Spelling error on TfL poster

[ChewChewTrain]

“31 meters long”. For the avoidance of doubt, this was not in the US or Canada, but Croydon.

First world problems and everything, but this lack of attention to detail troubles me when our safety is so often in TfL’s hands. I know the poster designers aren’t the same people who deal with the electrics etc, but in the end the people at the top are the same, and they should IMO be serious about ensuring that things like this are caught.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Yes, unprofessional.

 

[busestrains]

“31 meters long”. For the avoidance of doubt, this was not in the US or Canada, but Croydon.

First world problems and everything, but this lack of attention to detail troubles me when our safety is so often in TfL’s hands. I know the poster designers aren’t the same people who deal with the electrics etc, but in the end the people at the top are the same, and they should IMO be serious about ensuring that things like this are caught.

That poster looks very old. The font and style and design look nothing like what TFL use these days. I think that must have been put up years ago. But they really ought to have checked their spelling before producing that.

Also i am not sure where they are getting their statistics of 30 trams from. There are 36 trams in total. There are 24 of the original Bombardier CR4000 trams. There are 12 of the newer Stadler Variobahn trams. That makes 36 trams in total. There has never been a total of 30 trams though.

 

[hexagon789]

Don't they also only run at 70km/h now, since the Sandilands derailment?

 

[ChewChewTrain]

It may well be old. It’s in a quiet area of a shopping centre near East Croydon station.

 

[Railsigns]

About ten years ago I used to regularly see these stickers on board trains:

 

[ChewChewTrain]

About ten years ago I used to regularly see these stickers on board trains:

View attachment 127199

Can’t even blame autocorrect or international English for that. Mind you, I didn’t spot it for a couple of seconds.

 

[PG]

Can’t even blame autocorrect or international English for that. Mind you, I didn’t spot it for a couple of seconds.

Ee by gum! Was it written in Yorkshire...

 

[philthetube]

Also i am not sure where they are getting their statistics of 30 trams from. There are 36 trams in total. There are 24 of the original Bombardier CR4000 trams. There are 12 of the newer Stadler Variobahn trams. That makes 36 trams in total. There has never been a total of 30 trams though.

30 max in service?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Can’t even blame autocorrect or international English for that. Mind you, I didn’t spot it for a couple of seconds.

I suspect there's some interesting psychology there about how the brain processes that mis-spelled word. My experience was that when I looked at the picture, my brain instantly registered that there was something that felt wrong about the first word - and I could almost feel my eyes getting drawn to it as a result, but it took a second or so of looking at it to figure out what the problem was.

The 'meter' one affected me differently - probably because I'm used to seeing US spellings in my work - so although I could intellectually recognise that it was the wrong spelling for the UK and therefore unprofessional, I didn't feel any gut sense of there being anything wrong.

 

[gswindale]

30 max in service?

According to Wikipedia (I know!) the original order was for 24 (from Bombardier) and in August 2011 Stadler won a contract to supply 6 Variobahn trams with a further order in August 2013 for another 4 which was then increased to 6. The first 6 apparently entered service in 2012, and the next 4 in 2015, so between 2012 and 2015 they did have 30 trams, but from 2016 there were 36 (reducing to 35 after the accident)

Tramlink - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[WizCastro197]

Also i am not sure where they are getting their statistics of 30 trams from. There are 36 trams in total. There are 24 of the original Bombardier CR4000 trams. There are 12 of the newer Stadler Variobahn trams. That makes 36 trams in total. There has never been a total of 30 trams though.

As @gswindale suggests there was, between 2012-2015, which suggests this poster is from around then.

 

[nlogax]

Can't honestly say it irritates me at all. 'Meters' is fine. Maybe it's time we recognised UK English can be just as daft if not dafter than US / international English and stopped fretting about occasional changes.

 

[WizCastro197]

Can't honestly say it irritates me at all. 'Meters' is fine. Maybe it's time we recognised UK English can be just as daft if not dafter than US / international English and stopped fretting about occasional changes.

I agree, I am not that bothered either. Most of the travelling public, or those who just see it, either won’t even notice the mistake, as American English has slipped in quite a bit, or will see it and not care as it is so minor.

 

[Kite159]

I would be more bothered about the use of KMs instead of miles.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Can't honestly say it irritates me at all. 'Meters' is fine. Maybe it's time we recognised UK English can be just as daft if not dafter than US / international English and stopped fretting about occasional changes.

For me, 'irritate' is the wrong word: It doesn't irritate me at all. If anything, I find things like that somewhat amusing when I see them. But at the same time, I also recognise that things like that are unprofessional, really shouldn't be happening in that context, and ought to have been fixed. One apparently minor thing like this may seem in itself insignificant, but in general, following the rules in a language is important both in order to keep the language relatively stable over time so that people can continue to understand it, and because it tends to be a lot easier for people to understand a language if words are consistently spelled the same way.

 

[nlogax]

One apparently minor thing like this may seem in itself insignificant, but in general, following the rules in a language is important both in order to keep the language relatively stable over time so that people can continue to understand it, and because it tends to be a lot easier for people to understand a language if words are consistently spelled the same way

No, I disagree here. It's high time the rules of English were broken for the occasional example where doing so makes zero difference. Any similar measure or distance-related word is spelled or ends with 'meter', why should this be any different?

Tbh I'm all for a few Americanisms and other countries' influences to sneak in here and there. English isn't set in aspic and should evolve into a direction of wider usability.

 

[AlterEgo]

No, I disagree here. It's high time the rules of English were broken for the occasional example where doing so makes zero difference. Any similar measure or distance-related word is spelled or ends with 'meter', why should this be any different?

Tbh I'm all for a few Americanisms and other countries' influences to sneak in here and there. English isn't set in aspic and should evolve into a direction of wider usability.

Indeed the purpose of language is to be understood. I’d argue English is a very fluid language with a wide spectrum of dialects and slang. I think this actually makes the language more accessible to new speakers and is part of Britain’s success as a country generally accessible to immigrants.

French by contrast is extremely pernickety about pronunciation and grammar.

 

[Ediswan]

No, I disagree here. It's high time the rules of English were broken for the occasional example where doing so makes zero difference. Any similar measure or distance-related word is spelled or ends with 'meter', why should this be any different?

The SI unit is the metre.
https://www.bipm.org/en/si-base-units/metre

The metre, symbol m, is the SI unit of length.

 

[westv]

No, I disagree here. It's high time the rules of English were broken for the occasional example where doing so makes zero difference. Any similar measure or distance-related word is spelled or ends with 'meter', why should this be any different?

Because a meter isn't the same as a metre?

 

[nlogax]

Because a meter isn't the same as a metre?

I don't see non-British English countries getting this confused.. a meter in length, a meter to measure your gas usage and everyone understands the difference. Context is key.

 

[westv]

I don't see non-British English countries getting this confused.. a meter in length, a meter to measure your gas usage and everyone understands the difference. Context is key.

Wiki tell me that
"Metre is the standard spelling of the metric unit for length in nearly all English-speaking nations except the United States"

 

[PG]

Because a meter isn't the same as a metre?

The former is a device for measuring the consumption of a commodity, while the latter is measurement of distance.

 

[westv]

The former is a device for measuring the consumption of a commodity, while the latter is measurement of distance.

i think we all know that.