To be sad that no one would help

[Parpadew]

Emergency last night and I needed someone to drive a forty minute round trip. That's all. Never asked for this or any favour really before. I offered to pay. No one would help. Not my mum, siblings. One friend would have but she's on holiday. Got a taxi in the end but it was sheer luck one turned up as it's not a well covered part of the country.

Feel really alone right now!

You've never been in this situation have you? I was on a train to Plymouth, it stopped at every station from London as there was an incident in London, so it was pretty late. It stopped at Exeter made everyone get out. There were no staff in the station and the train went. Leaving everyone stranded on the station. There was supposed to be one more train to Plymouth but we doubted it would go. No help from the train company whatsoever.

I live in the city - London.

I was once stranded in the country and it was PITCH black! I would have never made my train and luckily someone (who we were at an event with) offered to drive us.

I understand living in country means that there are situations where you need a car. When I visit my friends they always drive me around as cabs can be less reliable.

As a driver if a friend was stranded I would go out and help. If I couldn’t (as I’m also an anxious driver) then would do my absolute best to help and would have kept checking in. If I was needed then I would help.

I do find people are less helpful now though.

Thanks - I was wondering if people were stuck on station platforms/waiting rooms or able to stay in trains.

When I mentioned dozens of people I was thinking solely of the number of people maybe on OP's DP's train, and not wanting to potentially exaggerate numbers with him, not the many hundreds or more caught up in this whole debacle.

At any rate he wasn't stuck alone on a deserted station.

I live in the Country, but all the train stations that might be used are only semi rural and always a pub or something nearby. Surely could have gone there unless ill or something, and keep trying taxis till I got one, would certainly be easier to get one near a station then your home,or you could keep phoning round different firms and get one sent to them

You should learn to drive, then you can be self-sufficient in these types of circumstances. Unless there is an extremely good reason why you don’t, I wouldn’t see it as your relatives’ obligation to do this (especially on cold, dark nights).

There's not much point having family/friends if they won't help you out in a bind is there? Leave them to it OP, I would be upset as well and probably be done with them. At least you have a good friend who would've helped if she wasn't on holiday.

Haha people who live in cities don't realise that in some places its almost IMPOSSIBLE to get a taxi.

I posted too soon - I started to edit my post to say that the initial issue was finally fixed at half past four the following morning, and then they discovered another problem, so there were still no trains running beyond bathgate towards Edinburgh.

@Parpadew Trains are crap when things go T up.

I advised my friend not to take a train to Milton Keynes from London and wait for a train to Coventry when the west coast mainline was a mess and there was bad weather and flooding. She didn't listen.

I got home OK - it took nearly 3x longer, but I made it.

She was stranded in MK at 9.30pm at night >50miles from home. The train operator offered no help getting people home.

I suggested she stayed in a hotel keep her receipts and claim the money back, but they were all booked up cos of the trains dumping people at MK. So I drove 1hr 15mins to her to collect her and then 1.5hours to drop her off and get home - not a flood in sight btw anywhere!

I'd have driven that 40mins journey too.

If someone needs help why wouldn't you help?

Sorry you have a set of unreliable around you, but good self rescue with a taxi.

We 've all gotta remember 1 things- the only person you can rely is you, so self rescue is sometimes necessary...

I voted YANBU, but having read the thread, it seems the “emergency” was your boyf needed to be picked up from a train station? He’s an adult man, I expect they figured he could manage himself.
YABU to be annoyed with your family in these circumstances.

I haven't read the whole thread as its massive but is there some reason the people you asked dont like your boyfriend. Maybe they have a valid reason that you cant see or accept?

I did exactly the same.
I have found myself in many stranded situations over the years, as a lone woman and I survived.
I have spent the entire night in Victoria bus station waiting for the first bus to take me 100 miles home, because I had no money for a hotel and I needed to suddenly escape my drunken abusive ex.

It would have been nice if they would have helped...on the other hand I wouldn't ask anyone to put themselves out in this situation. Public transport issues are just one of those unfortunate things. I'd expect my own partner to come and get me as long as it didn't mean major inconvenience, but I don't think I'd want him to ask his family.

My own family would be more than willing to help if I had a partner that needed collecting. They do live rurally though, so are used to the idea of people needing lifts to stations that are half an hour away by car. Taxis are for planned trips booked well in advance here. Any local taxi capacity would be used up very quickly if multiple trains got cancelled.

I would help any of my family and good friends who have reciprocated favours I guess. If a dire emergency I would help any friend if I could but mean having to drag DC along with me so would have weigh up importancy. In this case I would expect the adult to get taxi tbh
If free and single yes, but with kids it's harder to just do this sort of favour in an instant. X

I think most of us are struggling to understand why you’d book a taxi to take you to pick him up rather than asking the taxi to go directly to him to then take him home? This would have meant a 20 min taxi ride rather than 40. Was he intoxicated?

Yeah, it's ALL your fault, OP.
Well, you'd think so, to read some of these posts.. :-(

Thinking hypothetically, if my friend called me to pick up her partner from a station 20mins away (now/dark and in the countryside), I'd probably come up with an excuse. I really find driving in the dark difficult and I don't like driving on country roads either. Daytime driving not a problem though, absolutely would. I wouldn't class an adult male stuck on a train or in a station, especially with other people as an emergency. Not nice, but not an emergency.

If it was my friend's teenage child and her partner was away (friend doesn't drive), then yes, I absolutely would head out in the dark.

This post is weird and self pitying. I’m with the family.

Does everyone here live in London then? Think a village about 20 minutes drive from the nearest place with a hotel or taxi rank or bus.

Exactly why I don't live out in the sticks.

Sorry OP you had to go through that.

OP doesn't even live in the sticks. She and DP live in a city. DP was at a station outside the city, along with all the other peak hour traveller on the train.

>I have spent the entire night in Victoria bus station waiting for the first bus to take me 100 miles home<

Victoria Bus Station, as in London that's highly populated and lots of police nearby? I bet you wouldn't have spent a night in a rural station.

No, but it has been established that the op isn’t rural

Me too

multiple people don’t ignore a call out for help from a family member unless some serious shit hasn’t gone down in the past.

You say ‘established’ like someone did detective work 🙄

OP said she is in a city but that the train broke down in between two cities.

Not sure why people can’t accept an OP at face value anymore.

Not sure why people can’t accept an OP at face value anymore.

Years of being on mumsnet 😂
oh and acknowledging that it’s an entirely anonymous chat forum ie we don’t know OPs and never will!