :)
 
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DustyBin

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I have done this, unfortunately. I'm still not sure which one is which - I had been aiming at the one near Stratford and ended up in south London.

You wanted Forest Gate in that case. On a positive note, should you find yourself in Forest Hill again there’s a pub opposite the station called The Signal which is worth a visit!
 

Gloster

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As a related aside, on that same day just an hour or so later, when I tried to take the bus back into central London I mixed up Camberwell Green (where I intended to change) with Clerkenwell Green (which I put into the journey planner).
Lucky it wasn’t Camberwick Green.
 

AM9

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Abbey Wood, SE London or known locally in Bristol (station oficiallly called Abbey Wood Filton). It's possible that somebody buying a ticket at Reading might ask for either.
 

Springs Branch

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Are there any locations such as Bedford, Luton / Airport, or even St. Pancras, where there's a risk of someone wanting to go to Loughborough buying a ticket or boarding a train heading for Loughborough Junction?


When Liverpool Exchange had trains to medium and longer-distance destinations, there was one departure a week (around Saturday teatime) final destination Bootle. Bootle (Cumberland) that is.
 

Mikey C

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I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but all in historical Kent and served by Southeastern (as was) though there aren't direct trains between them

Chartham and Chatham
and to a lesser extent
Chartham and Charlton
 

Kilopylae

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Abbey Wood, SE London or known locally in Bristol (station oficiallly called Abbey Wood Filton). It's possible that somebody buying a ticket at Reading might ask for either.
I thought it was Filton Abbey Wood (rather than Abbey Wood Filton).

Either way you'd be in particular trouble with that example in somewhere like Birmingham, where I think both fares are in the ballpark of about £50, so the price wouldn't tip you off either.
 

Whisky Papa

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Reddish North, Reddish South? Long wait for a return service at one of them.

Stood in Piccadilly some years ago I once heard the tannoy announcements say what sounded like 'Hester', I couldn't work out whether it was Leicester or Chester until listening to the other stops, which turned out to be the train to St. Pancras, so clearly it was Leicester.

I mentioned on another thread some while ago that I had a lady passenger turn up at Reddish North one evening who actually wanted Redditch, having been sold the wrong ticket and given train times to match somewhere on the E side of London.

I also recall an arriving passenger at Bradford Interchange asking for directions to a Government office of some kind. The MK postcode immediately rang alarm bells - yes, he should have been in Bedford. The saddest thing was he'd travelled from Leicester:(.
 

AM9

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There used to be a schoolboy howler where somebody (presumably in the South-East) asked with a typically London accent, "ticket to 'olborn, and was shocked when they received a bill of several pounds for a ticket to Oban.
 

norbitonflyer

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At the time of the Oxshott incident in 2010, someone on social media queried why the casualties were taken to Epsom General Hospital rather than the "much nearer" John Radcliffe - sixty miles away in Oxford
 

A0wen

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I also recall an arriving passenger at Bradford Interchange asking for directions to a Government office of some kind. The MK postcode immediately rang alarm bells - yes, he should have been in Bedford. The saddest thing was he'd travelled from Leicester:(.

In a similar vein I could imagine somebody getting Norwich and Northwich mixed up, particularly if their command of English wasn't good.
 

Gloster

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From time to time barristers, defendants, witnesses, etc. due to appear in Newport (Isle of Wight) go (or get taken) to Newport (Mon.)
 

DeeGee

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Aylesbury and Aylesford - I've known those two to be confused with each other in the past.
There's a Sainsbury's Supermarket in Aylesford, Aylesford is a postal town and the supermarket lies within the parish's boundaries as well but the receipts and the website describe it as being in Larkfield, two villages along the London Road. When I enquired about this many years ago, they said it was because they didn't want to confuse it with Aylesbury.

Of course, Larkfield is in the postal town of Aylesford, which rather negates the point.

Many times as a student, I'd tell people I came from Maidstone, and they'd confuse it with Maidenhead. And my wife once advised a friend who was moving to Langley (Berks) to chat to me because I had family from King's Langley (Herts).

Tangentially related to the railways, within about 40 miles of one another in northern Lincolnshire are two villages called Ulceby. One has a train station, the other doesn't, and it's nigh on impossible to get from one to the other by public transport if you choose the wrong one. In fact, sadly, a young man died after a night out in Cleethorpes because it is alleged he realised a taxi driver was taking him to the wrong Ulceby, so he got out to return to Cleethorpes only to drown in a ditch while walking back.
 

Gloster

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It is not just the railways that have problems. In 1941 the RAF opened an airfield at Church Stanton on the Somerset/Devon border. Two years later they renamed it Culmhead due to confusion with the airfield at Church Fenton in Yorkshire.
 

steamybrian

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Today from my local station in Kent I asked the booking clerk for a return ticket to Wye and he said "is that Rye or Wye you said"........!
 

adrock1976

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What's it called? It's called Cumbernauld
Unsure if both of these locations ever had a railway station or not, but how about Newbiggin (County Durham), and Newbiggin (Northumberland)?

If I have interpreted railway geography right, both of those would have eventually became part of the North Eastern Railway.

Perhaps somebody who knows that region better than I do could comment further?
 

Cdd89

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Twickenham and Ickenham?
Brentwood and Brentford.

I always like to imagine people buying tickets between similar sounding stations!
 

Glenn1969

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Bramley (Yorks) and Bramley (Hants)
Bradford and Bradford on Avon
Newton, Newton Abbot, Newton st Cyres and Newton for Hyde ?
 

Class800

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Cranbrook - some people may take a long trip down to Devon hoping for Kent! Though the larger Cranbrook has no station. Certainly a source of confusion for our festival!
 
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