Passenger or Customer?

[AlterEgo]

There's been a few debates about whether patrons of the railway should be called "passengers", or "customers". Without wishing to start a Harry Hill-esque fight, how about a poll?

What galls people about being called "customers"? Do you prefer "passenger"? Or do you simply not care?

 

[Zoe]

Just as long as it isn't that silly "pax" term that seems get used on here a fair bit. Is it really that difficult to type out the word passengers?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Passenger. 'Customer' is up there with 'train station'. I hate them both equally!

 

[YorkshireBear]

as long as it isnt rude dont care... passenger or customer.... although passenger sounds better

 

[AlterEgo]

Just as long as it isn't that silly "pax" term that seems get used on here a fair bit. Is it really that difficult to type out the word passengers?

Have to agree with that one!

 

[Class172]

Passenger just sounds better. End of.

 

[Oswyntail]

I don't really care, but I have voted for "Customer", because of the service that that implies. A "Passenger" is just someone who travels using the transport.

 

[tom1649]

Voted passenger here, another one I don't like is 'train managers' and I always refer to them as guards. Just the way my brain is wired up I guess. Most people probably wouldn't care either way.

 

[thefab444]

Just as long as it isn't that silly "pax" term that seems get used on here a fair bit. Is it really that difficult to type out the word passengers?

For me, the two words actually have different meanings. Passengers are just any people travelling on the train, but I use the term pax to describe the average clueless rail traveller. For example, when travelling on an HST, you may well say something like "The idiot pax have left the doors open, causing a five minute delay to this train".

 

[The Crab]

Surely we should be called "passengers" but thought of as "customers".

 

[valenta]

I have had to tick the "don't care" category, I think that we are entitled to be called both and railway companies use both terms.

 

[T163R]

I have had to tick the "don't care" category, I think that we are entitled to be called both and railway companies use both terms.

You said it all

 

[LE Greys]

I don't really care, but I have voted for "Customer", because of the service that that implies. A "Passenger" is just someone who travels using the transport.

To me, the exact inverse. A customer is someone who comes into a shop and buys something. A passenger is someone in the company's care for the duration of the journey. Now that's a special status, and I don't want to lose that.

 

[lm321412]

Standard Class - Passenger
First Class - Customer

 

[WestCoast]

There is something I don't like about "customer", it sounds very out of place in a railway setting.

You very rarely (if ever) hear airline, ferry or coach travellers being referred to as customers. They are passengers, in the care of crew.

To me, the exact inverse. A customer is someone who comes into a shop and buys something. A passenger is someone in the company's care for the duration of the journey. Now that's a special status, and I don't want to lose that.

I agree, a passenger is a distinct, formal status. A customer is not, it could mean anything.

Saying Customer is just a glossy attempt at making the TOCs seem like they care. It doesn't work.

 

[90019]

I really couldn't care less which is used, there are more important things to worry about.

 

[mr williams]

Paying customer

 

[WestCoast]

I really couldn't care less which is used, there are more important things to worry about.

As with many things on here.

It doesn't really matter which they use, it won't affect anything. However, I'd point out that not even airlines (where there is real competition) use customer.

 

[Bittern]

I don't walk into a shop and expect to be called a passenger, so why should I step onto a train and expect to be called a customer?

 

[Essexman]

Passenger - not customer
Railway station - not train station
Guard - not Train Manager
Ticket Inspector - Not Revenue Protection Officer (or whatever they are called)
Buffet - not cafe bar
Central Wales Line - not Heart of Wales Line
Station or Stop - not Station stop
Chocolate cake - not muffin
Biscuit - not cookie
Coombe Junction - not Coombe
Station Master - not -I've no idea what they're called now
LTS - not C2C

 

[bnm]

As with many things on here.

It doesn't really matter which they use, it won't affect anything. However, I'd point out that not even airlines (where there is real competition) use customer.

No? Ryanair has a 'Customer Service' link on its website.
BA Has 'Customer Relations' online and Customer Services Desks at airports.
Monarch state that 'Customer care and service lie at the heart of the Group's business approach...."

 

[Captain Chaos]

I don't walk into a shop and expect to be called a passenger, so why should I step onto a train and expect to be called a customer?

Exactly.

You are a passenger in a car.
You are a passenger in a bus.
You are a passenger in a coach.
You are a passenger in a taxi.
You are a passenger on a ferry.

So why when you get onto a train are you suddenly a customer? It is after all just another method of conveyance like any other vehicle. Why should train travellers be called differently somehow? It just doesn't seem right to me calling a passenger a customer. All the time I get given scripts to announce on my trains with the word customer in it. Not once have I ever used the word. I always substitute it for passenger. It just sounds daft and wrong to me.

 

[trainophile]

To me a customer is the person who pays for the ticket. A passenger is the person who travels. They are not always one and the same. In this context on-train rail staff surely have more immediate responsibility towards the passengers than the customers.

 

[Boppawombat]

What about the phrase: "the next station stop"?

Surely that is a flagrant misuse of the English language as well.

In fact there is a whole can of worms being opened up with this one. The railway industry as we know has long invented its own particularly annoying vernacular.

 

[ushawk]

To me a customer is the person who pays for the ticket. A passenger is the person who travels. They are not always one and the same.

Agreed, customer is when your buying a service, passenger is travelling.

 

[Minilad]

Never understood why people get so wound up by Train Station as opposed to Railway Station

 

[trainophile]

What about the phrase: "the next station stop"?

Surely that is a flagrant misuse of the English language as well.

In fact there is a whole can of worms being opened up with this one. The railway industry as we know has long invented its own particularly annoying vernacular.

Now that one I can sort of understand. The next station on the line you are travelling might not necessarily be one that the train stops at. It would be pedantically (new word?) incorrect to say "the next station is Z" when we are going through X and Y before we get to it.

I suppose they could just say "the next stop" but that makes it sound like a bus!

 

[WestCoast]

No? Ryanair has a 'Customer Service' link on its website.
BA Has 'Customer Relations' online and Customer Services Desks at airports.
Monarch state that 'Customer care and service lie at the heart of the Group's business approach...."

That's different since customer care e.t.c is an accepted term in that situation - that's for dealing with the person who has bought the service. In a group traveller booking, I see the lead and paying passenger as the "customer".

You are still a passenger when you are onboard the mode of transport and should be addressed appropriately.

Some TOCs are referring to and addressing customers onboard the train, in announcements e.t.c. Surely, those in the care of the crew are passengers?

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

To me a customer is the person who pays for the ticket. A passenger is the person who travels. They are not always one and the same. In this context on-train rail staff surely have more immediate responsibility towards the passengers than the customers.

That sums it up perfectly for me.

 

[trainophile]

Never understood why people get so wound up by Train Station as opposed to Railway Station

Same here. Although "railway station" is nicer on the ear, saying "train station" (e.g. to the person driving the bus you are getting on) does differentiate in easily understood terms which type of station you require a bus ticket to.

 

[Boppawombat]

Now that one I can sort of understand. The next station on the line you are travelling might not necessarily be one that the train stops at. It would be pedantically (new word?) incorrect to say "the next station is Z" when we are going through X and Y before we get to it.

I suppose they could just say "the next stop" but that makes it sound like a bus!

Hmmmmm..... it's one of those odd ones.... a bit 'belt and braces' to some methinks!

By telling us that the next station is X or Y is enough to suggest that the train is going to call at that particular point, without the need to emphasise it with the additional word 'stop'. Surely passengers aren't that retarded.