Station and on board train announcements - merged topic, ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

At the end of the day it's a balance between annoyance and information. There's nothing worse as a regular commuter than shutting your eyes in a quiet coach early in the morning and then face a barrage of loud announcements every few minutes with information you've heard SO many times before. Let's face it, some TM^‡(resolve)'s do rather like the sound of their own voice!

I think more messages should be conveyed via internal displays in the carriages and only the really important stuff (calling points, reasons for delay, etc.) should be verbally announced. That is of course difficult on certain trains - the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) refresh originally planned to have internal displays, but this was shelved to keep the costs down, but where it is available it should be used more.

Granted, not everybody reads displays, and visually impaired customers might not be able to - hence the need for verbal announcements sometimes, but as anyone who's been on a Heathrow Connect or a frequent stop Adelante service (especially before the announcements were shortened three years ago) will tell you, overbearing announcements really can spoil a journey.

[welshman]

Cue Moderators trying to find translation to ensure Btline has not been insulted.  

(Far from it, Welshman is wishing you the compliments of the season.)

But only in a post-modern ironic sense...

[G.Uard]

I was on a Bristol bound HST^▸ (High Speed Train) out of Paddington a week or two ago when an elderly gentleman passenger alighted at Swindon and proceeded to very politely, but very forcibly, explain to the Guard, who was of either Indian or Pakistani origin I should imagine, that he and his fellow passengers hadn't understood one word of his announcements all the way from London to Swindon and honestly he really did think some simple lessons in basic English would be jolly useful don't you know?

The guard's face was a picture!

Hmmm! I had no trouble understanding Indian station announcers when they were speaking English. 

I know that a couple of colleagues have pronounced Indian accents, but they are perfectly understandable. Not sure I like this very much.

[smokey]

I do find the Welsh annoucements at ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) stations (in Wales) a bit annoying as they seem so long, BUT when in Wales do as the Welsh do, and if any annonucement is dropped it should be the English version.

[Phil]

BUT when in Wales do as the Welsh do....

Apparently, only 13.4% of the population of Wales claims to be fluent in Welsh, and 66.1% claim no knowledge of Welsh at all. 

http://users.comlab.ox.ac.uk/geraint.jones/about.welsh/#numbers refers

[Btline]

I do find the Welsh annoucements at ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) stations (in Wales) a bit annoying as they seem so long, BUT when in Wales do as the Welsh do, and if any annonucement is dropped it should be the English version.

Is there anybody is Wales who can speak Welsh but not English?

I doubt it! Drop the Welsh.

[John R]

Maybe a few in the north west corner.

What's ridiculous is that Welsh is announced first (IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly)). So the majority are inconvenienced for the minority.

Back in the late 1970s a group promoting the Welsh Language trashed the BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) stand at the National Eisteddfodd. BR said it would make no difference to its policy yet within months it had agreed to make everything bilingual. Where there was very little difference between the Welsh and English spelling, the Welsh would prevail and be the only one used, so for example Treorchy became Treorci. (Another interesting concept of the minority ruling.)  I'm not sure whether this policy remains in place. Maybe Welshman can advise.   

[welshman]

In many cases, placenames have reverted to the correct or at least better spelling.  In my youth, I went to see my aunt in Llanelly.  Now she'd live in Llanelli.

I agree that some of the "bilingualism" is nonsensical.  Business Park is translated as Parc Busness.  Whoever was responsible for that should be shot.  The difficulty that Welsh has is that it's a very old language so that there is a tendency to Welshify technological terms to get "compiwter" rather than thinking it through to get the infinitely preferable "cyfrifiadur". 

English is no better really.  Who invented "television" - a half-Greek half-Latin word?

There are still many people, particularly in the West and North West of Wales whose first language is Welsh.

You can run Google in Welsh and experience the joy of clicking the button that says "Dwi'n Teimlo'n Lwcus".
Hint:  "Lwcus" (pronounced Look-iss) means "lucky".

That's enough for today children.

Except back to the original topic of this thread - why do they announce "the next station stop is...".  What is a "station stop"?  Is there a "station start" or a "station go"?   

[welshman]

PS - if you convert Google into Welsh, you'll have to work out what "English" is in Welsh to change back.

Har har.

[John R]

Saesneg!

[DanielP]

I don't mind having Welsh announcements first as (although I'm not Welsh myself), I am trying to pick up Welsh. The one to watch out for is that the Welsh word "dileu" looks (and sounds) like it should be "delay", but actually means "cancelled"!! It is also funny listening to mutations in the train announcements, as "Pontypridd" can also be "Fontypridd" and "Bontypridd", depending what comes before. Sometimes, you can hear it all three ways in one announcement.

As for business park, that is no more daft than the English word "bankrupt", which is actually two Italian words crushed together "banca" and "rotta" (meaning broken table- when a money lender went out of business, their stall was broken up to show that this)- why couldn't us stupid English think up our own word??

Daniel

[plymothian]

Except back to the original topic of this thread - why do they announce "the next station stop is...".  What is a "station stop"?  Is there a "station start" or a "station go"?   

A station stop is preferable to a random stop at a signal.
You can bet that there was an incident when the next stop is xxx was announced, the train was held outside the station and someone tried to alight.

[Btline]

Except back to the original topic of this thread - why do they announce "the next station stop is...".  What is a "station stop"?  Is there a "station start" or a "station go"?  

A station stop is preferable to a random stop at a signal.
You can bet that there was an incident when the next stop is xxx was announced, the train was held outside the station and someone tried to alight.

Well, thanks to CDL^▸ (Central Door Locking), that won't happen!

[welshman]

Well, thanks to CDL^▸ (Central Door Locking), that won't happen!

If only that were true.

Last week I was travelling to Cardiff on my local ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) service, a 150 as it happens.  At Fernhill a large number of schoolkids from a local comprehensive were on the platform.  The guard/conductor/train manager/whatever got off and announced that only those who had money should board.  He then let these youngsters on the train.  They all wanted to travel to the next stop which is Mountain Ash, a full 3 minutes away.

We got to Mountain Ash and the train remained at the platform with doors closed until all these kids had paid.  On this occasion the g/c/tm/w was supported by 2 BTPmen, one with the new video camera on his shoulder.

I spoke to the g/c/tm/w who said that problems with these schoolkids were a daily occurrence despite the fact that it is quicker for them to walk from the school to Mountain Ash than take the train.  Their usual practice is to force the doors open before the train stops in order to avoid paying.  Apparently this is quite easy to do.

[Btline]

It is on 150s, as the doors cn just be prised.

The driver is warned, though, and if the train is traveling, it will stop.