train wreck
n.— «This is the story of the people left behind on the platform when the last train late at night goes out of Grand Central Terminal…They are stranded, and before the self-pity can kick in, a no-nonsense amplified voice announces Grand Central’s closing. “The station will reopen at 5:30 a.m.”…The night clerk at the nearby Hyatt hotel calls them “train wrecks.” The cabdrivers refer to them as “Cinderella fares.” Out on 42nd Street, a mob of cabbies await the luckless souls.» —“At Grand Central, Stuck After 1:30 A.M.” by Andrew Jacobs New York Times June 11, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Twice a day the River Thames recedes, revealing a muddy shoreline. Hobbyists known as mudlarks stroll the surface searching for objects that have found their way into the river over the centuries, everything from ancient Roman jewelry to modern...
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...