Trivia: Stations where passengers headed for a completely different destination end up on a regular basis

[baz962]

Only just started reading this thread for the first time. As an ex Overground driver , I occasionally had passengers wanting Acton and not South Acton. Brondesbury and not Brondesbury Park etc and vice versa , although all the stations were close to their near namesake. I can believe that people end up anywhere with a close name or even a totally different one. I used to work at Luton airport in the carparks and you wouldn't believe the amount of people who would either park up or drop other people off and ask , is this Gatwick airport etc. Even had a taxi driver dropping a passenger off and they were supposed to be at Stansted airport. Or they would ask where is Terminal two or North Terminal etc , Luton has only one .

 

[70014IronDuke]

Someone has brought up the station at Willington (between Burton and Derby) in a current thread. It made me wonder if, prior to the closure of Bedford - Cambridge, anyone had ended up 3 miles east of Bedford at the passing loop of Willington, with its deep-blue ER station signs? Fairly unlikely, I agree, but damned upsetting given the paucity of trains at both stations back in the 60s and earlier.

Although, I suppose in wartime, someone coming from E Anglia to Cardington Camp might have been told to go to Willington to be picked up, and instead gone to the Derbyshire station.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I wonder if anyone has ever confused Hampton Wick with Hackney Wick? I've heard both used as "rhyming slang" though only one of them is Cockney!

 

[PTR 444]

Do many people going to Edge Hill University (which is in Ormskirk) unintentionally travel to Edge Hill station (which is in Liverpool)?

 

[Western Sunset]

Someone has brought up the station at Willington (between Burton and Derby) in a current thread. It made me wonder if, prior to the closure of Bedford - Cambridge, anyone had ended up 3 miles east of Bedford at the passing loop of Willington, with its deep-blue ER station signs? Fairly unlikely, I agree, but damned upsetting given the paucity of trains at both stations back in the 60s and earlier.

Although, I suppose in wartime, someone coming from E Anglia to Cardington Camp might have been told to go to Willington to be picked up, and instead gone to the Derbyshire station.

In ye olde days, it was called Repton & Willington, so less confusion.

 

[Purple Train]

I wonder how much confusion there has been between Burnham-on-Crouch station in Essex, Highbridge & Burnham station in Somerset, and Burnham station in western Slough? Although, obviously, the stations all have different names to differentiate, someone unfamiliar with the area, who was visiting a local to Burnham-on Crouch, might be directed by said local to "Burnham" station, and end up in Slough rather than Essex. While Burnham station obviously has the "Bucks" caveat on journey planners and tickets, there is no "Burnham (Bucks)" signage at the actual station; it all just says "Burnham".

 

[geoffk]

As summer approaches, no doubt folk near the stations at Carshalton Beeches and Burnham Beeches will again be approached by a few family groups, buckets and spades in hand, asking which way to go to find the seaside.

And also Woburn Sands.

 

[Purple Train]

As summer approaches, no doubt folk near the stations at Carshalton Beeches and Burnham Beeches will again be approached by a few family groups, buckets and spades in hand, asking which way to go to find the seaside.

Carshalton Beeches, yes, I can imagine that. There isn't much signposting for Burnham Beeches at Burnham station, and it's not particularly close to the station, either.

 

[geoffk]

To be honest I don't think that's a massive issue. Central is very, well, central whereas there is very little for which St Davids is more convenient (they're about even for the uni unless you don't like hills, in which case Central is better). Trains are pretty frequent between St David's and Central (5tph from the May timetable change: 2tph to Exmouth, 1tph to Waterloo, 1tph from Barnstaple to Central, 1tph from Okehampton to Central) and the difference between a St Davids and Central ticket is usually very small (< £1).

When I lived in Worcester there was the idea of renaming Foregate Street station as Worcester Central but nothing came of it. But at least tickets to Worcester are to "Worcester stations", whereas that's not the case in Exeter.

 

[swt_passenger]

Might there be a chance of confusion between Winslow (EWR) and Wilmslow once the new station opens?

 

[Purple Train]

It is a bit off piste but I once had to attend a conference in Santiago, Chile with a colleague. I was surprised to see we were on different flights and even more surprised to see he was booked to San Diego, in California.

All was clear when he tried to say Santiago. He was American and it came out as Sandiego. Tomato, tomayto...

To follow this tangent, and getting very silly now, I wonder if anyone has mixed up Santiago in Chile and Santiago de Compostela in Spain?
Or whether anyone has tried to go to Cyprus in the Mediterranean and ended up at Cyprus DLR station? (Or even vice versa?)
Or has anyone thought that the railway logic of applying the suffix "Road" to a station situated a few miles away from the place it purported to serve applied to Lebanon Road, only to find that it's a rather long hike to Lebanon in western Asia?

