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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Leaving someone stranded at 1am at night

449 replies

dranaksjd · 30/08/2016 15:32

Honest opinions wanted here.

Here's the scenario. My friend (she's 26) foudn herself having to return home much later than she expected. This meant she had to get the last train home from Birmingham city centre.

There was a mix up on the departure board which meant she got on the wrong train and ended up in a tiny train station in a village quite far from any major city.

She was clearly distressed as she got off the train and a couple overheard her conversation to her friend. She explain she had only £10
On her, no bank card on her and no idea where she was and no charge on her phone to call anyone to see if they could pick her up.

The couple said they would take her to the main train station in the nearest city which was 10 minutes drive away.

So she got in the car. They dropped her off at that train station at 1am.

She then found a pub willing to let her charge her phone and then when the pub closed she returned to the train station at 2 am. It was at 4am before she realised she could do an emergency transaction using her natwest online banking app.
She comes across as someone who would be comfortably well off so I'm guessing the couple thought she had money but she had explained she did not have her card on her.

She then paid a lot of money for a taxi home.

Now obviously it was nice of the couple to give her a lift the the main train station, but it didn't actually help her much. And they left her at 1am with no cash on her, outside a train station which was boarded up and closed.

That doesn't sit well with me and isn't something I would do. Or am I being unreasonable? Obviously it was unwise of her to travel back at that time but she was not expecting that morning when she left the house to be travelling at that time.

Honest opinions wanted here. And I'm genuinely not the person this post is about.

Just genuinely interested in what others opinion is.

OP posts:
Lorelei76 · 31/08/2016 10:30

It's not Eton Mess, that's what we had this summer in government. Ruined one of my favourite puddings it did.

Seriously though, if I felt compelled to give help to every drunk collapsed on the pavement in central London, I'd never get home. In fact i vowed to stop getting involved in non drunk incidents after attending to a collapsed woman at 5pm and finding she was just bloody drunk! Adults who get themselves in that state can take care of it themselves. Bit old to expect a responsible adult to help for no reason.

SleepDeprivedAndCranky · 31/08/2016 10:36

Why didn't the friend on the phone come and collect her or send someone to fetch her Hmm Confused
At least the couple dropped her somewhere central. The staff in the pub helped her too but the friend on the phone did nothing.

KatieScarlett · 31/08/2016 10:41

I once missed the last train home age 19 from Edinburgh to small town overlooking 2 (soon to be 3) bridges.
I merely went home with the nice boy who walked me to the train station, after calling my mum to let her know I was staying out.
Then did the walk of shame in full party gear the following morning. Into work.
(I was at work night out before missing train).
So I'm not really advocating that as a solution. And it was in 1989 so not relevant either. I just like to tell that story.

FrancisCrawford · 31/08/2016 10:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SlowJinn · 31/08/2016 10:51

Poor PuddingChild. Fancy being abandoned at a mainline railway station at the tender age of 26. What were they thinking?

I bet this thread is picked up by NatWest bank sooner or later, it's a great ad for their emergency cash service Grin

Puremince · 31/08/2016 10:53

My friend and I, both 21, were on a train which arrived late at a small station, meaning that we missed our onward connection. No guards in sight and no one else had got off at that stop. We felt vulnerable so we went to the police station and asked if we could sit in the foyer till the early train. They gave us a lift home (20 miles!) That was in 1985.

EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard · 31/08/2016 10:56

Honest opinion? the strangers didn't leave her stranded at 1am, they offered her some assistance by taking her to a busier location where she should've been able to sort herself out.

I don't know what more anyone would expect them to do?

Munstermonchgirl · 31/08/2016 11:07

I feel I've entered a game of Mornington Crescent with the Great British Bake Off thrown in.

Who needs mind altering substances when there's MN?

LittleLionMansMummy · 31/08/2016 11:21

Leaving her stranded would have been leaving her where she was. They went out of their way to assist a 26 year old (not 16 ffs) who had shown a staggering lack of planning, forethought and organisation. They left her at a mainline station from where even a 16 year old could have used their initiative to navigate their way home successfully. I'd have been extremely grateful to the couple and cursed my own stupidity.

Munstermonchgirl · 31/08/2016 11:27

Railroad Blues Grin

00100001 · 31/08/2016 11:49

This is a brilliant thread

Oh! Also, a Side-Lateral-Shunt to Kings Cross.

FrancisCrawford · 31/08/2016 11:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Buzzardbird · 31/08/2016 11:58

"She's gotta ticket to ri-ide, she's gotta ticket to ri-i-ide, she gotta a ticket to ride and we she don't care!"

LurkingHusband · 31/08/2016 11:58

I bet this thread is picked up by NatWest bank sooner or later, it's a great ad for their emergency cash service

Who do you think started it Hmm ?

LurkingHusband · 31/08/2016 11:59

"Last Train To Clarksville" ?

00100001 · 31/08/2016 12:02

"DH, I have got the wrong train home. and I have no money. Well, I actually have £10. But I got the wrong train. Totally not my fault. Shit happens. So I have £10, and am alone in a station. Please come and get me? I forgot my bank card, what a dolt. I'm alone. It's 1am! Come get me asap. I'm at

... this is your fault Mumsnet!

Munstermonchgirl · 31/08/2016 12:04

Or how about this from Semisonic:

"Closing Time"

Closing time
Open all the doors and let you out into the world
Closing time
Turn all of the lights on over every boy and every girl
Closing time
One last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer
Closing time
You don't have to go home but you can't stay here

[Chorus:]
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
Take me home

Buzzardbird · 31/08/2016 12:04

"Don't leave me this way..."

SlowJinn · 31/08/2016 12:07

*I bet this thread is picked up by NatWest bank sooner or later, it's a great ad for their emergency cash service

Who do you think started it hmm ?*

The OP is NatWest bank? Shock

iknowimcoming · 31/08/2016 12:09

And I would walk five hundred miles .....

LurkingHusband · 31/08/2016 12:09

The OP is NatWest bank?

Given the level of attention they have paid this thread it's a given. I thought everyone knew the line in the Bible:

"And by their customer service you shall know them" ? John Lewis 11:4-7 ?

Boleh · 31/08/2016 12:16

When I was about 15 my train terminated at the station I was getting off at, but arrived late meaning the connection to last train if the day to small rural station was missed leaving the random teen I'd started chatting to stranded. It was an unmanned station and they didn't appear to have made any provision for onward travel. It was pre-mobile days.
My parents drove random teen home to grateful parent - however she was about 14, not 26!
At 26 you expect someone to have mobile and/or cash for a taxi!

IHopeYouStepOnALegoPiece · 31/08/2016 12:18

If NatWest happen to read this then can you sort out your diabolical customer service.

It's absolutely shit, your mobile banking are forever doing updates and still doesn't fucking work, your customer service agents don't know their Arse from their elbow and your in store stuff are equally non the wiser.

You've caused no end of headache and stress over the last few years, I'm thrilled to be finally leaving your shitty service next month.

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