C2C use of festive themed station names

[Skie]

I guess they'll be calling at East Grinchstead next!

 

[The exile]

It is harmless fun. People need to lighten up a bit.

To be honest if you cant work out that Upminster and Upmincepiester are the same place you shouldn't be out alone.

I guess you've never found yourself in a strange city where you don't speak the language and all you've got to rely on is the name of the station / tram-stop you want to go to. While it might be "obvious" to most people on here what is being done with "Upmincepiester" , I doubt it is to someone who doesn't know London (who therefore can't be certain that there is no such place as Upmincepiester) or the cultural delights of a British Christmas. And yes, there are plenty of people whose English isn't up to understanding the spoken announcements (other than "I think I've just heard the name of the place I need to go to, but haven't the faintest idea what they were telling me about it!") - even if they are able to hear them.

 

[Jan Mayen]

I was told, many years ago, that one (and just one) of the station nameboards at the end of a platform at Hove has a couple of hooks so, on April 1st, they can hang a sign saying "actually".
(For those not from Sussex the joke is: Are you from Brighton? No, Hove Actually)
I believe the local instruction was to take it down by midday.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

It is harmless fun. People need to lighten up a bit.

To be honest if you cant work out that Upminster and Upmincepiester are the same place you shouldn't be out alone.

Departure boards are not a place for harmless fun - you never get nonsense like this abroad. All this does is confuse passengers from other countries.

 

[stuu]

Departure boards are not a place for harmless fun - you never get nonsense like this abroad. All this does is confuse passengers from other countries.

No, not remotely true. Paris has done similar things, as have New York and Montreal, and that's just the ones I have read about.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

No, not remotely true. Paris has done similar things, as have New York and Montreal, and that's just the ones I have read about.

never seen them on mainline departure boards of SNCF, DB, OBB, SBB etc over the Christmas period.

either way it really isn’t very helpful to passengers

 

[stuu]

never seen them on mainline departure boards of SNCF, DB, OBB, SBB etc over the Christmas period.

Which is a very different statement to "you never get this nonsense abroad". Which you do

It is harmless, and to be encouraged really, but I do think it should include the correct name in parentheses, or alternate between the real name and the comic name as there are bound to be at least a few passengers bewildered by it

 

[DarloRich]

Departure boards are not a place for harmless fun - you never get nonsense like this abroad. All this does is confuse passengers from other countries.

Aye. Of course.

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I guess you've never found yourself in a strange city where you don't speak the language and all you've got to rely on is the name of the station / tram-stop you want to go to. While it might be "obvious" to most people on here what is being done with "Upmincepiester" , I doubt it is to someone who doesn't know London (who therefore can't be certain that there is no such place as Upmincepiester) or the cultural delights of a British Christmas. And yes, there are plenty of people whose English isn't up to understanding the spoken announcements (other than "I think I've just heard the name of the place I need to go to, but haven't the faintest idea what they were telling me about it!") - even if they are able to hear them.

Right. We really are scrapping the barrel for reasons to justify our po facedness arent we?

Perhaps these desperatly confised people who cant manage to be out alone in a strange city would do what moat people would do if they found themselves in such a situarion: use a map and count the stops!

It is hardly rocket science but it does seem to be beyond the wit of the very serious ruk users! Just lighten up a bit.

 

[The exile]

Aye. Of course.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Dec 2021 ==



Right. We really are scrapping the barrel for reasons to justify our po facedness arent we?

Perhaps these desperatly confised people who cant manage to be out alone in a strange city would do what moat people would do if they found themselves in such a situarion: use a map and count the stops!

It is hardly rocket science but it does seem to be beyind the wit of the very serious ruk users!

It’s not a matter of using a map and counting the stops - it’s not finding the station you’re looking for on a departure board. Equally, why should anyone be expected to do that so that someone else can express their “festive creativity”. There are plenty of ways of marking the festive season without making life confusing for others - thus just isn’t one of them.

 

[py_megapixel]

Couldn't someone have just entered "Merry Christmas from staff at c2c" as a special notice, or something?

Then something festive would appear on the departure boards without interfering with the service information. Surely that would make everyone involved happy...

 

[DarloRich]

It’s not a matter of using a map and counting the stops - it’s not finding the station you’re looking for on a departure board. Equally, why should anyone be expected to do that so that someone else can express their “festive creativity”. There are plenty of ways of marking the festive season without making life confusing for others - thus just isn’t one of them.

Yawn. It is nothing major but seems to really rile the super serious train lover.

I maintain this kind of thing does not make life harder for anyone other than those co looking to moan.

Couldn't someone have just entered "Merry Christmas from staff at c2c" as a special notice, or something?

They could. But then users here would complain passengers who didn't celenrate christmas would be confused/insulted.

It is also a bit boring and doesnt really reinforce a "fun" corporate agenda which many tocs want to present

 

[Nym]

Aye. Of course.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Dec 2021 ==



Right. We really are scrapping the barrel for reasons to justify our po facedness arent we?

Perhaps these desperatly confised people who cant manage to be out alone in a strange city would do what moat people would do if they found themselves in such a situarion: use a map and count the stops!

It is hardly rocket science but it does seem to be beyond the wit of the very serious ruk users! Just lighten up a bit.

And how does one 'count the stops' on a network with skip-stop service patterns and many, many non-called at stations?

 

[sw1ller]

I’m not impressed by this at all. As frontline staff, I get asked questions that make me question whether the person should be out on their own or not, and making these people even more confused just impacts on my day. Can’t imagine it being fun for other frontline staff when they’re getting an earful from somebody that’s missed their stop or connection because of this. It’s just stupid and makes the railway look unprofessional. There’s a time and place for silliness, confusing already stressed out passengers who may be travelling for the first time on the railway, is not the time to make jokes. Especially with the piss poor service the railway has offered the last few years.

 

[Neptune]

Yawn. It is nothing major but seems to really rile the super serious train lover.

I maintain this kind of thing does not make life harder for anyone other than those co looking to moan.


They could. But then users here would complain passengers who didn't celenrate christmas would be confused/insulted.

It is also a bit boring and doesnt really reinforce a "fun" corporate agenda which many tocs want to present

I don’t think it’s a case of people being miserable. C2C are conveying a festive message but there are ways and means without changing the names of stations on departure boards. Saying ‘Merry Christmas from all at C2C’ conveys a much more pleasant and direct message than ‘Elf Tilbury’ which sounds like a petrol station to me (and people being confused/insulted that don’t celebrate Christmas is absolute nonsense as most people will know, that sounds like something out of the Daily Mail and their ‘well regarded’ assumptions).

It has been done before and like most jokes it isn’t really funny 2nd time around.

 

[43066]

It is harmless fun. People need to lighten up a bit.

To be honest if you cant work out that Upminster and Upmincepiester are the same place you shouldn't be out alone.

And if English isn’t your first language?

One man’s funny is another’s cringeworthy and infantilising. Agree with others - if this kind of thing has to be done at least keep it away from departure boards.

Germany on Christmas Eve, needing to change trains in Baunach to catch a flight home, and found the departure board advertising "Weihbaunachten

Precisely.

 

[Dougal2345]

And if English isn’t your first language?

Yes I remember when travelling on the Moscow Metro, I found the easiest way of recognising station names was by counting the number of (Cyrillic) letters in the name of my destination.

 

[su31]

Regarding "Upmincepiester" - the c2c digital announcement system at Barking (and other c2c stations) announces Upminister - so even the non-Christmassy version is incorrect!