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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2005 10:19:21 GMT
back in the 1980s when I worked in a BR fares office, we often came across confusion with station names etc. A request for a fare to Shoreham would be met with "by Sea?" (as opposed to Kent) with the answer "no, by train!" A passenger for West Grinstead (long after closure) was once ticketed to East Grinstead, followed by a demand for a very expensive taxi fare refund.
A bad telephone line once involved me giving a fare from Exeter to Peterborough, then to Pulborough and finally third time lucky from Epsom to Pulborough!
And passengers have asked for Battersea Coward (Bettws-y-Coed).
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Post by John tuthill on Dec 1, 2005 13:33:22 GMT
A friend of mine use to be a conductor on the 25 out of BW, a number of Americans who got on outside Claridges, seeing 'STRATFORD' on the front, often asked "Do you stop outside Shakespeare's House?" My own personal favorite, I was working off Piccadilly a few years ago, an American asked me how to get to Heathrow. I pointed him towards Green Park Station, and said "Look on the map, you want the Piccafdilly Line." I went down onto the west bound about an hour later, to see same Yank sitting there. when I asked him why he was still waiting, he said "I'm waiting for a BLUE train." Honest it did happen!! You wonder how they went to the moon!!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2005 10:45:33 GMT
We once had a passenger ask for Tubs Hill, long after renaming as Sevenoaks. He was ticketed to Tulse Hill!
A passenger once asked me for a fare from Croydon to Epsom round about Derby Day. Intending to give him a fare to Tattenham Corner (more convenient for the course than Epsom Downs) I asked him whether he was going to the Derby. The answer was, "no, The Oaks actually!"
There is an apocryphal story that a woman at a Glasgow terminus heard a fellow passenger ask for Marylebone, single. Thinking she'd been asked for her name and status she said to the booking clerk something like "Mary McDonald, married".
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2005 10:48:36 GMT
I had a curious experience at Earls Court Underground some time ago. Seeing a westbound train arrive showing Rayners Lane (repeated by the platform indicator) I convinced myself that it was wrong and was about to tell someone when I realised that I was thinking of Arnos Grove instead!!
Weird!
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