Language requirements for staff working cross border train services.

[stadler]

I have always wondered what are the language requirements for staff working on trains that cross borders? Are the Drivers and Guards always required to speak the language of each country? If so is this still a requirement even if they are just going one stop over the border? I know in Europe many trains terminate just over the border so there is only one stop on the other side. On many long distance trains they have a crew change at one of the border stations. But even with a crew change this is never done on the actual border line so Drivers and Guards will have to at least work to the first stop in that country. So i have always wondered if there is an exception that allows staff to work trains to the first stop over the border if they do not speak the language? Or do they have to speak the language of every country they work in even if it is just to one stop over the border? Also what about catering staff onboard trains?

Also i would be curious about the requirements in countries that have multiple languages. For example in Belgium (Dutch and French and German) and Luxembourg (French and German and Luxembourgish) and Switzerland (French and German and Italian) which have multiple languages spoken in different parts of the country.

If anyone knows how this works i would be very interested to hear. Thank you in advance for any information.

 

[Adlington]

Not an answer, but a follow-up ....
It's not only the language, but also the knowledge of at least some of traffic rules/signals in the other country....

 

[stadler]

Not an answer, but a follow-up ....
It's not only the language, but also the knowledge of at least some of traffic rules/signals in the other country....

That is a good point. The rules can vary a lot by country. I wonder are the Drivers and Guards required to be fully trained up on the rules of the country even if they only work to the first stop over the border? I am wondering if some countries have exemptions for that which allow them to work to the first stop just over the border without being fully trained on the rules or maybe only needing basic partial training?

 

[zuriblue]

I remember seeing SBB ads for Trainee drivers and they were specifying able to communicate in two national languages. Normally a Zürich based driver would be able to communicate in German or Mundart(Schwyzerdeutch) and French or Italian and would be rostered accordingly.

On long distance services you regularly hear announcements from the guard or driver (normally it’ll be the guard but KISS 512 services can have announcements made by the driver as you hear the Integra go off in the middle of the announcement) in German and French and sometimes English as well.

 

[DanielB]

I remember there has been a topic about this before, so many answers will be there already.

In the Netherlands foreign drivers will be required to be able to communicate in Dutch with the signaller. That's why NMBS coupled the service from Liège to Maastricht to one from Hasselt as many Wallon drivers didn't speak sufficient Dutch. And Eurobahn actually partially uses Dutch staff for their cross border service Hengelo - Bielefeld.

 

[rf_ioliver]

I did some digging on VR's website and for pretty much all jobs involving work on board trains (conductors, restaurant staff, drivers) there is the requirement to speak Finnish and "an advantage" to English and Swedish. Crews on the former Allegro services would most likely need to have known some Russian.

Puhut sujuvaa suomea ja pystyt tarvittaessa palvelemaan asiakkaitamme myös englanniksi, ruotsinkielentaito katsotaan eduksi.

Admittedly there is practically no cross-border traffic apart from the occasional freight to Haparanda (though we might see a passenger service there soon), but the language requirements are there. To be honest I've never met a member of the train crew who doesn't speak at least Finnish and English.

 

[JonasB]

I have always wondered what are the language requirements for staff working on trains that cross borders? Are the Drivers and Guards always required to speak the language of each country?

In general, yes, they need to speak the local language. But there are always exceptions. E.g. Denmark recently changed the rules and in southern Jutland Danish is no longer required and German can be used instead.

If so is this still a requirement even if they are just going one stop over the border?

Yes. Just keep in mind that from a railway point of view, the border is not always in the same location as the line you see on a map. Often there is one station that acts as a border station where rules, signalling and electrification change.

That is a good point. The rules can vary a lot by country. I wonder are the Drivers and Guards required to be fully trained up on the rules of the country even if they only work to the first stop over the border? I am wondering if some countries have exemptions for that which allow them to work to the first stop just over the border without being fully trained on the rules or maybe only needing basic partial training?

