In train

[caddyman]

I'm not sure whether I've grumbled about this before or not, but hey, it's my journal so I'm going to grumble about it now and sod the possibility of repetition.

I noticed both on the way up to Shrewsbury and on the return trip to Euston this afternoon, that amongst the younger train announcers it is now de rigeur to announce that we arriving into a station. Not at a station, into it. Now in my native language, one arrives at one's destination; that may be achieved by pulling into a station, but never arriving into. I expect that these are the same people who, in an emergency exercise, would try to evacuate people and not premises.

Happily, the announcer on today's Virgin Pandemonium Pendolino was a bit older and capable of making announcements in English, not some close counterfeit thereof.

Comments

[irdm.livejournal.com]

I support you grumble.

Along with "meeting with me", I am insensed by a thing being "upcoming" !!!!! Forthcoming if it is an event to occur. Up & coming if gaining in popularity.

[sack-boy.livejournal.com]

I noticed that when I changed at Newport recently. As a relatively busy station they make a lot of train announcement in addition to the usual safety and the new no smoking announcements. So many bilingual announcements meant that I don't think they were silent for more than 5 to 10 seconds at a time ... *boggle*

[itsjustaname.livejournal.com]

I was in the bus station in Dublin a few years back and I noticed it was unusually quiet but I couldn't work out why, until I realised that it was because they weren't warning me about the security of my luggage every minute.

[ysharros.livejournal.com]

Still, at least they don't speak 'American English,' I suppose...

It's a very interesting phenomena.

*grind teeth*

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

You'll have no teeth left if you judge every criteria that way...

[ladkyis.livejournal.com]

I dislike the way the voice announces "The train will shortly arrive at Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury is the next station stop"
What other sorts of stops do they have? Oh and "This train will shortly arrive at Manchester Piccadilly, this train will terminate at Manchester Piccadilly" It kind of makes you want to leap off the train before it disintigrates and disappears.

OH and this one scares the life out of me "please be careful alighting from the train. ALL Arriva trains have a gap between the door and the platform"
Well they got that right! it is like climbing off the north face of the Eiger! and if you are short it is a LONG way down.

What other sorts of stops do they have?

[oldnick.livejournal.com]

Stops at signals, outside the station. That wording was brought in to protect the announcer from liability for injury if the train stops before the station, and a passenger gets out without looking, on the grounds that they were told that Shrewsbury was the next stop. At Shrewsbury they could have a long drop.

[oldnick.livejournal.com]

My personal pet hate at the moment is regularly perpetrated by radio road traffic announcers, and one in particular.

"There are delays from junction X and junction Y".

"There are delays between junction X to junction Y".

To add to it, the worst offender also cannot pronounce letter Rs a la Jonathan Woss, and clearly has no knowledge of localised English pronunciations.

Now, the confusion between 'between - and' and 'from - to' has a secondary effect. Apart from being intensely annoying, it also has a secondary result - that of removing precision from the language. 'From - to' indicates that the congestion extends the entire distance between the two locations, 'Between - and' can be used to indicate that it is at a location between the two points. The mixture cannot make that distinction, and also indicates that the announcer isn't thinking with that degree of precision.

My other pet announcement peeve at the moment is the pronunciation of "was" as "is" by newsreaders. They are different words with different meanings - but again the lack of precision removes precision from the statement and throws doubt upon the accuracy of the rest of the report.

[ladkyis.livejournal.com]

Oh yes I once saw someone get out of a carriage when our train didn't have enough engines to get us up the banks and we spent three hours in a siding at Dorrington. I decided that they would have to bring me food parcels and a portaloo before I would attempt that climb!