More seriously, I wonder if anyone's turned up at St James's Park tube station and asked for directions to Newcastle's football ground, or turned up at the tube station wanting St James Park station in Exeter? Or mixed up Redbridge on the Romsey-Salisbury line with Redbridge on the Central line? Or turned up at Clapton wanting Clacton, or vice versa? Or mixed up Blackhorse Lane and Blackhorse Road? Or mixed up Northfields tube station with Northfield in Birmingham, or even with Moorfields in Liverpool?
(As an aside, does anyone else really dislike the new Tube map?)

 

[MadMac]

And Woburn Sands no doubt.

I’ve told the story here some time ago of the fellow the fellow I encountered at Redondo Beach station on the LA Metro who asked where the beach was: the station is named after the street underneath (Redondo Beach Boulevard). The actual City of Redondo Beach and said beach are some 4 1/2 miles away…..

 

[_SHR_]

Before now I've seen people with tickets for Dewsbury turn up at Shrewsbury.

There was even a man who had a ticket for Salisbury, who must have been misheard at Wolverhampton, that ended up at Shrewsbury after being sent there from Wolves.

There have also been a few people who have had a day out on the Cambrian with tickets to Tywyn (Gwynedd), when they wanted to go to Towyn (Conwy).

 

[MadMac]

To follow this tangent, and getting very silly now, I wonder if anyone has mixed up Santiago in Chile and Santiago de Compostela in Spain?
Or whether anyone has tried to go to Cyprus in the Mediterranean and ended up at Cyprus DLR station? (Or even vice versa?)
Or has anyone thought that the railway logic of applying the suffix "Road" to a station situated a few miles away from the place it purported to serve applied to Lebanon Road, only to find that it's a rather long hike to Lebanon in western Asia?

More seriously, I wonder if anyone's turned up at St James's Park tube station and asked for directions to Newcastle's football ground, or turned up at the tube station wanting St James Park station in Exeter? Or mixed up Redbridge on the Romsey-Salisbury line with Redbridge on the Central line? Or turned up at Clapton wanting Clacton, or vice versa? Or mixed up Blackhorse Lane and Blackhorse Road? Or mixed up Northfields tube station with Northfield in Birmingham, or even with Moorfields in Liverpool?
(As an aside, does anyone else really dislike the new Tube map?)

I think I mentioned previously the letter from Dumbarton to nearby Alexandria which took about nine months to arrive having gone via Egypt. Come to think of it: Alexandria and Alexandra Parade?

 

[Purple Train]

What about Queen's Park and Queens Park? Or the three Whitchurches?

 

[Rescars]

What about Queen's Park and Queens Park? Or the three Whitchurches?

Perhaps it is a good thing then that several Newports have lost their railway stations!

 

[Gloster]

Perhaps it is a good thing then that several Newports have lost their railway stations!

From time to time a case at the court in Newport (Isle of Wight) has to be adjourned because the lawyer, witnesses or defendants have gone to Monmouthshire.

 

[swt_passenger]

I was in the ticket office queue at Swanwick (Hants) a few years ago, and he was arranging a route for a nun to get to a conference near the other Swanwick on the preserved Midland Railway. She’d apparently flown into Heathrow that morning and asked for directions to Swanwick, and was apparently not the first. It was thought someone in her home country must have had seen the preserved station marked on a map.

 

[urbophile]

Abbey Road (DLR) is where a lot of Beatles-obsessed tourists find themselves, if they don't go to Liverpool. I think Maida Vale is the nearest station to the famed Zebra crossing and studios.

I was in the ticket office queue at Swanwick (Hants) a few years ago, and he was arranging a route for a nun to get to a conference near the other Swanwick on the preserved Midland Railway. She’d apparently flown into Heathrow that morning and asked for directions to Swanwick, and was apparently not the first. It was thought someone in her home country must have had seen the preserved station marked on a map.

But if she'd headed for that one she would have been a couple of hundred miles nearer her destination. You'd expect someone going to a conference to have made some more detailed research into their destination than just knowing the name.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Do many people going to Edge Hill University (which is in Ormskirk) unintentionally travel to Edge Hill station (which is in Liverpool)?

Edge Hill's website and prospectus always used to include a note warning people not to alight at the station called Edge Hill.

More seriously, I wonder if anyone's turned up at St James's Park tube station and asked for directions to Newcastle's football ground, or turned up at the tube station wanting St James Park station in Exeter?

I've seen news stories of people typing "Stamford Bridge" into their satnav wanting the Chelsea stadium, then without question blindly following the first result up the A1 to Stamford Bridge in North Yorkshire!

