Imagine going to sleep on the sleeper to Milan and waking up in Zurich, well thanks to red faced railway staff in Lyon thats what happened.

Two trains set out from Barcelona, one for Zurich and one for Milan. Unhappily at Lyon the trains were attached to the wrong locomotives. The Italian sleeper, named the ‘Salavador Dali’ sped to Zurich during the night. Sleepy passengers awoke to find themselves in Switzerland. However the train crew on the Swiss express realised the mistake at the Italian border and the train was successfully re-routed.

Spanish rail officials attributed it to human error. ‘The drivers of the two locomotives went the right way but they left Lyon with the wrong set of carriages. It must have been a bit of a shock for the people expecting to wake up in Italy. They were put on another train to Milan when they got to Zurich and apologies have been made.

The company has since offered a full refund to passengers affected by the error.