Pity the por bloke who has been waiting for a train at Liverpool Road station in Manchester since 1844- not so brief an encounter.

Which of the following is NOT a real excuse for a delayed or cancelled train in the UK?

1. This (cancellation) is due to slippery rain.
2. The train now arriving on platform one is on fire. Passengers are advised not to board this train.
3. Delays have been caused by a giant clown on the line.
4. We apologise for the late running of this service. This was due to excessive heat on the tracks. (It was the first sunny day of the year.)
5. "We apologise for the delay to customers on platform one. This is due to a delay in the actual service."











Answer: they are all real excuses.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...te-trains.html

Which of the following is NOT a real excuse for a delayed or cancelled train in the UK?>

#3? Although...

Oops - the final explanatory paragfraph was too low on my screen so missed the answer you gave which I thought it was probably but was too obvious. Large clown on tracks?

I was on a train going through Clapham station once when the guard made the following announcement:

"passengers for the following places should alight here - Brighton, Eastbourne, Gatwick, Dover, Calais, Paris, Venice on the Orient express, Istanbul, ......"

by the time he'd finished we'd all cracked up and we were almost at Waterloo.

I have also heard "the wrong sort of snow", cows on the line, and [more times than I care to mention] the dreaded "leaves on the line".

Waiting at Guildford one afternoon, I heard an announcement of a delay because of "Llamas on the line".

ok willit - you win the "daftest thing on the line" competition.

unless someone out there knows different!

I was waiting for a train once and the announcer said, quite increduoulsy to me, "that the driver forgot to stop and customers for next stations should cross the tracks, take the next train back to X and reboard for their intended station.

Forgot to stop - he did stop but about 200 metres beyond the platform and I guess rules prevented backing up?

Anyway weird and never seen such in years of European train travel!

Pal - I was once on a train out of Victoria that went the wrong way. [no, you haven't read that wrong!] Along with many others I was supposed to change at East Croydon, so it was disconcerting to say the least when we saw that we were going through Mitcham junction. We finally ended up in Horsham after a very slow journey with the guard up in the cab with the driver spotting where we were as we went through each station.

After the poor driver and guard had walked along the platform and been pelted with empty beer cans from the now dry buffet car, the train reversed up the line, all the way back to East Croydon, though I alighted at Gatwick and got a cab home as it was already midnight by then, and I'd started my journey just after 9pm! After some argument, British Rail even paid for the cab - I think that it was about £13.

After 30 years or so I can't remember how I discovered this, but it turned out that the man on the south London signal box had gone off sick, leaving the signals in the "wrong" place - they were certainly wrong for our train. I do remember the woman in my carriage who was worried that her husband would never believe her and would assume that she'd stayed out late with her lover! In those pre-mobile phone days, people used to worry about things like that!

Incredible annhig in any place but BritRail Britain!

yes it was incredible, Pal, and I've never met anyone who has had anything like it happen to them.

not even you!