On-train announcement phraseology no longer used

[AY1975]

Following on from the existing thread on station announcement phraseology no longer used at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/station-announcer-phraseology-no-longer-used.252505/ I thought how about a separate thread about on-train public address announcement phraseology no longer used.

Here's one to start you off: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now approaching X" was how guards on InterCity trains with on-board public address systems usually used to announce each station in BR days.

And in the early days of privatisation in the late 1990s "X your next station stop".

Nowadays "We will shortly be arriving into X" seems to be the norm.

And as the buffet is no longer officially referred to as the buffet these days, "A buffet service of drinks and light refreshments is available on this train", "The buffet is currently clear for service" and "The buffet will be closing in approximately ten minutes' time. This is the final call for the buffet car."

 

[stadler]

I am sure that anyone who travelled on the 458/0 trains will remember this:

"The door buttons are now activated."

No classes of trains use that announcement any more.

 

[AY1975]

Also in BR days they used to say "When leaving the train, please make sure you take all your personal belongings with you."

These days they often still give the same advice, but instead of "When leaving the train" it's "Before alighting from this service". I believe that train conductors have to read from a prescribed script when making their announcements, and they are actually specifically told to say "service" instead of "train", so likewise they will say "I will shortly be making my way through the service and doing a full ticket check."

I suppose it's all part of the drive to make you feel like a valued customer instead of just a passenger, and by calling it a service instead of a train it's meant to sound as if the journey experience is about receiving good customer service instead of just getting from A to B.

 

[cf111]

"At Georgemas Junction, this train will divide with the front two carriages for Wick and the rear two carriages for Thurso."

 

[Sealink]

"At Georgemas Junction, this train will divide with the front two carriages for Wick and the rear two carriages for Thurso."

I remember this well. Before another 40 minutes was added to the journey to Wick. Think it was National Express' idea, who subsequently bought Scottish Citylink who operated Inverness to Wick. I'm not implying any skulduggery here though! They were were then told to sell Citylink.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I am sure that anyone who travelled on the 458/0 trains will remember this:

"The door buttons are now activated."

No classes of trains use that announcement any more.

"De door buttons are now activated". Followed by "This is Staines!" with a ridiculous almost-shouty upward inflection that sounded like he was scared of the fact that it was Staines. To be fair I would be. Even more so if it was "Felthammmm!".

If a demonstration was required as to why only professional voice artists should ever be used for this sort of purpose, it was this one.

"Ladies and Gentlemen" is now dying out, but I'm not a fan of "hello everyone", I think it sounds too informal for my liking, a bit like shop workers calling me by my first name without asking if that's OK first or the postman calling me "mate".

I understand why it's being replaced, but I'd prefer something more formal sounding like "Your attention, please". It's only waffle to allow people to "tune into" what is being said. Or a nice jingle could replace it and they could just go straight into the message.

I suppose another one that's died out is anything relating to closing the (manual) doors. Though the one I remember being used quite widely is more on station ("please board the train and close the doors, this train is ready for departure") than on train.

 

[Taunton]

Sadly each generation of message authors seems determined to insert more padding words than the one before.

First message does need an intro so you start to give attention. "Ladies & Gentlemen" is the established one. More commanding ones like "Your attention, please" should only be used for important irregular announcements such as platform alterations, not prefixing "Keep your Luggage with you at All Times".

I liked one of the USA subways (New York maybe). "Doors closing. 69th Street next". Short. Sweet.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I liked one of the USA subways (New York maybe). "Doors closing. 69th Street next". Short. Sweet.

It's notable that while the Swiss IC services have a very wordy automatic announcement* in three languages (Romansh tends not to be used), regional services have it much more succinct, just "next stop X" in the three. Germany goes even more succinct, usually just "<bong> station".

* "The SBB train crew welcomes you to the InterCity to..." and some wordy spiel about delicious food and refreshing drinks in the restaurant.

 

[oldman]

I liked one of the USA subways (New York maybe). "Doors closing. 69th Street next". Short. Sweet.

I remember the Washington ones started with a firm 'Step back!' both when the doors opened (to allow people to board) and before closing.