 

[rower40]

My 5mins of fame was a letter published in the Times in 1988 or thereabouts.

There was a debate about whether to rename "Liverpool Street" to "Bishopsgate" or similar, to better reflect its location.

My contribution was to point out that, at the time, there were trains from Cambridge: south to Liverpool Street and Kings Cross, and north to Liverpool Lime Street and Kings Lynn. So the name Liverpool Street had to be retained, if only to heighten the tourists' confusion.

 

[Rescars]

Edge Hill's website and prospectus always used to include a note warning people not to alight at the station called Edge Hill.


I've seen news stories of people typing "Stamford Bridge" into their satnav wanting the Chelsea stadium, then without question blindly following the first result up the A1 to Stamford Bridge in North Yorkshire!

Just as well the Edge Hill Light Railway is no longer around to add to the confusion

 

[snowball]

I was in the ticket office queue at Swanwick (Hants) a few years ago, and he was arranging a route for a nun to get to a conference near the other Swanwick on the preserved Midland Railway. She’d apparently flown into Heathrow that morning

and owed her safe arrival there to people at Swanwick!

 

[185143]

I suspect the vast majority of the traffic is local, and I think all four stations are quite near each other anyway.

Pollokshaws East
Pollokshaws West
Pollokshields East
Pollokshields West

 

[61653 HTAFC]

My 5mins of fame was a letter published in the Times in 1988 or thereabouts.

There was a debate about whether to rename "Liverpool Street" to "Bishopsgate" or similar, to better reflect its location.

My contribution was to point out that, at the time, there were trains from Cambridge: south to Liverpool Street and Kings Cross, and north to Liverpool Lime Street and Kings Lynn. So the name Liverpool Street had to be retained, if only to heighten the tourists' confusion.

The idea of renaming Liverpool Street comes up quite often, and to be fair it would make sense. In most other countries, if a station contains the name of a different city it's because that's the station for travelling to that city (the obvious example being Paris Gare de Lyon). London Liverpool Street is named (indirectly) after Lord Liverpool, which means nothing to the vast majority of travellers, and any trains from there will only take you further away from the city of Liverpool.

The way they deal with this potential confusion at Norwich is even sillier: trains to the city of Liverpool appear on screens as "Lime Street, Liverpool" while trains to London Liverpool Street appear as "Liverpool Street". The logical way of representing these destinations would be to emphasise the city name, rather than the name of the specific station served in those cities. LONDON (Liverpool Street) and LIVERPOOL (Lime Street) would make far more sense. Even better would be if the terminus in London had a less confusing name in the first place.

 

[daodao]

What about Queen's Park and Queens Park? Or the three Whitchurches?

The booking clerk at the Cardiff Central ticket office once tried to sell me a ticket to Whitchurch (Salop) at a cost of £19 single, when all I wanted was a ticket to go home to Whitchurch (South Glam), a mere 4 miles away. Both stations have direct trains from Cardiff Central.

 

[AM9]

I suspect the vast majority of the traffic is local, and I think all four stations are quite near each other anyway.

Pollokshaws East
Pollokshaws West
Pollokshields East
Pollokshields West

That's a load of Polloks!

 

[AlbertBeale]

But if she'd headed for that one she would have been a couple of hundred miles nearer her destination. You'd expect someone going to a conference to have made some more detailed research into their destination than just knowing the name.

In fact, it seems common these days for people to know the name of the place they're going without having an actual address or any idea of where it is geographically - they just seem to assume a little machine in their hand will tell them what to do. (In a non-station context ... I live in central London where there are masses of hotels - some being branches of the same chain. I frequently get asked by tourists the way to Hotel X. Since I never use any of those hotels I never know which is which, but know most of the streets for miles around. So I ask them for the actual address of the place - at least a street name. And they rarely have any idea. When I point out that it would be sensible to know the address of the place you're trying to find, they look puzzled, look back at their screen, and wonder off, still lost.)

Back on topic. The Italian name for Munich is Monaco. In the past there were places in northern Italy with direct trains to both Monaco and Munich. I've often wondered...

 

[Ken H]

Just as well the Edge Hill Light Railway is no longer around to add to the confusion

And there is Edge Hill near Banbury, site of a civil war battle 1642. Sometimes spelled Edgehill.

 

[Revaulx]

Do many people going to Edge Hill University (which is in Ormskirk) unintentionally travel to Edge Hill station (which is in Liverpool)?

Probably. Students who have accepted a place at MNU having been lured by the prospect of Manchester’s groovy student life are frequently disappointed to discover that their course is based at the Crewe campus