So I put a friend of mine on their train home to St. Maurice from Lausanne.

For some reason the train didn't stop at a number of the stops it was scheduled to which meant that they had to catch a taxi from the next stop along back to where they were going. (Martigny back to St Maurice.)

I checked online which stops that train is scheduled to stop at and they were all listed.

Are travellers required to declare at which stop they wish to alight at some point or is this non-standard practice? If it's non-standard, does anyone know what steps they can take to reclaim the taxi fare? (90 CHF)

Apoplectic by proxy,

Shippy.

How's about some more details? Which train was it and where were your friends expecting to be able to get off? Some schedules change between weekdays and weekends/holidays.

Also, some trains only stop at places on request, although that is quite rare on main lines.

I live on that line and use it quite a lot. It's not usual for a train to pass through announced stations without stopping. On the line from from Lausanne to Brig some trains stop only at Aigle and Martigny whilst others stop at intervening stations of Bex and St-Maurice. You have to check carefully. If it should have stopped then your friend should contact CFF immediately and ask for some compensation.

Sometimes on these lines there is a "Request Stop" button by the door of the train (similarly there is a "Request Stop" button at the railway station) if some of the stations are not used outside of busy times.

If it's not pressed, the driver doesn't stop.

I've seen a few people with panicked looks on their faces as their train has hurtled through the station they wanted to get off at.

Good point but this is a mainline intercity train and I've never had to request a stop even on late night trains. I use these same trains a lot and to be honest I've never noticed a request stop button either, though of course I haven't been looking!

Well, in that case it's the big red handle usually located fairly high up in the carriage. Pull that just outside your desired station and you can guarantee the train will come to a screeching halt...

[Just joking ]

My local station is a tiny one, and I always press the open door button on the last train home, just in case. The signs light up with "Halt" when I do it, but I still wonder if that's me that's doing it, or if I'm always doing it at roughly the right time every time.

Ok - so more details, it's the 23:20 Inter Regio from Lausanne on a Wed night:

Station/Stop Date Time Platform Travel with Comments Lausanne 01.04.09 dep23:20 3
IR 1749 InterRegio Vevey
dep 23:34
Montreux
dep 23:40
Aigle
dep 23:51
Bex
dep 23:58
St-Maurice 02.04.09 dep 00:03
Martigny
arr00:12 2 Duration: 0:52; runs daily
I can't find anything on the SBB wedsite which suggests that it's an "arrette sur demande" train.

Thanks for all the help - especially those who take that train regularly.

I also known that line pretty well, and it is definitely not an "arrette sur demande" train. I wondered if your friend had managed to take a different train that was running late, and was not the scheduled 23:20, but the previous one going to Martigny was one hour earlier and was also scheduled to stop at St Maurice. I would definitely go ask at the train station about this to see whether they have an explanation.

I was there when they got on and all looked well to me. I'll go to the train station with them today and see what the deal is.

Thanks to everyone who has replied.

True, but the taxi would probably be cheaper than the fine

Me neither. Stop on request should be marked by an "x".

I remember a similar situation I had in Japan. I had enjoyed a very social evening, got on the last train home, promptly dozed off and woke up just as my train left the station where I should have gotten off. I ended up having to get a taxi from the next station. Are you sure this wasn't a similar situation?

Yes - they had to pick up their car at St. Maurice. They were definitely not drunk or tired.

If anything, they were rather traumatised by being stranded miles away from home in a foreign country.

For a few years I used to commute by train into London from Didcot. Regular rail commuters usually aim for the same train, and, as you tend to stand at the same spot on the platform, the same carriage each day. It's sad I know but that's how it is...it's just a habit. Some extreme commuters in the South East even fight for the same "favourite" seat and you can really get their day off to bad start by nipping in and plonking your butt on their place before they've made it down the aisle. There's a kind of silent familiarity as you travel back and forth with the same people each day. One evening I nodded off somewhere between Reading and Didcot and missed my stop. When I woke up the train was just pulling into Newbury about 20 kilometers down the track. Took me an hour to get back to where I should've got off. Now I reckon there must've been a dozen or so folks I travelled with daily in that carriage who knew damn well I got off at Didcot. Most would've walked right past me. And I knew that they knew that I knew that they knew by the smug smile on their faces the next day the unhelpful bast*rds!