Missed your bus or train stop, lately?

We don’t live in an area where either form of transportation is used much. We used to have a train that stopped here on the trip from Houston to Austin but that was cancelled several years ago and the only bus system here (other than the University buses) is chronically underutilized and highly dependent on government funding in order to stay in operation.
If you see a bus on the streets it might have four people on it on a busy day and one of those is the driver.

Yes.The rapid transit system (BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit) is notorious for rocking one to sleep in the afternoon. Most days I sense when I leave the stop before mine, but I have on occasion found myself on the train waking as it pulls into the next stop or even the one after that.

I didn’t miss the stop, but there was a bit of panic for about 10 minutes. New to the UK train system, it was on my first venture out solo. The commute had been taken several times before, and I assured my SO that I would be fine. On the way back, the train started stopping at places I had never heard of before. Finally, a ticket collector came by. I asked him if I was on the right train. He said, “Yes”. It turns out that it was rush hour, and most of the stops are typically bypassed during non-rush hour times.

The last time I missed my stop was 30 years ago. Brand new to the DC area, I was living with my brother and SIL. It was an exhausting shift at work, it was raining, and I dosed off. Woke up in a panic, got off at the next stop and entered the hospital across the street to call home. My SIL told me to wait there and she would come and get me. It turns out that I was less than two blocks from their house.

I do this regularly. Sitting on a train or bus, absorbed in a book, I often look up and realise I’ve gone past my stop. The worst one was about a month ago; it was the last bus of the night and I had a 2 mile walk back home.

@downtide good book I hope?

I used to do that all the time in Japan. One time I fell asleep and woke up suddenly when the train jerked to a stop. I noticed I was past my stop so I immediately got off. Whew!
As the train pulled away I saw that it was going in the wrong direction! I had fallen asleep and slept through to the end of the line where the trains change from the inbound to the outbound direction. The train I was on was actually taking me back to work!

As we approached the station we saw a train pulled up by the platform. Naturally we ran and just managed to catch it before it moved off. Only later did we find that we were on the wrong train and headed for the wrong city. What pleased me was that my partner didn’t go bonkers but accepted the mistake with grace and good humour. We got off at the next station where we caught the correct train. I took her picture on the station platform with her head framed by flower blossoms.