UK - Translating railway-speak

[John Ashworth]

Translating railway-speak

* The Guardian, Wednesday 12 August 2009

Are you fluent in railway-speak?

Why is railway-speak (eg "arriving into Banbury", "adjacent to the doors", "disembarking the train") so different from normal English?

• Readers are politely requested to note that statements and announcements in official situations will be made in language which will seek to emphasise the importance, complexity and urgency of the imminent and adjacent situation, thus enabling the customer and/or bystander to apprehend and appreciate his or her relative position in the transaction and ensure that he or she fully recognises the importance of what is communicated and the status of the communicator. Thank you for not ignoring this important message, and have a safe day. Robert Goundry, Leamington Spa

• The military use polysyllabic words with hard consonants so that in a noisy environment with poor telecommunications their message is understood: for instance, "negative" and "affirmative" for "no" and "yes". Station announcers suffer the same disadvantages, so "adjacent" may be easier to hear than "near", "into" than "in" and "disembark" than "leave". Or it could be just to fill in the time until the delayed arrival of the next train. John Davies, Lancaster

• The advent of the new railway-speak coincided with the privatisation of the railways, and the formation of the plethora of railway companies with which we are now plagued. These companies wanted to shift from the old railway culture to a new, customer-service culture, creating the illusion that we were getting a better service by referring to us as customers, rather than passengers; similarly, guards became train managers, carriages became coaches, etc.

At Derby recently there was also a customer notice telling us that during the current refurbishments we would still be able to use the "overbridge" to the other side of the tracks. Never having encountered a bridge that did not go over something, I wondered why this elaboration was necessary. Isabella Stone, Matlock, Derbys

• I can offer support for this observation with two neologisms recently heard at Ely station. We were startled to hear that our train to Cambridge had been "re-platformed" and, after an unexpected closure of the ticket office, passengers were reassured that they could travel without being "penalty-fared". Dawn Leeder, Cambridge

• My favourite is the new verb "to non-stop", as in the oft used, "this train will be non-stopping to Peterborough". I now have only negative "doing" words, and enjoy non-shouting at the kids and non-sleeping in late. David Heafield, Haddenham, Bucks

• The pronunciations are bewildering, too. The lady who makes the announcements at Portsmouth station seems convinced it's pronounced "Pertsmouth". Eleanor Scott, Portsmouth

• At Sheffield Midland station the announcer always used to announce London-bound trains' destination as "St Pancreas". Charlotte Green, Sheffield