The Prague metro's Ukončete prosím výstup a nástup, dveře se zavírají only got the word please (prosim) after 1989 and the end of communism. In the old days you weren't asked, you were told.

 

[cf111]

I remember this well. Before another 40 minutes was added to the journey to Wick. Think it was National Express' idea, who subsequently bought Scottish Citylink who operated Inverness to Wick. I'm not implying any skulduggery here though! They were were then told to sell Citylink.

Nat Ex took over the franchise in 1997 and while my memory is getting worse with age , if I recall correctly the change in operations with the train going to Thurso and then Wick took place when the 158s took over from the 156s, which I would guess would have been closer to 2000. Could well be wrong.

 

[Taunton]

Who can recall when the National Lottery first came in, 1994, there was a considerable nationwide hoopla about it (now fortunately much fallen away), and the numbers were drawn on Sunday evening live on the television.

In pre-mobile phone days, too, so on the WCML southbound on Sunday evenings I recall the guard doing a PA announcement that the numbers just drawn were about to be read out, all get ready to check them, followed a couple of minutes later by him actually reading them out to the train, ending up with "thank you West Coast control for advising the numbers".

 

[CarrotPie]

I liked one of the USA subways (New York maybe). "Doors closing. 69th Street next". Short. Sweet.

The announcements on our metro here in Helsinki do one better. Here are two examples: "Soukka *pause* Sökö" and "Aalto-yliopisto - Aalto-universitetet - Aalto University". As short and as sweet as you can get with two/three languages!

 

[Purple Train]

"X. This is X."

Nowadays, it's virtually exclusively one or the other.

 

[birchesgreen]

Also in BR days they used to say "When leaving the train, please make sure you take all your personal belongings with you."

I'm sure i've still heard on some trains recently.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Vestibule is now taboo. Apparently todays travelling public don’t now what one is. One must request passengers customers to move to the area at the end of the coach use their phones.

 

[GatwickDepress]

I'm sure i've still heard on some trains recently.

Certainly the automatic announcements on Southern use similar phraseology. Believe it's something like "please make sure you take all your personal belongings with you when you leave the train".

 

[Strathclyder]

Certainly the automatic announcements on Southern use similar phraseology. Believe it's something like "please make sure you take all your personal belongings with you when you leave the train".

ScotRail's version is 'please ensure you take your luggage and personal belongings with you when leaving the train'. Have heard it on 156s, 318s/320s, 334s and 380s in the past year.

 

[FGW_DID]

Vestibule is now taboo. Apparently todays travelling public don’t now what one is. One must request passengers customers to move to the area at the end of the coach use their phones.

Jeez, talk about dumbing it down for the lowest common denominator, That's a whole new level of dumb!

 

[GatwickDepress]

Jeez, talk about dumbing it down for the lowest common denominator, That's a whole new level of dumb!

To be fair, it's not really a term you encounter much - especially as many trains don't even have vestibules these days - and the entire point of public announcements are to be as clear as possible to the lowest common denominator. The railways and ecclesiastical architecture are the only places I commonly encounter the term.

See also 'alight', which seems to exist as a term on some forms of public transport but not others, and only in Commonwealth English. Believe Americans use 'detrain' instead. But that's a whole new topic for General Discussion, so I shan't continue my diatribe.

ScotRail's version is 'please ensure you take your luggage and personal belongings with you when leaving the train'. Have heard it on 156s, 318s/320s, 334s and 380s in the past year.

On Board Supervisors seem to use this longer form on Southern when doing manual announcements though. Rare days when the automatic announcements are the laconic ones!

 

[rmt4ever]

Who can recall when the National Lottery first came in, 1994, there was a considerable nationwide hoopla about it (now fortunately much fallen away), and the numbers were drawn on Sunday evening live on the television.

In pre-mobile phone days, too, so on the WCML southbound on Sunday evenings I recall the guard doing a PA announcement that the numbers just drawn were about to be read out, all get ready to check them, followed a couple of minutes later by him actually reading them out to the train, ending up with "thank you West Coast control for advising the numbers".

