Stop using the word ‘passenger’, Network Rail tells staff

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

From the Telegraph, via MSN

Network Rail has told staff to stop using the word “passengers”.

The company that maintains Britain’s railways has issued new guidance to employees asking them to use less formal language in a bid to reduce customer frustration at train delays and cancellations.

Words including “purchase”, “obtain” and “rest assured” have all been axed from the company’s official lexicon.

Instead of “passenger,” staff are advised to use the word “you”, a neutral term that avoids assumptions about gender.

Gender-specific language is discouraged in general and “pregnant women” should now be called “pregnant people”, while “mother” and “father” should both be replaced with “parent”.

The new approach is outlined in a 134-page document that is rather incongruously titled “Speaking Passenger”.

Introducing the recommendations, Andrew Haines, Network Rail’s chief executive, said: “To put passengers first, we have to speak their language. That goes for all of us. Whoever we’re talking to, whatever the situation.”

According to the Office of Rail and Road, 370,000 train services were cancelled or partially cancelled in 2024 – the equivalent of one every 90 seconds.

The guidance document asks staff to put themselves in passengers’ shoes – standing in the cold after a long day, seeing train after train cancelled or delayed.

It then imagines the PA^▸ (Public Address) system chiming before announcing: “All services are currently cancelled due to recent storm events. We would like to apologise for the inconvenience this may cause to your journey.”

Next, the guidance presents an alternative announcement using simpler, more conversational language: “I’m really sorry everyone but we’ve had to cancel all the trains this evening. A tree’s fallen across the tracks just outside the station and it’s going to take a few hours to clear.”

Network Rail then suggests that this more “everyday” use of language will alleviate some of the frustration caused by the delay, saying: “You’re probably still annoyed. But it’s harder to feel furious, isn’t it? That’s because the message uses the words we all use in our everyday lives, rather than a stock reply.”

The motivation behind the changes, according to Network Rail, is for announcements to come across as warm, clear and to the point as possible.

“We don’t speak Network Rail language anymore,” the introduction concludes. “We speak passenger.”

But overly formal words aren’t the only ones falling foul of the Network Rail censor and gender-related terms such as “workmanship” and “mankind” should be avoided, with “quality of work” and “humankind” used instead – while “ladies and gentlemen” has been axed to be replaced with “friends and colleagues”.

‘We just want to sound friendly’
Staff are also told they should “talk about younger people or older people” rather than using phrases like “senior citizens”, and instead of referring to someone’s “Christian name”, they should say “first name” so that it does not imply faith or belief.

“We don’t want to sound like Virgin or Innocent. That’s not us. We just want to sound friendly,” the guidance reads.

Staff are also asked not to assume customers are observing religious holidays.

Instead of saying “merry Christmas everyone”, they are told to say “merry Christmas to those who are celebrating” or to play it safe by saying “seasons greetings” or “happy holidays”.

Under a section titled “writing inclusively”, staff are told that the organisation, which is owned by the Department for Transport, has “a duty to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between different people”.

One of the ways this duty can be fulfilled is for staff to use the “right terms” – and failing to do so could have serious consequences.

They are told: “If we don’t do it, the language we use can create and reinforce bias against individuals and groups of people. It can also create and reinforce negative stereotypes.

“The result can be a work environment that’s humiliating, unpleasant and alienating. Not to mention the fact we’ll be excluding a large portion of our audience.”

A Network Rail spokesman said: “Passengers are at the heart of our tone-of-voice guidelines, which have been in place for several years and are common practice in customer-facing organisations.”

Woke, anyone?

[Ralph Ayres]

I suspect much of this is existing guidelines included in a new document, and a lot of it will be for internal company use rather than PA^▸ (Public Address) announcements or public-facing printed/online text.  I doubt that "mankind" or "Christian name" and some other expressions referred to have been used for years as they sound very dated so I'd be surprised if the content is all new.
 
Without seeing the document it's hard to know if it really said that "you" should be used instead of "passenger" to be gender-neutral as that wouldn't make sense, or if the Telegraph just put that interpretation on what is just an attempt to be more direct.  Some of the simplification is a bit naff, but indeed why say "purchase" instead of just "buy", or "mother and father" rather than the shorter "parent" which covers both?  A few woke-ish suggestions perhaps (and avoiding mention of Christmas with "happy holidays" overlooks the original meaning of the word "holiday"!) but mostly the Telegraph molehill-building.

[bobm]

Where will it end?   After all Manchester Piccadilly has the dreaded letters MAN in it.

[JayMac]

Not woke.

Attached is the Network Rail "Speak Passenger" booklet referred to in the news article.

[grahame]

Not woke.

Attached is the Network Rail "Speak Passenger" booklet referred to in the news article.

An interesting document - but yet it breaks my first rule of publishing a document which is to include the date of publication.

[JayMac]

Agreed. It should be dated.

I found it by way an FOI^▸ (Freedom of Information) request published on the 'What Do They Know' website. The request was made on 15th January 2025 and Network Rail completed the request on 22nd January.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/speak_passenger_document#incoming-2893964

[Chris from Nailsea]

It is merely described by Network Rail as the '4th edition' - not that that tells us much. 

[grahame]

It is merely described by Network Rail as the '4th edition' - not that that tells us much. 

Andrew Haines, who came to Network Rail in 2018, wrote the forward ...

References are to Twitter not to X, suggesting it dates from before the summer of 2023.  I can't find any words that refer to covid which suggests pre-2020 but is no absolute proof.

I have added a copy to our member's archive.  Dated 2019 but if you know better, please let me know

[Bob_Blakey]

.....Woke, anyone?

No, just complete cobblers.

[FarWestJohn]

More timewasting #rap.

[TaplowGreen]

Reading this in the newspaper today I see that "pregnant person" is suggested as an alternative to "pregnant woman".......is this to avoid potential offence being caused to any passing men who may be expecting?

[IndustryInsider]

To avoid causing offence to those people who are pregnant that do not identify as a ‘woman’ I presume?

[TaplowGreen]

To avoid causing offence to those people who are pregnant that do not identify as a ‘woman’ I presume?

Truly,  what a time to be alive! 

[UstiImmigrunt]

I've got a good idea.

How about sacking the idiots that came up with this bull and using the over inflated salaries to employ staff to physically inspect the state of the permanent way?

[TaplowGreen]

I've got a good idea.

How about sacking the idiots that came up with this bull and using the over inflated salaries to employ staff to physically inspect the state of the permanent way?

Can we say "cattle" rather than "bull" please?

You are assuming that the bovine in question identifies as male. Network Rail would also recommend that the preferred pronouns are ascertained.