In this photo: Northern Italy
How would you feel if you boarded a train bound for Milan but ended up in Zurich? That is what happened to passengers who boarded the Salvador Dalì night train at Barcelona on Sunday evening, expecting to arrive in Milan at around 10 am.
The train, run jointly by the French rail network SNCF and its Spanish counterpart Renfe, travels as a convoy from Barcelona to Lyon with carriages of the Pau Casals Zurich train.
There, the convoy is split and the Pau Casals is directed to Zurich and the Salvador Dalì to Milan.
But last Sunday, possibly because of the dark or a mistake in a file, SNCF workers at Lyon mixed up the two trains, sending the Zurich train to Milan and the Milan train to Zurich. Staff at Geneva realised the error and redirected the Milan-bound train to Zurich, where the 105 passengers arrived 4 hours late.
The other train, however, travelled all the way to Zurich, with 135 passengers, many of whom were tourists hoping to see Milan’s Duomo in the morning light, on board.
The train was finally redirected to Milan, where it arrived 3 hours late.
The strange thing is that no one - not even the driver and ticket inspectors on board the train realised the error en route. SNCF has issued apologies and there is an unconfirmed report that all the passengers will be able to claim a refund of the full ticket price.