Saturday, surely?

 

[Taunton]

Jeez, talk about dumbing it down for the lowest common denominator, That's a whole new level of dumb!

You possibly find it's the recently-hired Generation Z staff at the TOC HQ, rather than the travelling public, who don't know what it means. Rather like traditional timetables are now considered too difficult to read .

 

[Devonian]

"De door buttons are now activated". Followed by "This is Staines!" with a ridiculous almost-shouty upward inflection that sounded like he was scared of the fact that it was Staines. To be fair I would be. Even more so if it was "Felthammmm!".

Also seemed very startled at a sooner-than-expected arrival when "The next station is Earley!?!"

"This is the chief steward speaking" and "The buffet car is now open for the sale of teacoffeehotchocolatelightsnackandrefreshments and also a licensed bar" are long-gone phrases burned into my brain from 1990s Intercity. Along with "Please do not attempt to open any external doors until the train has come to a complete stop at the platform".

 

[jumbo_t]

The Prague metro's Ukončete prosím výstup a nástup, dveře se zavírají only got the word please (prosim) after 1989 and the end of communism. In the old days you weren't asked, you were told.

Funny, I was just about to mention this one... the lilting voice of the announcer for line C saying that phrase is forever burned into my mind.

 

[30907]

You possibly find it's the recently-hired Generation Z staff at the TOC HQ, rather than the travelling public, who don't know what it means.

I'm rather older than Generation Z and the word vestibule seems archaic to me, though I have seen it in print. I certainly wouldn't use it on the heritage railway I work on. Doorway or entrance.
BTW I've not known a church with a vestibule either. Entrance - or Narthex, maybe

 

[chris.lambert.]

I seem to remember hearing "Diss, Diss, this is Diss" as we arrived in Diss! Or maybe I imagined it?

 

[prod_pep]

'All change' is becoming rare these days locally, though I suspect it survives in automated announcements elsewhere in the country. You very rarely hear a Merseyrail guard say 'all change' when approaching a terminus these days.

I do like 'alight', a pleasant, somewhat archaic term which still has a role today. 'Disembark' is becoming more common on trains, but it just doesn't sit right with train travel. You disembark a ship and (arguably) an aeroplane.

 

[urbophile]

Another Merseyrail thing that narks me is the announcement 'the next service is out of service'. I can just about stomach 'the next service for X' instead of 'the next train..', but a service that isn't in service isn't a service is it?

 

[GatwickDepress]

'All change' is becoming rare these days locally, though I suspect it survives in automated announcements elsewhere in the country. You very rarely hear a Merseyrail guard say 'all change' when approaching a terminus these days.

I do like 'alight', a pleasant, somewhat archaic term which still has a role today. 'Disembark' is becoming more common on trains, but it just doesn't sit right with train travel. You disembark a ship and (arguably) an aeroplane.

I quite like 'all change' as well. There's something pleasantly ritualistic hearing it at the end of a journey. Southeastern and Southern both use it in automated announcements, and it still seems to be part of the script for onboard staff. I particularly like the oddly exuberant way this Jubilee Line announcer [YouTube link] says it.

 

[urbophile]

'All change' and 'alight' are both examples of railwayspeak that no human being (or no English speaker) would ever otherwise use. 'Change for...' makes sense if someone is getting off one train and on another. 'All change' would only be accurate if everyone was forbidden to leave the station on foot and was forced to get onto another train (or I suppose a bus). And 'alight' must confuse every non-native English speaker, and quite a few natives. What's wrong with 'leave the train'? (Please not, 'leave the service'!)

 

[oldman]

'All change' and 'alight' are both examples of railwayspeak that no human being (or no English speaker) would ever otherwise use.

All change long ago escaped from the railway to be used punningly about all sorts of unrelated things.

All Change! The Implications of Non-stationarity for Empirical Modelling, Forecasting and Policy (academic paper)
All change for bin collections this festive season (council press release)
'All change please!' – Challenges and opportunities of the energy transition (report)
All Change Please. A Practical Guide to Achieving Gender Equality in Theatre (book)