Trivia: Easily confused station names

[fkofilee]

Fareham / Farnham

 

[alangla]

Neilston and Newton. Not only similar sounding but similar intermediate stops depending on the route. To avoid confusion, one of them (I think Neilston) shows as <Neilston> on the board at Glasgow Central.

 

[MadMac]

My mum (with a cold) once asked for a ticket to Newark Castle and was sold one to Newcastle

“A decond class return to Dottingham, please”.

Neilston and Newton. Not only similar sounding but similar intermediate stops depending on the route. To avoid confusion, one of them (I think Neilston) shows as <Neilston> on the board at Glasgow Central.

Newton, Newton-on-Ayr, Newton for Hyde, Newton-le-Willows. The possibilities are endless!

Not rail-related, but there was a case of a club in Bo’ness which had booked a band, who called 30 minutes before they should be arriving looking for directions. It emerged that they were in Bowness-on-Windermere…..

 

[Brooke]

Hayes (London) and Hayes (Kent) - I’ve nearly inadvertently bought the wrong ticket before.

My folks once went to Wakefield Westgate instead of Kirkgate for the London train - skim reading, they didn’t realise it was Grand Central and hence Kirkgate.

 

[Wolvercoter]

National Rail Enquiries misheard my request for train times from Oxford to Radley and gave me times from Oxford to Radlett.

 

[kevconnor]

I heard of someone coming to job interview at a location near Wokingham actually travelling to Woking.

Something similar I am aware of. About 15 years ago, whilst working for the recruitment team for a national employer. We were based in Greater Manchester but had significant offices all around the UK, including in Stratford in east London.

One Friday morning, a colleague took a call from a candidate who was scheduled to attend an interview at our Stratford office in 30 mins time and they were asking for directions from the tram stop to the office. On enquiring with the candidate where they meant they were by the tram stop it transpired the candidate had seen our Greater Manchester address on the email signature and concluded that Stratford was in fact Stretford on the Metrolink and took a train from London to Manchester followed by a tram from Manchester Piccadilly to Stretford before ringing and asking for directions.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

All the Acton stations (7 of them)

 

[Gathursty]

Lee
Leigh-on-Sea

Leigh (Kent)
Lye

Forgive my earlier Northern assumption of pronunciations. I hope I have paired these correctly.

 

[fishwomp]

Shipley and Shepley - both were served by through trains from Leeds too, so pay attention. The once daily Leeds-Sheffield via Huddersfield seems to have stopped these days - but it's an easy mis-hearing for the booking offices in W Yorks.

 

[snowball]

Wilmcote and Wilnecote

Which reminds me that Wilmslow will be joined by Winslow when East-West Rail opens.

 

[richard1976]

Dalton and Dalston
Both on the Cumbrian Coast line

 

[Flange Squeal]

Fareham / Farnham

I've known someone travelling from Waterloo to Fareham who actually ended up on the Waterloo to Farnham train!

Don't know if anyone has ever got on a train at St Pancras and ended up in Loughborough, instead of the much closer south London station of Loughborough Junction (or vice versa).

 

[Nova1]

Not *quite* sure if this one counts but
The Lakes mostly shows in journey planners nowadays as The Lakes (Warks). There's stories from older conductors of American tourists asking for a ticket to "The Lakes", expecting the lake district and ending up in the midlands!

 

[172007]

Earlswood and Earlswood. I also enjoy conductors who have been asked to a ticket to Blackheath and quotes loads of money when they wanted to travel to Rowley Regis which to be fair is in Blackheath.

 

[PaulJ]

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!

 

[172007]

Not *quite* sure if this one counts but
The Lakes mostly shows in journey planners nowadays as The Lakes (Warks). There's stories from older conductors of American tourists asking for a ticket to "The Lakes", expecting the lake district and ending up in the midlands!

Have heard a story that a person got off the train at Stratford Upon Avon with a ticket for Stratford London. So the story goes he was waiting for a Marylebone train at B'ham Moor St and a train arrived saying Stratford, thought his luck was in with a direct train.