Usually yes, but again, the border might not be where you think it is. But also, in some cases there are exceptions and drivers can cross a border without having all the papers needed.

Admittedly there is practically no cross-border traffic apart from the occasional freight to Haparanda (though we might see a passenger service there soon), but the language requirements are there. To be honest I've never met a member of the train crew who doesn't speak at least Finnish and English.

The Finnish-Swedish border is an interesting case. Here the rules do not change at the border, but Swedish rules are used on all standard gauge track and Finnish rules on all broad gauge track. Communication may be done in Swedish or Finnish as signallers on both sides are bilingual (at least this was the case a couple of years ago).

 

[StephenHunter]

Eurostar job advert that might be of interest:

Train Manager - Continental route - Eurostar International

Eurostar le transporteur ferroviaire à grande vitesse de référence en EuropeRejoignez-nous et vous ferez partie d’une équipe internationale dynamique, connectée et cosmopolite qui partage le même objectif : créer une expérience de voyage unique pour no...

apply.workable.com

• You are fluent in French and have a minimum level of B1 in English. Knowledge of German and Dutch is an asset

English B1 level - CEFR definition and tests | EF SET

English level B1 is the third level of English on the CEFR scale. In everyday speech, B1 level is called “intermediate”. Find out if you're at level B1 in English.

www.efset.org

English level B1 is the third level of English in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), a definition of different language levels written by the Council of Europe. In everyday speech, this level would be called “intermediate”, and indeed, that is the official level descriptor in the CEFR. At this level, students are beyond the basics but they are still not able to work or study exclusively in English.

 

[route101]

I was impressed with the Dutch guard on the Berlin to Amsterdam service with her announcements in German.

 

[JonasB]

I was impressed with the Dutch guard on the Berlin to Amsterdam service with her announcements in German.

During my first trip with Thalys I was very impressed by the onboard staff instantly switching between French, German and Dutch depending on who they were speaking to.

 

[Meole]

TFW Welsh & English

 

[etr221]

I recall reading when Eurostar was being set up that British drivers were having to learn SNCF and SNCB rules and regs for operation to Paris and Brussels, and also French - which included periods staying with French families (I believe of railwaymen). A railway oriented French which led to a deer being identified as a cow with a pantograph!

As stated above, traditionally there was railway border station that marked the point where one country's practices gave way to others - it was rare for there to be a station on the actual border: Brenner/Brennero (Austria/Italy) is an exception. I have always imagined that the relevant inter-railway agreements for such would include specifying who would be expected to speak which language - whether it would be down to train crews or station staff to speak the 'other' language.

A relatively recent EU rule requires train crews (drivers, etc.) to be fluent in the language of the country they are in, even if just going just over the border to the border station, which has caused issues - there was a case were extending a Portuguese service back across the border into Spain could not happen due to lack of Spanish speaking Portuguese crews: again, I imagine that the former CP/RENFE agreement was that the RENFE station staff would speak Portuguese (at least enough to cope).

And it's not just across national borders that there are issues in multilingual countries: there's a BR (or successor) communication training/safety video over an English driver who'd moved to Wales, and whose route learning hadn't included how to pronounce all the Welsh station names, and a signalman who expected him to get them right...

 

[AlbertBeale]

In my experience, most staff working on major railways in mainland Europe can cope to at least some extent in more than one language. Though it can be a bit pot luck. Some years back, on a train from Marseilles to Italy (Genoa I think) - in days when such through trains ran - I was having a problem with some ticketing technicalities with a train staff person who was French, but spoke some Italian, though very little English. I can function in French or Italian, but only at a basic level. We ended up resolving the situation after lengthy discussions in a 3-way mix of broken English, broken French and broken Italian.

I've also been fascinated by the mix of bits of different languages spoken by buffet car staff on long international journeys - though I doubt there are precise rules for what linguistic capabilities they need to have; and the mix of languages obviously changes as staff leave and join the train en route. A couple of times I've acted as a "bridge" between a customer and a member of staff with no common language.

