Great Western Coffee Shop

I noticed the last time I was in Cardiff Central they were only doing announcements in English and not Welsh? Is this still the case? Is this because of the volume of trains arriving/departing Cardiff they dont have time to do both English and Welsh announcements?

Ive noticed in other (smaller) stations they still do both type of automated announcements.

I think its because of the ryder cup and the acknowledgement that most people using the stations will not be welsh

I think it will change back afterwards

confused the hell out of me last time i was there!

Fluent in Welsh are you, relex?  ;) ;D

no the opposite! apparently microwave is popty ping?

its the same at Newport as well which confuzzled me usually it gets to the english either when the train gets in and cant hear it or the train has left  :P

Yep, apparently so. Oven itself is "popty", so an over that goes ping is a popty ping. Simple... I'm sure I could make another joke about The Machine That Goes Ping but I'll refrain.

I can confirm that the announcements were in Welsh first at Abertawe and Caerfyrddin yesterday.

Clunderwen sounds more Welsh in English for some reason.

And there are no bleeding shops in Llanelli High St!

Tenby (sorry, Dinbych-y-Pysgod, which sounds like a quack cure for incontinence) was very nice, though. Their seagulls could teach the Ilfracombe ones some manners.

After a bit of research, including the Welsh Wikipedia (Wicipedia) I've discovered that 'popty ping' is Welsh slang for microwave oven. The actual translation is 'popty microdon'.

Popty being the Welsh for oven.

 whats quite off putting at Cardiff is the bloke who announces the platform changes with great enthusiam and gusto

Ive noticed that. Especially the Milford Haven and Holyhead services by the time they have repeated all those request stops!

I thought that the only difference was that the Welsh was spelt Clynderwen... Which if my understanding is correct, would be pronounced in Welsh with the "y" as a flat "u" sound (as in "duck" or other similar words...). So it's two different spelling for the same pronunciation isn't it?

EDIT: I am a plonker. Got it the wrong way round...! Welsh spelling is Clunderwen, English is Clynderwen... But I'm sure the pronunciations are still essentially the same!


It translates as "little fort of the fishes", which is rather picturesque.

Noticed announcements are now back to Welsh/English after being at Cardiff Central today.

Also noticed a 153 is still being used on Valley Lines (is this just Saturdays?) and on Saturdays the 1700 Cardiff-Taunton is a 2 car 158 not the usual weekday diagram!

Noticed that announcements at Newport were in both english and welsh, but the english was first.

Is this the standard now?

I think it could be just for Ryder cup but dont quote me on that

I can guarantee that all announcements will have to return to being in both English and Welsh as part of the law in Wales that everything must be in both languages. A pain in the hole I know but it's the way they want to do things. Though I do know many people have complained to station staff at the main stations about announcments in Welsh first taking so long people have missed trains  :-\

Well yesterday at Newport it was still English first then Welsh.

Going slightly off-topic: 'popty ping' was discussed on the BBC One Show this evening, with guest Jamie Oliver - who is now a fan of microwave ovens, apparently!  :o ::) ;D

Correct that many things are legally required to be in both English and Welsh. Although as far as I'm aware there is no order of precedence attached to the two languages. So it should be perfectly acceptable to play the English announcement first, followed by the Welsh. After all, if it was "legal" for the annoucements to be ordered this way over the Ryder Cup, I assume it's still legal. And in certain locations in Wales, where Welsh is not generally spoken as the first language, it would make much more sense.

You are right in that it would make more sense, but sadly the Welsh language initiatives seem to be more vanity based than actually aiming to preserve culture as they claim. Hence the Welsh taking priority over English language despite few people being able to speak it. As usual the intention is good but the implementation is wrong causing more difficulty and anger towards what could be a noble cause