 

[Dave91131]

Brigg and Drigg.

 

[kentuckytony]

A bit to the side of the topic - but years ago, here in the USA, I took a Greyhound bus to Washington DC (our capitol) to attend my brother's graduation from college.
Unbeknownst to me, the bus company sent my luggage to Washington CH (Courthouse) in Ohio.
I spent three days in the Washington DC area with no clean clothes or undies. Yuchh.
My luggage arrived the day I was going back home - fortunately riding with my parents.

 

[joncombe]

Bentley, one in Hampshire, one in Yorkshire

 

[bramling]

As a bit of light entertainment during a very busy week, I thought I would start this one. Any easily confused station names - preferably real life experiences not hypothetical ones. Probably most will date back to the days before online ticket sales were common!

• Sunbury and Sudbury - Over 15 years ago, I asked for a day return at Woolwich Arsenal and said Sunbury but was issued a ticket to Sudbury (I thought it looked a bit expensive). I noticed when they gave me the ticket, and agreed to re-issue it (correctly). A case of not listening carefully! Or clarifying which county it was in.
• Pollokshaws West and Pollokshields West - even confused by booking offices often according to a guard. At least 5 years ago, there was an unofficial easement to mutually accept tickets from Glasgow to these stations (we got Pollokshields West tickets and were going to Pollokshaws West!) - staff thought it was normal. Hopefully it persists but never official, just a staff agreement. Probably one should be West before the name and the other after!

Shelford and Shalford. I actually managed a complete journey from London to Shalford without noticing the booking office had issued the wrong ticket, and nor did the various staff who checked it. Did explain why the ticket was a bit more expensive than I was expecting though.

 

[AndrewBiro]

Some ago I asked at Slough for a ticket to Gloucester. i was asked if I wanted to go via London which I thought odd and only then realised I was about to be issued with a ticket to Glasgow.

 

[bishdunster]

Bournemouth and Barmouth

 

[DustyBin]

Forest Hill and Forest Gate.

Seven Kings and Seven Sisters.

If somebody isn’t familiar with London I could easily see a mix-up occurring!

 

[richard1976]

Marsden and Marden

 

[quattromatt]

Preston and long Preston.

 

[WesternBiker]

Two weeks ago I was accosted by a man as we alighted from the Wimbledon to Woking train (at Woking) asking me if it was Dorking.

He had a fairly strong Spanish accent, and it transpired he’d been given the wrong information by platform staff at Wimbledon who had misunderstood him.

I felt very sorry for him as he’d clearly missed a meeting of some importance, but I wasn’t able to wait to find out which way to Dorking he was directed by the staff at Woking.

 

[stuart100100]

A Merseyrail ticket office staff member mis heard me once when I asked for a return to Wavertree and they tried to issue a return to Aintree, which could also be confused for Braintree although probably not very often

 

[NSE]

I once asked for a single to St. Neots at Haywards Heath. It seemed suspiciously cheap. I had been sold a single to St. Leonards Warrior Square.

I also had someone check with me that Cambridge and Cambridge Heath were the same thing right? They wanted to go from Cambridge back to London and found a cheaper ticket from
Cambridge Heath, I wonder why……

 

[D821]

A couple of years back I had someone in Liverpool ask me for directions to St. James railway station.
I told them they were about a 100 years too late, for few years early.
I gave them directions to James St instead....

 

[Parallel]

Roose and Rhoose (Cardiff Airport)

Hayes, Hayes & Harlington and Harlington.

Possibly Waterloo (Merseyside) and London Waterloo.

Newcourt and Newport (either South Wales or Essex)

I also wonder how many unsuspecting passengers have almost bought a ticket to Portsmouth Arms thinking it was in Portsmouth... Probably not that many to be fair actually, as the station usage figures are very low!

When I first was interested in the railway I used to get Starcross and Sandplace mixed up, probably because they're both a bit mystical sounding!