Swimmingcat
Train Attendant
Something along the same lines happened to me -- 1984, just out of college, taking a European "student tour" -- Flew San Francisco > London, connecting flight to Amsterdam. Supposed to be met by "AESU" (tour) representative at the bag claim area-- no one there. Even had them paged. Ended up taking train into city, found my hotel (tour start) (actually a canal boat). Turns out that the person from AESU doing the pickup only knew that he had "7 passengers that he was meeting", someone on a 'land-only' itinery (not one of the 7) showed up before I did (apparently), he had his seven, so they left!. I did get reimbursement from the tour group for my train fare.
I am a bit surprised that this occured to the young man in Glacier -- you would think that the conductor and/or car attendant would step off & check the platform quite carefully if they had boarding passengers (especially at night). Perhaps (not to exhonerate the crew), the fact that they were running late, they didn't do this checking as well as they should have (time pressures?). I'm glad that he had gear to spend the night outside.
I am a bit surprised that this occured to the young man in Glacier -- you would think that the conductor and/or car attendant would step off & check the platform quite carefully if they had boarding passengers (especially at night). Perhaps (not to exhonerate the crew), the fact that they were running late, they didn't do this checking as well as they should have (time pressures?). I'm glad that he had gear to spend the night outside.