On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:40:20 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008, Charles Ellson wrote:

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:02:16 -0700 (PDT), Boltar
wrote:

On Apr 16, 2:15 pm, Mr Thant
wrote:
On 16 Apr, 13:28, Boltar wrote:

You'd think he might have remembered which side the platform was on
and which door he got out of when he arrived. Was the man half asleep?

But the problem was that he did remember. Camden has two northbound
platforms in essentially an island formation, albeit separated by
passageways. When he switched to other train he got in what have
looked to him like the same end, but was actually the south end.

Oh I see , I thought he went back into the same train after going for
a pee or something. Still , even so , it seems a strange mistake to
make.

Not with the lack of the visual references surrounding an open air
station which would make the result of such a momentary aberration
"upstairs" rather more obvious. The scenery in a tube station is 100%
manufactured and consequentially many of the visual references at
different locations can be similar if not identical.

To a point. To head for the north end of a train and end up at the south
does require a pretty catastrophic failure of one's internal sense of
direction, and it's not as if the route between the platforms is that
complicated.

If you watch other people you can often find similar left/right
up/down north/south errors being made, usually there is a more
immediate "prompt" (such as the wrong action being physically
prevented without harm) that causes a quick correction. "Senior
moments" are by no means limited to older people. There could also be
an element of repetition involved in the form of the driver doing what
would have been normal at the station where he changed ends on a
normal day.

There's also the fact that he drove off in a direction which
didn't have a green starter next to it.

It would be interesting to know if he'd ever SPADded/tripped at an
unlit signal (assuming he'd ever managed to find one) indicating that
unconsciously he might only be looking for reds.

You're right that it's easier to
get confused underground than overground, or indeed when wombling free,
but i still don't think it's easy, and this was still a "strange mistake
to make".