There are occasions when people make the assumption that if you know anything of another language then you know a lot more than you really do. A long time ago, on a journey from France to Italy via the traditional Fréjus tunnel route, my train stopped at Modane on account of a strike on the Italian side - it was seemingly going to be a long wait. Because I'd managed to discuss the situation with train and station staff in French and Italian (knowing well the word for "a strike" in both languages), they then tried to rope me in to help get the message over to some other passengers who didn't know what was going on. There was a particular difficulty with a Hungarian couple on a long journey back home from a visit to Lourdes, who seemed not to know a word of any other language but their own. And, unsurprisingly, I know not a word of Hungarian; but they proffered me a dog-eared dictionary (published in Hungary) they had with them (Hungarian-French I think it was, or maybe Hungarian-English). So I looked up "strike" - or "grève", whichever it was - only to find it wasn't included in their dictionary... I was intrigued by what political lesson to draw from that (this was back in Soviet times). However, the multinational cameraderie on the train sustained everyone for the many hours we were stuck there.

Announcements of destinations can be fun when the name of the place is a strange one for the speaker concerned. I used to savour announcements on trains en route to Dieppe in the days when I often used the Paris-Dieppe-Newhaven-London route. The announcements (on the run-in to Dieppe) about the time of the ferry connection, and the link to London on the other side, would founder without fail if the connection on the British side was one which required a change at Lewes, the pronunciation of which was completely beyond French railway guards.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Added to which is the general rise in English as the common lingua franca, especially among the young, and particularly for travel and technology.
That's no excuse for not learning something of the local language and culture, but it does change the "hard language border" somewhat.
We probably all have our language nemesis, but mine is Italian where they seem to express things very differently to anywhere else.
I've always been impressed by the language skills of conductors abroad making announcements in foreign languages, particularly English, even in France.

 

[D6130]

Added to which is the general rise in English as the common lingua franca, especially among the young, and particularly for travel and technology.
That's no excuse for not learning something of the local language and culture, but it does change the "hard language border" somewhat.
We probably all have our language nemesis, but mine is Italian where they seem to express things very differently to anywhere else.
I've always been impressed by the language skills of conductors abroad making announcements in foreign languages, particularly English, even in France.

Italian lessons happily given for a small fee!

 

[33056]

I was on an ICE service in Germany recently which got stuck at a station it wasn't due to stop at due to some signalling issues further down the line.

An announcement was made which I got the general gist of (plus there was information on the nature of the problem online) but when the conductor came round and I asked for some more precise details in English, it turned out that her knowledge of English was about as much as my knowledge of German!

No problem though as she grabbed her company issued mobile phone, repeated the announcement into it, chose the language and there it was in English text, complete with the bit I was unsure about. Things have progressed from 20-odd years ago when some crews used to carry a printed book with various phrases (excuses) in, translated to the more common foreign languages.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Added to which is the general rise in English as the common lingua franca, especially among the young, and particularly for travel and technology.
That's no excuse for not learning something of the local language and culture, but it does change the "hard language border" somewhat.
We probably all have our language nemesis, but mine is Italian where they seem to express things very differently to anywhere else.
I've always been impressed by the language skills of conductors abroad making announcements in foreign languages, particularly English, even in France.

You mean it always sounds and looks as though they're in the middle of an opera?

 

[Ken X]

As a mere Brit married to a Swiss National it often embarrasses me how poor at other languages I am. OC Domestic is fluent in Swiss German, High German, Swiss Italian (very good for swearing in) Italian, Swiss French, French, Romanch, passable Spanish and can get by in several other languages. The most impressive bit is how not only does her language change but, her body language also changes with it.
Her Italian swearing together with smacking the forehead and general arm waving is quite spectacular. The instantaneous change to quiet English almost unnerving. We, as a nation, have much to learn in my view.

