What was your worst train Journey?

[bobmac]

Mine was...
Warning....long story.
December 27th 1998. Edinburgh to Weston-super-mare. Seat booked. 13.36 leave Edin. arriving in Bristol TM 18.30
Long story short..........
Due to snow north of Edinburgh, the train was late.
Due to a broken down train on the line, diverted to London Kings Cross
Due to all the trains finished for the night (00.10)...taxi to W-s-m (paid for by BR)
Due to taxi breaking down...2 hour wait at Heathrow.
Got home in the second taxi at 04.50.
10 hours late.

I'll walk next time.

I missed out all the bits about the train heating breaking down and running out of food and drink.

 

[Mr_T]

That sounds bad bobmac, I don't think my story tops it but my dad was in Brussels and was due to board the Eurostar at 8pm, for whatever reason (I was little I can't remember ) he ended up boarding the train at 12:30, to eurostars credit they did send us a hamper of stuff as an apology

 

[Piece]

That sounds bad bobmac, I don't think my story tops it but my dad was in Brussels and was due to board the Eurostar at 8pm, for whatever reason (I was little I can't remember ) he ended up boarding the train at 12:30, to eurostars credit they did send us a hamper of stuff as an apology

Mine is similar...Meeting in ESTEC in Holland finishes 11am. Get taxi to Schipol with others. They fly home and I take train as I had a return. Get to station and had booked wrong day to return. Had to buy an excess ticket. In the fuss, I missed train to Brussels. Get on train at 2ish. Get to Brussels and alight. Soon realise that I have missed last train back to UK (Ashford) as that's where my car is. Only choice is to buy ticket to Paris... Get to Paris and have to buy a Eurostar ticket, expensive, to Ashford. Big queue at Gard du Nord means I miss this train, leaving the last train from Paris at 21hrs...that doesn't stop at Ashford. . Caught the last train and get off at Ebbsfleet. Get another ticket to Ashford. It's now 2330. Get to Ashford and find I don't have my parking ticket. meaning I can't get out. After some faffing, I pay and get home at 2 in the morning, just 15 hrs after my meeting finished.

 

[NWJocko]

Nothing on this scale but last year, just before Christmas, was travelling to London for work from Preston.

Due to the snow train was 2 hours late at Preston, then took 4 and a half hours to get to Wigan (normally 15 mins).

Needless to say I got off at Wigan and worked my way back.....

 

[Hobbit]

Paris to Rome last year, and the return journey was even worse but for different reasons - or would have been but...

Due to technical problems the train from Paris to Rome was replaced by something out of a museum. It left 3.5hrs late. The restaurant car wasn't staffed, so no food at all - they hadn't announced it before we boarded, so we had the prospect of a 15hr train journey with no food or drink. As it was a museum piece it smelled foisty and was very dirty. The bed was just rubbish. The aircon/heating didn't work - freezing cold thro' the night and boiling hot as the temps rose in the morning. No breakfast because the staff couldn't be ar5ed serving it - it was a cold breakfast that was brought on board at the Milan stop but the passengers only found out half an hour out of Rome when a passenger found the breakfasts still boxed in the guard's office, and a mini riot ensued. And it arrived into Rome 6hrs late(21hrs on a train), where a pickpocket dipped the wife's handbag.

On the day of the return journey we received a phonecall in the hotel telling us that as the French rail unions were on a 48 hr strike it was a 36hr coach journey from Rome to Paris, followed by a xx hour wait at Gare de Nord for a seat on Eurostar - we flew back.

And it was all my fault for booking her a carp 50th b'day present! *sigh*

 

[granters]

Mine was last Friday night...Fancied a little snooze on the Glasgow to Carlisle after a few too many scoops and woke up in Kirconnell (still no idea where it is). Cue my very pregnant wife making a very angry 90 minute drive at 3 am. Come to think of it, the car journey was worse than the train....

 

[Eejit]

Me & my Son were working in Bristol a couple of years ago and the customer said his mate could get us tickets to see Cardiff play Leicester (my team) in the FA Cup 3rd round at Cardiff, i accepted and on the saturday we got the train from Weston Super Mare where we were staying at my mates pub.
We watched the game and asked what time the last train was to Weston and they said 9pm platform 2, so after quite a few beers me and my lad boarded the train at 8.55 on platform 2, a couple of hours later after we dozed off i noticed we had pulled into Shrewsbury station, having climbed aboard the delayed Crewe train that had pulled in before our train, worst thing is the Ticket lady on the train had punched our tickets..... AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!
I can see the funny side now but a cab back cost me £120 at 1am..... ;0)

 

[AmandaJR]

From Rosyth back to Huntingdon via too many places to remember. It was 2003 and when I was a mad runner and took on The Two Bridges 35 Mile Ultra Race. It was flipping torture and by the time I finished one ankle was swollen up like a balloon or an old woman with elephantiasis. Caught the train home the same day and due to engineering works we had to swap twice and both times had to change platforms. The final straw was when we were offloaded onto a coach for the last section of the journey. Last ultra I ever did - on purpose at least but getting lost in a marathon and doing more doesn't count.

