Trapped on wrong train after falling asleep

We've all done it - overslept and missed our stop on the way home after a night out.

But one woman who fell asleep after catching the wrong train found herself trapped for five hours and unable to raise the alarm, as her phone battery had gone flat.

Sheri Dykes, 22, was aiming for the Enfield overground service but ended up in a train depot in Essex after taking the wrong train, following a night out in Shoreditch.

She awoke in the dark with no idea where she was and unable to raise the alarm, saying it was like "something from a horror film."

She had caught a Greater Anglia train to Chingford from Liverpool Street, instead of the Enfield overground service to Rectory Road, near her home in Hackney.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, Miss Dykes said: “I must have fallen asleep as soon as I got on the train. It wasn’t a heavy night in the pub, but I hadn’t eaten so might have been a bit tipsy.

“I remember getting on and the next thing I knew it was 4am and I was all alone, the train was empty and all the lights were off. I started to look around and went from carriage to carriage but there was no one else around. It was like something out of a horror film. It was really creepy and I didn’t know what to do."

She realised she had to stay put until the first train of the morning and lay down across a row of three seats and went back to sleep.

Shortly before 7am, she was woken by a rail worker, who drove her back to Chingford station in the drivers' compartment.

Miss Dykes added: “He was really surprised and shocked when he found me. He kept saying: ‘Oh my God’. But he was really nice. He drove me back to the platform and let me ride in the front of the train. That was probably the best bit. But no one tried to wake me up on the train, which is worrying. I’m lucky no one stole anything and I was safe. I’m laughing about it now but anything could’ve happened.”

The train company said stories such as Miss Dykes' were "extremely rare."

A spokeswoman for Abellio Greater Anglia said: “We do routinely check late night trains. We are looking into the comments made concerning this matter and we will arrange to contact the customer direct to discuss concerns.”