 

[Taunton]

Her Italian swearing together with smacking the forehead and general arm waving is quite spectacular. The instantaneous change to quiet English almost unnerving. We, as a nation, have much to learn in my view.

The above sounds like a stereotype, but actually being in Italy just a couple of weeks ago there was a family argument in progress on the pavement. One would have thought they were communicating in semaphore ...

 

[D6130]

The above sounds like a stereotype, but actually being in Italy just a couple of weeks ago there was a family argument in progress on the pavement. One would have thought they were communicating in semaphore ...

You should try living in Italy for half of the year! We witness such dramatic scenes several times a day....but they're usually still friends afterwards.

Getting back on topic, the on-train announcements in Italian trains vary considerably in their linguistic competence. Generally, on the Frecciarossa high-speed services the English announcements are pretty good, but on InterCity and Regionale trains, they are variable to non-existant. One thing that used to amuse my wife and I when the Italo open-access services started about ten years ago was that their English language announcements were recorded by a guy with a pronounced Dutch accent, although still perfectly understandable. Approaching a station stop, he would announce "Persons who are stepping out of the train here are invited to get their luggage and belongings ready". He has since been replaced.

 

[Cloud Strife]

You mean it always sounds and looks as though they're in the middle of an opera?

Interestingly, this is how people often communicate in Gibraltar in English or Llanito. I've seen a wild argument on the street between two drivers, caused by a woman who blocked traffic to have a chat with her mate on the pavement. The argument started in English, but they quickly established that they both spoke Llanito, which turned into a full on animated argument that wouldn't be unusual on the streets of Malaga. Yet even at the beginning, the body language was clearly far more Spanish than British in nature.

Anyway, with announcements in Poland, I've only ever heard them given in Polish, although Wrocław Główny does them sometimes in English too. I haven't heard them in German, not even on the Berlin-Warszawa-Express.

 

[Falcon1200]

When Eurostar was being set up, one of my colleagues applied for and got a job in their UK Control, and was required to speak French.

We, as a nation, have much to learn in my view.

As always, when our (English speakers) lack of language skills is mentioned, the question has to be 'which foreign language(s) should we learn?' Because no matter which, they will be useless in large parts of the world! Whereas there is a fair chance of English being understood, to varying degrees.

 

[riceuten]

As always, when our (English speakers) lack of language skills is mentioned, the question has to be 'which foreign language(s) should we learn?' Because no matter which, they will be useless in large parts of the world! Whereas there is a fair chance of English being understood, to varying degrees.

But this is almost always trotted out as a reason for British people not to learn any foreign language. The fact that French, Spanish or German is not spoken worldwide is no excuse not to bother learning any of these.

Interestingly, this is how people often communicate in Gibraltar in English or Llanito. I've seen a wild argument on the street between two drivers, caused by a woman who blocked traffic to have a chat with her mate on the pavement. The argument started in English, but they quickly established that they both spoke Llanito, which turned into a full on animated argument that wouldn't be unusual on the streets of Malaga. Yet even at the beginning, the body language was clearly far more Spanish than British in nature.

Llanito is fascinating melange of (mostly) Andalusian Spanish, English, Italian, Maltese and Arabic. Almost all native Gibraltarians are fully bilingual in Spanish and English (and therefore Llanito). There's a column in the local paper in Llanito that's hilarious.

Anyway, with announcements in Poland, I've only ever heard them given in Polish, although Wrocław Główny does them sometimes in English too. I haven't heard them in German, not even on the Berlin-Warszawa-Express.

I've been on numerous international trains to and from Poland, and ones to and from Germany SOMETIMES have announcements in German - if not, then English. Interestingly, the area I have found the most German spoken is the Polish half of the former East Prussia - for tourism purposes, in the main. Not much English spoken there, to be honest. In Silesia, what little German is spoken mainly in the countryside around Opole - you will occasionally see street signs and even station names in German and well as Polish.