 

[Iaing]

Once spent a hectic and unhelpfully alcohol fuelled couple of hours on the Paris metro trying to get from the Gare du Nord station to the Gare du Lyon to catch a train to Nice for the football.
Missed the train comfortably, and having had to shell out another 60 euros, had a 4 hour wait in the station for the next train.

 

[Yerman]

I was returning to Manchester with wife and 3 kids from Euston the day the Hatfield accident brought the system to its knees. Won't bore you with the details but thought we'd never get home so many trains were cancelled -for safety reasons, we ended up in a train that had three trains worth of passengers and travelling at a snails pace. Haven't gone more than a short commute by train ever since.:angry:

 

[fat-tiger]

Mine was last Friday night...Fancied a little snooze on the Glasgow to Carlisle after a few too many scoops and woke up in Kirconnell (still no idea where it is). Cue my very pregnant wife making a very angry 90 minute drive at 3 am. Come to think of it, the car journey was worse than the train....

made me laugh this 1 and reminded me of the time we was on a stag do in hamburg all going back to were we was stopping on the train early hours of the morning and 1 of the lads fell asleep so we all got off and left him, he rolled in about 3 hours after us ,not a happy bunny

 

[A1ex]

Passed out on a train home years ago, woke up at London Paddington at 1am. Found out someone had stolen my phone and wallet aswell. A few hours spent shivvering at Paddington before getting early morning train home. Got in about 6 hours late, minus a £300 phone and wallet.

Pretty shocking trip.

Another bad one as with some Millwall fans on a drunken Friday night. About 15 of us, 5 or so of them. They got off before drop kicking the doors when they shut and making threats. Then in true hollywood style, the doors randomly opened....you can imagine the rest :mmm:

 

[SocketRocket]

Every train journey was my worst one.

 

[RGDave]

Easy. Wolverhampton to Telford. Should take 16 minutes.

Train pulled out, train sat a short par 4 from the platform it just left.

Went back to play 3 off the tee, failed, unloaded it's cargo onto a bus,

Bus left an hour after original train, got stuck in traffic, arrived in Telford 2 hrs 20 minutes late.

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I didn't even want to go to Telford, I mean.....who would anyway?

 

[RGDave]

My mate Brian (he was from Scotland somewhere!?) got on a train at Paddington around midnight, fell asleep and woke up in a place called "Flitwick" at 4.00 in the morning. Had to catch the 5.00am back to Paddington.

None of us know to this day where Flitwick is......

I'd better go and google that one.

 

[MegaSteve]

None of us know to this day where Flitwick is......

The only Flitwick I know is just north of Luton on the M1...

Used to go there years ago when my lads were into RC racing as there was a venue at a school there...

 

[CMAC]

mine is on a regular basis. The jobsworths at the train station have 2 trains on the same platform, front part goes somewhere, back part goes somewhere else. I ask if the front one is my train, usually get a grunt of "aye" and usually end up getting off 3 stops later as I realise its the wrong one again, get taxi home and swear never to get train again.

to be fair its happened twice but i'm nervous everytime now until I see a familiar train station on my route

 

[viscount17]

I haven't used a train in years for more than a cheap day return to London, or a trip to Paris to see the Stones (that was the one when Keith Richard supposedly fell out of a palm tree (he didn't) and the concert was cancelled but the train and hotel were booked and we couldn't get the money back).

Back when I used to get leave trains it was almost a default part of the journey to pull into a station as the rear end of your next train disappeared into the dark and no more trains that day. Fairly frequent breakdowns too - but only in the middle of nowhere, in appalling weather, and with no heating.

 

[G1BB0]

easy one for me. Going home on leave from Aldershot to Barrow in Furness, missed connection at euston, then delayed to preston, missed last train and spent the night freezing my nads off until the morning. A wast of half a days leave and a night out with the boys... bloody british fail (as it was back then)

 

[CliveW]

I hadn't been on a train for years so when a trip to the Edinburgh Festival came round I decided to do my bit for the environment and use public transport. Now I live about 50 odd miles from Edinburgh, so I decided on the train. My two nearest stations are 10 miles away, one in Dundee the other Perth. As buses are few and far between my trip would involve the car getting me to the station, but the cost of parking would be astronomical so I decided to start my train journey from Leuchars (Near St Andrews). This then entailed a 30 minute drive to the station and then a 30 minute wait as the train I was expecting was cancelled. When the train did arrive, it was full and took 1 hour 10 minutes to Edinburgh, so all in all the journey which would have taken less than an hour by car took over two hours.
The return journey was worse. I left to catch the 22.30 train home which was also cancelled and I finally rocked home at 1 am!
The cost of the return ticket was as near as damn it £20 and I spent more time with Brish Rail than I spent at the Festival!
So much for using public transport. It will be a long time before I use it again.
As an aside, I am flying from Manchester to Florida in February for a golf holiday so I took a look to see what BR suggested for trains. It would involve three trains and a journey time of 11 hours. Now where are my car keys?