Leaving someone stranded at 1am at night

[dranaksjd]

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.

00100001

I see your side lateral shunt and give you a triple loop reverse to Leicester Square. Just because it's the last day of the month. Pudding anyone?

people really shouldn't start these threads when I've got work to do

You've caused no end of headache and stress over the last few years

No disrespect, but why did you put up with it for years ? It's how they get away with it.

Have you not had the satisfaction of making a complaint, having it ignored, and closing your account on the spot ?

It's almost as good as sex

"We're on a road to nowhere
Come on inside
Taking that ride to nowhere
We'll take that ride
I'm feeling okay this morning
And you know
We're on the road to paradise
Here we go, here we go"

munstermonch Really? Most... unusual% play there!

I recently had the immense satisfaction of closing Nat West account.

^"Take me home,
country roads ..."^

She's a proper numpty

I missed the last train home after a 14 hour flight and had lost my card enroute , walked into the local Nick and snoozed on the chairs in there til the first train. Was dating OH at the time and he wanted to get me a cab. I told him no wasn't giving any cab driver £100 for that journey (and neither was he) and I'd wait til the first train. Now I've discovered uber I might have done it differently .

Where is OP?

Has the track gone as far a the railway bridge?

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

Are you a complete fuck wit? Is your mate a dozy pudding? Then get the NatWest banking app for when you do something completely dappy and expect everyone else to sort your shit out for you.

*If anyone finds themselves in this scenario again (eg if a train is late and a connection is missed) then definitely worth talking to the platform guard&

Good luck finding a guard in a small station in the country at 1 a.m. They don't even have guards after 10 p.m. at my local suburban station.

I'm still trying to work out what train it was. The train goes in the same direction as the friends normal train, as it goes to the same destination but has a first stop, a 'tiny village' that is around £100 taxi fare from where the friend lives?
Logically if its first stop is a tiny village it must be a local line, and the friend must get an even more local line. Meaning probably the friend lives very near or in birmingham. But the nearest city to the tiny village cannot have been Birmingham otherwise surely op could have got home for less than £100. Despite the fact it must be a local line.
If
the tiny village is £100 taxi fare from where the friend lives but the train goes in the same direction and just goes through her stop, it must take much longer to get there than the normal friends stop (probably around an hour longer). I'm surprised the friend didn't notice that a journey that normally takes say 20 minutes was taking an hour? In which case could she not have charged her phone on the train (most trains have plug sockets, especially those going an hour out of Birmingham for there first stop) and rung a friend to say "on the wrong train, could you pick me up/send taxi to x station"
It makes no sense.

OPs friend ?

OP please come back and entertain us some more.

Maybe this describes the OP/her friend:

It's one step brighter
Hanging out of the windows
In the corridors
Should your reflection fail
There's visions for sale
Pretend they're anything
My friends they could be anything
Different names
Changes everything

from 'Brighter' by (wait for it...) The Railway Children.

I would have simply got a taxi home, got said driver to take me to a cash point with my bank card that I had left at home...got him to take me back home, paid him (plus added on a tip for the inconvenience of me being an idiot) and that would be it.

The strangers were nice and did what they could. No they should not be expected to do anything more, nor should they be expected to do anything at all really, they were just being nice.

charlie your post sounds like one of those maths problems!

"If a train is heading north at 120mph and a taxi costs £100, how many passengers got stranded at 1am?"

Charlie, it doesn't have to be the same line. Trains from Moor Street go to Stratford via Solihull or Shirley. It is the same route as far as Tysley and then it varies they join up again later.

Maybe she wanted the Solihull train, got on the Shirley one by mistake and got off at Earlswood by mistake. Except that is not the first stop. Then they could have taken her to Dorridge there is a pub opposite the station.
I can't fit the 100 pound taxi in though.

I have a friend who's very flakey like that, but she's not demanding. If she was in that situation she'd probably just sit down and read until the first train.

Can I ask how many people on here when going out for the night, take your phone charger with you?

Secondly, rather than waiting hours for the phone to charge, why did she not go to a public telephone, ring her friend and reverse the charges? Friend could have then called a cab.

I have a portable charger that I take everywhere with me

Mostly because my iPhone is a pile of shit and lasts only a day with battery but it's so useful to have

Ah I didn't know such a thing existed Queenbean. I'm a mobile luddite - bought a PAYG 2 years ago with £10 credit - still £5 on it and had visions of carrying around a long lead with a big plug on the end

I can't describe how satisfying I've found this entire thread. Terry Fuckwit

Lucky they weren't called Fred and Rose.

Can I ask how many people on here when going out for the night, take your phone charger with you?
I'm assuming that she could charge her phone at the pub with the charger someone had there. All you need is a lightning cable and a powered USB socket if it was an iPhone. I don't think she had it either her.

Secondly, rather than waiting hours for the phone to charge, why did she not go to a public telephone, ring her friend and reverse the charges? Friend could have then called a cab.
Most people these days don't know numbers of by heart any more.

YABU - the couple whom she was a stranger to were under no obligation to save her the costs of an expensive taxi fare because of her own stuff-ups. It was very nice of them to give her a lift to the main station in the first place.