For CFL in Luxembourg, the train company wants you to speak French, German, Luxembourgish, and English - this is often a requirement for any government-related job. Given (they're going to kill me for saying this) Luxembourgish is essentially a dialect of German, then if you grew up in the country, you will probably speak all 4 fluently. But there are huge labour shortages in Luxembourg, and CFL and other companies will often recruit monolingual French speakers to less skilled roles, because no-one else wants to work there, and the internal working language of the company is French. I think there's an element of common sense - a staff member told me that they wouldn't send one of the few non-fluent German speaking drivers on a train to Trier.

SNCB trains that cross into France (eg the Lille-Kortrijk-Gent services) would normally be driven by French-speaking Flemish staff, as there are only a tiny minority of Dutch-speaking French staff. The announcements on the train go from French only (in France), French and Dutch (in Mouscron) and Dutch only thereafter, unless they are overriden by the guard, who will often provide announcements in French and Dutch all the way to Kortrijk, from where he or she is actually forbidden to make announcements in French.

 

[70014IronDuke]

In my experience, most staff working on major railways in mainland Europe can cope to at least some extent in more than one language. Though it can be a bit pot luck.

Those from former Yugoslav countries can usually manage in English. In Slovenia, German and Italian as well, depending on area.

I've also been fascinated by the mix of bits of different languages spoken by buffet car staff on long international journeys - though I doubt there are precise rules for what linguistic capabilities they need to have; and the mix of languages obviously changes as staff leave and join the train en route.

I have found the Czechs employ young student-like types - with good English and positive, smiling faces. A joy to buy a coffee from them and have a short chat . ....

There was a particular difficulty with a Hungarian couple on a long journey back home from a visit to Lourdes, who seemed not to know a word of any other language but their own.

Not so unusual, even today, certainly among those over 45.

And, unsurprisingly, I know not a word of Hungarian; but they proffered me a dog-eared dictionary (published in Hungary) they had with them (Hungarian-French I think it was, or maybe Hungarian-English). So I looked up "strike" - or "grève", whichever it was - only to find it wasn't included in their dictionary... I was intrigued by what political lesson to draw from that (this was back in Soviet times).

The Hungarian for 'strike' is 'sztrajk', which happens to be pronounced, more or less as ... er ... 'strike'.

 

[Ianigsy]

In Hungary about 12 years ago, I entered a museum built abound a Roman ruin, to be greeted by a student reading Strunk’s Elements of Style, so not just speaking English but learning “good” English style.

 

[urbophile]

We probably all have our language nemesis, but mine is Italian where they seem to express things very differently to anywhere else.

Eyes and hands can be more powerful than words!

 

[rf_ioliver]

In Hungary about 12 years ago, I entered a museum built abound a Roman ruin, to be greeted by a student reading Strunk’s Elements of Style, so not just speaking English but learning “good” English style.

A Hungarian learning English you say....there have been difficulties with Hungarian-English phrasebooks in the past as this documentary shows:

I'll get my coat, but it was too good a chance not to take up

 

[Falcon1200]

The fact that French, Spanish or German is not spoken worldwide is no excuse not to bother learning any of these.

I did French and German to A level in school, but they were of no use when I visited Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway or Finland!

 

[rvdborgt]

I did French and German to A level in school, but they were of no use when I visited Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway or Finland!

I find that knowing French and German helps to understand some Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Norwegian, especially written texts. For Finnish, nothing really helps...

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

You mean it always sounds and looks as though they're in the middle of an opera?

Yes indeed - and I've seen and enjoyed Aida in Verona and Simon Boccanegra in Naples, and listened to a lot of Rossini, Donizetti and Verdi operas in Italian.
But 19th century operatic phrases don't help much when you are trying to find out why the town bus outside Catania Centrale has failed to arrive.
It's as much about the information on offer (ie the local PIS) as the language.
Northern countries seem to have much better train/bus timetable and running information than Italy.