Annoying jargon in railway announcements

[PHILIPE]

Passenger is the old fashioned term. You are paying for the railway service, therefore you are a customer.
Whatever will people find to complain about next.

Why mess around with what is considered to be normal language. It made me cringe at times when the change first came about as it just didn't sound right.

 

[Bertie the bus]

I couldn't agree more! Some people just want to find fault with everything. I would rather be a customer than a passenger. It is called "Customer Service" for a reason. A passenger is just a statistic, "Passenger numbers are down".

This probably isn’t a universal view but I have no problem with being referred to as a customer per se. My issue is that virtually all that has happened in the transition from being a passenger to being a customer is I am now referred to as a customer rather than a passenger. Customer service on the railway can be abysmal. Many rail employees simply don’t see themselves as working in the service industry.

 

[LowLevel]

This probably isn’t a universal view but I have no problem with being referred to as a customer per se. My issue is that virtually all that has happened in the transition from being a passenger to being a customer is I am now referred to as a customer rather than a passenger. Customer service on the railway can be abysmal. Many rail employees simply don’t see themselves as working in the service industry.

It depends what you want from it really. On a local rail service you should probably expect to be treated as you would by a taxi driver, bus driver or bar staff - friendly enough but probably rather informal. You live and die by your wits and personality as customer facing staff on those routes.

If you've shelled out 300 quid to travel on a first class Intercity service then I agree that you should be able to expect better but ultimately transporting an executive so they can work in comfort is a totally different game to transporting a gaggle of steaming drunk lasses on a hen do.

I've been hugged, had hands shaken, kissed (!) and indeed threatened by people on board my trains. I decide how to deal with them in real time, it's how I make my living.

 

[LAX54]

My concern is that too much of the industry shouts about calling people the c-word rather than the p-word as cover for ignoring the additional rights of the p-people.

Passenger:
noun
a person who is traveling in an automobile, bus, train, airplane, or other conveyance, one who is not the driver, pilot, or the like.

Customer:
noun
a person who purchases goods or services from another; buyer; patron

 

[Bertie the bus]

It depends what you want from it really. On a local rail service you should probably expect to be treated as you would by a taxi driver, bus driver or bar staff - friendly enough but probably rather informal. You live and die by your wits and personality as customer facing staff on those routes.

If you've shelled out 300 quid to travel on a first class Intercity service then I agree that you should be able to expect better but ultimately transporting an executive so they can work in comfort is a totally different game to transporting a gaggle of steaming drunk lasses on a hen do.

I've been hugged, had hands shaken, kissed (!) and indeed threatened by people on board my trains. I decide how to deal with them in real time, it's how I make my living.

I did say can be abysmal, not is. The main problem is there is absolutely no consistency. It seems to be almost entirely down to the individual. Personally I prefer the more informal style – I have no desire to be referred to as sir.

Under BR, when we were passengers, there were also some excellent staff. Some pretty surly ones as well but if you pushed you would usually get somewhere. I’m sorry to say that some of the shiny people you see about now might have showered more recently and have a better attitude but are neither use nor ornament when you need information.

 

[185]

So many people on here irked with the slightest deviation from the expected, identical scripts.

Last week heard the digital robot-tourrettes woman on TfW making all the wrong announcements, with a GPS fault.

I'd rather have good quality manual announcements anyday than the same see-it-say-it-sort-it junk on arrival, whilst waiting and on departure from every single lamp-post. Anyone who disagrees will be terminated, at the next and final station stop.

*runs for cover*

 

[randyrippley]

I'm probably a little unusual by my announcements use "Guard" and not "Senior Conductor", and "Passenger" instead of "Customer". A friend was on my train the other day and commented when I used "Lancaster Castle" and "Carlisle Citadel" as well.

Given that Green Ayre closed in 1966, and the "Castle" appellation was dropped around the same time, using it makes you either the oldest conductor on the railway, or else just a teeny bit pretentious

 

[Parallel]

The only announcement that annoys me is when people say ‘final destination’ it makes me think about those movies where all those people get killed in really grim ways. Makes me look to make sure nobody is taking a picture of me!

 

[trebor79]

A person intending to travel by train has to engage in a retail transaction in order to procure the documentation allowing him/her to use the train and is therefore a (paying) customer.
The Train Operating Company is providing a service in the form of a train. If said train is delayed/cancelled then the service being provided by the operator is delayed/cancelled.
The term "airline seat or seating" refers specifically to airline style seat or seating as in the type of row by row seating used on a commercial aircraft.
The term "station stop" refers to a scheduled stop at a station as opposed to any other kind of cessation of movement by the train operating the service which typically has several calling points.
"We are due to arrive at (destination) at approximately (time) is an honest statement that takes into account unexpected delay en route which may cause the train to be a little late at its destination. On my last southbound LNER journey, my journey was delayed by a late running slow moving Northern Rail service in front of us making my scheduled arrival time back in London no longer reasonably definite but approximate.
What is wrong with people on here? Seems this whole thread thus far is devoted to nit picking.

As I read this post, I couldn't help but think of Mr Logic, usually found in the pages of Viz!

 

[weastebusdepot]

I'd suggest passenger is a subset of customer. Someone enquiring about train times for a different day or buying a ticket for a family member isn't necessarily a passenger, but they should get the same standard of customer service as if they were.

 

[bunnahabhain]

Ah, but did you use Preston North Union?

Its name shall also go on ze list.

 

[GB]

First world problems right here.

 

[Railcar]

Annoying jargon? The superfluous "Thankyou" at the end of an otherwise garbled message over the PA.

 

[Dave dunkley]

Anyone know what diagrams are worked out of Carmarthen depot by guards ( conductors ) ?

