A rail company is investigating how one of its drivers took the wrong train out of a station.



The First Great Western driver and his “pilotman” train manager joined a train at Banbury in Oxfordshire and thought they were taking it to London. But in fact the train was going the other way towards Reading and Didcot and, ultimately, Swansea.

It was decided the best course of action was for the train to return to Banbury where the crew boarded the correct train to Paddington station in London.

The real Paddington train was delayed for around half an hour at Banbury while other trains were held up as they made way for the return to Banbury of the erroneous train.

The incident happened on Easter Monday evening, prompting Graham Henry to tweet the FGW announcement: “Ladies and gentleman, sorry for this delay ... we’ve found out we’ve picked up the wrong driver and have to reverse.”

Another tweeter, Master Keys, wrote: “Stuck on delayed train because a driver ahead has taken the wrong train on the wrong route!”

An FGW spokesman said: “We are looking into what happened. The crew got on the wrong train. We are really sorry about this.”

The incident brings back memories of the old music hall song, Oh! Mr Porter, which was often sung by Marie Lloyd. The lyrics go:

Oh! Mr Porter, what shall I do,

I wanted to go to Birmingham, and they’ve taken me on to Crewe,

Take me back to London, as quickly as you can

Oh! Mr Porter what a silly girl I am.