Widebody; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Workload; Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Situational Awareness; Distraction
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Ground Incursion Taxiway
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Chart Or Publication; Airport; Human Factors; Procedure
Let's start with the RNAV STAR into SDF to paint the picture of how ATC handled us this flight. This was the last leg of the last flight. Dispatch always plans us for landing SDF Runway 35L but we never get that. The SDF arrival ATIS said to expect 17 L or R. On initial contact with SDF he said to expect runway 17L so we built the RNAV MBELL2 for 17L. The STAR is unique to the runway. He then cleared us to a fix not on our STAR but on the STAR for 17 R. This was not on our STAR for planned runway so we queried the controller. He said to continue and plan for 17L. This caused confusion in the cockpit as it was wrong side of airport wrong STAR fix but we made it work out. On downwind controller apologized for sending us to wrong fix and that it was his bad. We landed on 17L and turned off the runway entering Delta taxiway and taxi on runway 29 and hold short of Charlie as directed by ground. On 29 we held short at Charlie on 29.The ground controller then said to 'cross 29; Foxtrot to Alpha to ramp.' My First Officer (FO) told him we are on Runway 29. He then came back and said 'Oh sorry; taxi 29 to Alpha to the ramp.' We wondered why he didn't give us F3 to Alpha. We continued to end of dark and poorly lit 29 and I was doing around 10 kts when after passing F3 and as we continued I looked down and saw yellow chevrons painted on the ground. I made a comment that I thought we were not supposed to ever taxi on chevrons as it is unusable taxiway. I was going to stop but it was too late. We were already past point of turning; no going back. I referenced my Taxi diagram again and there are no notes or markings indicating it is unusable. There was no reflective tape or paint indicating the chevrons. The diagram actually depicts it like a taxiway. There were blue taxi lights. We continued and the controller asked us why we taxied on Alpha. I then spoke on radio telling him we were following his exact instructions. He told us to taxi 29 to Alpha. We continued to parking. I believe the controller was being complacent. That is a bad and confusing intersection and if you come in SDF all the time you are aware of the threats. But if you don't; mistakes happen. We even talked about that intersection by F3 /29/17R. I attribute this to lack of markings or notes on our 10-9 Jepps taxi diagram. I also believe this ATC facility should be looked at the way they handle us. This is not an isolated incident. [Our company] and ATC are aware of the threat but have not improved practices or notations on charting. The chevrons need to be done with reflective paint. Reflective paint; marking or note indicating unusable taxiway on 10-9; I should have queried ATC regarding exiting at F3 but didn't think anything of it; just thought he wanted us to go to end of 29 and exit on Alpha like he said.
[Report narrative contained no additional information.]
An air carrier crew reported taxi instruction confusion resulting from ambiguous; conflicting taxi instructions after landing on SDF Runway 17L with clearance across the airport on Runway 29.