 

[fusionblue]

At the old London Bridge they used to say "because of the inclement weather", they changed it to a much simpler "wet weather".

 

[Bletchleyite]

Passenger:
noun
a person who is traveling in an automobile, bus, train, airplane, or other conveyance, one who is not the driver, pilot, or the like.

Customer:
noun
a person who purchases goods or services from another; buyer; patron

A railway passenger/customer fits both definitions.

TBH I don't overly mind which they use if they sort out the service. What I don't like, though, is excessive informality. I'm not the guard (or whoever)'s mate, I'm their customer.

But I think I may be a generation behind on this. I get particularly annoyed with sales calls which call me by my first name, but I bet younger people don't.

And I also find a bit of olde-worlde charm in some railway-isms (though LNR's "this train has N carriages" is a maybe a *bit* much), so as long as they're not confusing...

 

[Bletchleyite]

Given that Green Ayre closed in 1966, and the "Castle" appellation was dropped around the same time, using it makes you either the oldest conductor on the railway, or else just a teeny bit pretentious

My favourite railway announcement of all time was getting off a VT (Pendolino, so quite recent) to "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the border city of Carlisle" (followed by some stuff about connections).

That felt like real pride for some reason - the way it was done made my hair stand on end. The big train has come to visit, and we want them to feel really special.

(Some people get really offended about "Ladies and Gentlemen", but I don't see why they do, it's just a greeting, it's not used to exclude people - to me all that kind of stuff is about intent, not usage - I'd be more bothered about being called a "nasty person" by someone who really meant it than the worst swear word by a mate)

 

[pdeaves]

Passenger:
noun
a person who is traveling in an automobile, bus, train, airplane, or other conveyance, one who is not the driver, pilot, or the like.

Customer:
noun
a person who purchases goods or services from another; buyer; patron

A fare evader is thus a passenger but not a customer. Should we not 'bend over backwards' for the customers but throw the book at non-paying passengers?

 

[al78]

My concern is that too much of the industry shouts about calling people the c-word rather than the p-word as cover for ignoring the additional rights of the p-people.

Some people behave in a manner that asks for them to be called the c-word, not the c-word you are thinking of.

 

[PHILIPE]

What bugs me is the fact that "passengers" was changed to "customers" just for the sake of it and unnecessary PR

 

[Aictos]

I'm probably a little unusual by my announcements use "Guard" and not "Senior Conductor", and "Passenger" instead of "Customer". A friend was on my train the other day and commented when I used "Lancaster Castle" and "Carlisle Citadel" as well.

Same here, never did or will refer to people as customers but always passengers now while that might sound out of place I preferred using the term.

 

[trainophile]

Surely the customer is the person or organisation that buys the ticket, the passenger is the person who travels. They are often not one and the same.

 

[Bikeman78]

I couldn't agree more! Some people just want to find fault with everything. I would rather be a customer than a passenger. It is called "Customer Service" for a reason. A passenger is just a statistic, "Passenger numbers are down". I too have never understood the annoyance of some people at using an approximate time for arrival.

Depends how it's worded. "We are scheduled into London Paddington at approximately 15:02" is nonsense. Firstly the train is scheduled at exactly 15:02 and secondly 15:02 is a fairly precise time anyway. Approximately 15:00 would make more sense.

 

[Ianno87]

Depends how it's worded. "We are scheduled into London Paddington at approximately 15:02" is nonsense. Firstly the train is scheduled at exactly 15:02 and secondly 15:02 is a fairly precise time anyway. Approximately 15:00 would make more sense.

Given the care and skill gone into producing timetables, the train is *scheduled* to arrive at time X, and there is absolutely nothing "approximate" about it.

 

[Stigy]

Or worse still “calling point” as someone noticed a few days ago at Waterloo...

SWR’s new CIS (jargon? ) uses this terminology instead of what was previously used. There’s a lot more new terms used but I can’t pinpount any right now....not all of it rolls off the tongue though. One of my pet hates was when they have too much info scrolling along the CIS screens making it difficult to see the second and third trains listed. One such irritant is when they say “if you’re going to ‘x’ and ‘y’ must be in the front 8 coaches....blah blah”. For a start, one cannot go to x and y. This should be x or y. Or it should be rephrased to make sense (“passengers/customers for x and y must be in the front 8 coaches” makes a bit more sense for example.).

Then there’s “final destination”.....

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Then there’s “final destination”.....

Well, there's this other secret destination no-one has told you about... (well, a destination that exists in the case of a few circular services, but that's about it!)

 

[Dr Hoo]

What bugs me is the fact that "passengers" was changed to "customers" just for the sake of it and unnecessary PR

As has been mentioned in some similar threads previously, this dates back to BR’s “Quality” initiative because the great majority of staff didn’t have a direct relationship with ‘passengers’. Most of them did have ‘customers’ for their work, e.g. the Operating function was often the customer of the Civil Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Electrical Engineers, etc. Front line and ‘ground level’ staff were the customers of internal functions like finance, training, IT, personnel and so forth.

This is quite apart from freight customers, tenants of the property function, car park users and many more.

 

[js1000]

"Alight" - find it slightly archaic. Personally don't understand what is wrong with disembark

"See it, say it, sorted" - as others have said though maybe the fact I remember it suggests it serves its purpose

 

[Randomer]

A Northern guard the other day gave the old fashioned "This is Leeds, this train terminates here, all change please, all change" without all the other waffle about checking for baggage or retaining tickets for the barriers personally I preferred it but can see how infrequent travellers could appreciate the extra information.

 

[EM2]

"Alight" - find it slightly archaic. Personally don't understand what is wrong with disembark

One disembarks from a ship or aircraft. One detrains from a train