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

[61653 HTAFC]

I wonder if anyone ever confused Bradford-on-Avon with Bradford.

Tickets to the West Riding city do (or at least used to) list the destination as "Bradford (Yorks) Stns", so presumably someone identified a potential confusion. Similarly Marsden is "Marsden (Yorks)" to avoid confusion with Marden in Kent.
In the early days of the railway, the village of Marsden in Lancashire had its station named after the nearby Nelson Inn to avoid confusion with the aforementioned Marsden. The Lancashire settlement is now known as Nelson rather than Marsden.

 

[Mogz]

I don’t know if it happens on a regular basis but there must be somebody who asked for Waterloo and ended up on Merseyside.

 

[Broken70]

I was on the Coventry - Nuneaton service last week (starts at Leamington Spa) and as we arrived at Nuneaton it became apparent half the passengers who boarded in Coventry actually wanted Birmingham New St finding themselves with 5 minutes to navigate Nuneaton and find the XC Turbostar going the correct way.

 

[30907]

Given the minimal understanding of geography that many people have, the whole concept of 'wrong direction' doesn't exist for some.

Plenty of people will suddenly need to make an unfamiliar journey - to a funeral, conference, job interview, etc., often under stressful circumstances. I can accept that by car most folk these days would use a satnav with a postcode (although even there only one character out can give some 'interesting' results - HR for Hereford as against HS for Hebrides, for example).

There are stories enough circulating of satnavs (or other methods of navigation) taking people to completely the wrong place.

 

[Ken H]

There are stories enough circulating of satnavs (or other methods of navigation) taking people to completely the wrong place.

I got a lift from a colleague from Warwick to Wembley. He had his satnav on all the way. Its A46, M40, A40 till the N Circular. Did he really need a satnav for that.
He went up North for a family weekend away. He was diverted off the A1(M) north of Wetherby onto the parallel A168. He complained the SatNave was jabbering at him to get on the A1(M), even though it was closed. Did he really need SatNav to get from Derby to Scotch Corner then over the A66 to Brough?
People have no idea where they are gong these days. they never look at a paper map. Without SatNav they are lost.
I does not surprise me one little bit people get on the wrong train and have no idea where they are going.

There was a question on Millionaire - the fastest finger first thing. They had to put some towns in in south to north order. very few of them could do it! How can someone not know Cheltenham is south of Doncaster!!

 

[MadMac]

There are stories enough circulating of satnavs (or other methods of navigation) taking people to completely the wrong place.

There was one reported some years ago of an elderly couple being stopped by police on the M25 late one night as they were travelling rather slowly. It emerged that they were trying to get to Newcastle and were in their third time round looking for the exit…..

 

[philthetube]

I use Google maps or Waze every time I am on the Motorway, not because I don't know the way but because if there are delays it will usually tell me and possibly divert me off the Motorway, has saved me hours on occasions.

 

[NSE]

I got a lift from a colleague from Warwick to Wembley. He had his satnav on all the way. Its A46, M40, A40 till the N Circular. Did he really need a satnav for that.
He went up North for a family weekend away. He was diverted off the A1(M) north of Wetherby onto the parallel A168. He complained the SatNave was jabbering at him to get on the A1(M), even though it was closed. Did he really need SatNav to get from Derby to Scotch Corner then over the A66 to Brough?
People have no idea where they are gong these days. they never look at a paper map. Without SatNav they are lost.
I does not surprise me one little bit people get on the wrong train and have no idea where they are going.

There was a question on Millionaire - the fastest finger first thing. They had to put some towns in in south to north order. very few of them could do it! How can someone not know Cheltenham is south of Doncaster!!

Whilst I appreciate your point, if you have no interest in Geography or maps, why would you know? Some people have the sat nav to reassure them or check for traffic or maybe do a diversion on the fly.

If you have no interest in something, why would you know. I do not listen to the radio and so do not know large amounts of modern music, names of artists or songs etc. Yes, its readily available for me to research and listen to, but I have no interest. So I don’t. Sure, you might say, but roads take you places etc, but, if a sat nav does it for you. Sorted.

 

[PeterY]

Station staff tell me that Wokingham is regularly visited by people who either:
(a) wanted to go to Woking in Surrey, but ended up in Wokingham in Berkshire
(b) wanted to go to Wokingham, but were sold tickets to Woking

My daughter lives in Wokingham and when I visit her by train, I emphasize the HAM bit, asking for a return to WokingHAM.

 

[norbitonflyer]

But it's no different to Milano/Milan, ....... or München/Munich.

And, confusingly, if you are in Milan and get a train to "Monaco" you will end up in Bavaria, not the Cote d'Azur.

I'm surprised that the Hayes stations were not suffixed Kent and Middlesex, like the Ashford stations.


Yes, I think that should solve the problem. Would services from Norwich go to any London terminus other than Liverpool Street? Are there any stations other than Norwich where this confusion might arise?

Ely, certainly.

Kiveton Bridge would be a reasonable approximation.

Pont Trekif

One I've seen was someone getting on a train at London Bridge getting on a train to Hastings when they needed to go to Hayes.

I have eindered whether a mishearing of this kind was a contributory factor in the 1957 Lewisham disaster. A Hastings train was wrongly given the route for the Hayes train following it, causinng delays to both trains. Befire it could be sorted out, another train had run into the back of the Hayes train (it was a very foggy evening).
At the time, train describers passed from box to box only distinguished between steam and electric. It seems there was no consistent practice for the new Hastings diesels (which had electric performance but were still running on steam schedules), hence the misunderstanding.