Train Station or Railway Station?

[Ivo]

There is a large disagreement on this forum about which of the terms "train station" and "railway station" is correct. I am of the opinion that "railway station" is correct, but many others say that "train station" is just fine.

Anyway, I'd just like to share with you this picture I took outside Bath Bus Station earlier today, and see what you all make of it. (I promise I'm not responsible! That sign has been there for weeks without the green pen )

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Whoever corrected that sign is a boss. I despise 'train station'.

 

[Lampshade]

"Station".

 

[142094]

Always take it to be railway station in the UK and train station in the US. Sure someone will comment that we say bus station and not something else...

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Further to what 142094 said, do we have plane stations, ship stations and hovercraft stations too then?

 

[O L Leigh]

Life's too short for this nonsense. Language changes over time as new words and usages come into mainstream use and push out older ones. There is no right or wrong on this, merely a choice of phrase. When it comes to names logic and reason go out of the window. Why is it a bus stop? an airport? a taxi rank? It's just what people call them. Whether it is "logical" or "reasonable" makes not one jot of difference.

What I will say, however, is that I am saddened by the level of literacy displayed, even on official documents and notifications. This is not limited to the railway either, with lots of badly spelled and phrased notices almost everywhere you go.

O L Leigh

 

[Temple Meads]

I've always preferred railway station, but I don't despise train station.

 

[317666]

I usually just refer to it as the 'station', for instance if I'm buying a bus ticket and ask for a single to the station, every time I have been sold a ticket to the railway station.

 

[WestCoast]

Further to what 142094 said, do we have plane stations, ship stations and hovercraft stations too then?

A Hovercraft landing station is an accepted term.

PlaneStation was actually an airport operator and airline owner (EUjet), that went out of business some years ago.

 

[table38]

Q: Where do you weigh whales?

A: At a Train Station

Sorry, it just doesn't work

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I thought that if I typed "Crewe station" into the Google search engine, I would see what actually came up on the index page.. It came up with two variations with regard to the matter at hand......

The entry nearest the top of the index page stated... "Crewe train station"

Further down the index page was... "Crewe railway station" (Wikipaedia)

Has anyone else noted this occurrence when searching for information ?

 

[WestCoast]

Life's too short for this nonsense. Language changes over time as new words and usages come into mainstream use and push out older ones. There is no right or wrong on this, merely a choice of phrase. When it comes to names logic and reason go out of the window. Why is it a bus stop? an airport? a taxi rank? It's just what people call them. Whether it is "logical" or "reasonable" makes not one jot of difference.

I have to agree with you on this one. While 'railway station' is probably the 'more correct phrasing', 'train station' has entered mainstream use and eventually it may well become standard phrasing too.

As an analogy, do you call a place where you can make calls a "telephone booth" or a "phone box". I think that's quite similar.

It's also due to the fact that English has so many different words and phrases that essentially mean the same thing. According to Bill Bryson's book 'Mother Tongue', among popular European languages, English has about 200,000 words in common use, German 184,000 and French 100,000 (Spanish and Italian are likely to be similar to French).

 

[ushawk]

I prefer Railway Station, but can see why people say Train Station - but down here its often just Station - as the only other stations are the Fire and Police

 

[Ivo]

A Hovercraft landing station is an accepted term.

PlaneStation was actually an airport operator and airline owner (EUjet), that went out of business some years ago.

Over Christmas my brother and I spent a lot of time playing OpenTTD (specifically a south-western map similar to the one in the original game, but of my own design), and he had the idea of naming all his airports as "Plane Stations" and not as airports. We had Bournemouth Plane Station, Bath Plane Station, Cardiff Plane Station, Aberystwyth Plane Station, Gloucester Plane Station, and even Sony Plane Station (as opposed to Exeter Plane Station as it should have been)...

Those names just didn't work. "Airport" sounds much better.

 

[Minilad]

For me either is fine.
I just don't get the whole thing to be honest. I doubt if you asked anybody directions to either the Train Station or the Railway Station they wouldn't know perfectly well what you meant so there is no confusion to be made.
Basically language evolves so I think the people who get their knickers in a twist will just have to suck it up.
We no longer talk or write in the same way as people in the late 1800s did. Things move on

 

[Eagle]

Always take it to be railway station in the UK and train station in the US. Sure someone will comment that we say bus station and not something else...

This kind of comment annoys me in two ways.
1. Implying that the distinction between the two is as clear-cut as a national divide (when it rarely is)
2. Implying that "british" English is somehow better than "American" English.

 

[Seacook]

Both are correct as far I am concerned. I use railway station (or just station), but it's purely a personal preference.

A bus station is where buses stop.
A train station is where trains stop.
In my job I sit at a work station.

 

[Eagle]

(Wikipaedia)

There's only one a in Wikipedia :P

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

There's only one a in Wikipedia :P

Too much Classics education 50 years ago.......

But well spotted, young gentleman!! (I still forget there is such a thing as a "spell-checker" (you will now tell me that this is not supposed to be hyphenated.).:roll

 

[YorkshireBear]

I'll be honest i don't really care, both mean that same to me. I think i say both, infact i just say station usually and people know what im talking about. Got structural design of concrete to worry about.

 

[Crossover]

I personally would tend to use railway station, but as others have said, both make sense in one way or another

 

[yorksrob]

As far as I'm concerned, Railway Station is the correct term. For Britain.

Train station isn't the correct term for Britain (though it is for the USA)

Bahnhof is correct for Germany, not Railway Station.

Gare is correct for France, not Bahnhof.

 

[Eagle]

As far as I'm concerned, Railway Station is the correct term. For Britain.

Train station isn't the correct term for Britain (though it is for the USA)

Says who? There is this big misconception that everyone on one side of the Atlantic should use one term and the other side should use another. Frankly, that's so much bull.

 

[yorksrob]

Says who? There is this big misconception that everyone on one side of the Atlantic should use one term and the other side should use another. Frankly, that's so much bull.

It's in the same way I'd go to a cafe over here and a diner over there. Or a pub over here and a bar over there. And I'd walk on a pavement over here and a sidewalk over there.

I could go on ..........

 

[Class172]

Whenever I search a station on the Internet I always type '[name] railway station' but I am not bothered by 'train station'.

 

[Eagle]

It's in the same way I'd go to a cafe over here and a diner over there. Or a pub over here and a bar over there. And I'd walk on a pavement over here and a sidewalk over there.

I could go on ..........

No. Misconceptions. The lot of them. There are cafés in America and diners in Britain. And there are definitely bars in Britain, I defy you to say you've never been to one.

 

[yorksrob]

And there are definitely bars in Britain,

I try to avoid those TBH. And the only Diners I've ever seen over here have been American themed.

 

[Heinz57]

For me its 'Train Station'.

Its where the trains stop, so therefore its train station. In my opinion calling it 'railway station' is like calling a bus station a road station.

*Grabs tin hat and dives for cover *

 

[yorksrob]

For me its 'Train Station'.

Its where the trains stop, so therefore its train station. In my opinion calling it 'railway station' is like calling a bus station a road station.

*Grabs tin hat and dives for cover *

The one in Leeds deals with buses, coaches, pedestrians and taxis so in my opinion "road station" would be a more accurate description

 

[Oswyntail]

...
A bus station is where buses stop.
A train station is where trains stop.
In my job I sit at a work station.

Is that where the work stops?