Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[oddoneout]

Would Americans not have had railroad stations?

Can't say that train station bothers me.
The trains run on the railway tracks, but the stations are where the trains stop (or arrive into).
Buses (or omnibuses if you prefer) run on the roads, but we don't have road stations for them, just bus or coach stations.

Yes I think it might be a bit worrying ,as a passenger on a train, to be told the next destination was a bus station, if the plan had been to change to another train...Although I think at Peterborough it is possible just about to be interchangeable as the two stations are on the same site?

[LezLee]

From Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Homeward Bound’

“I'm sitting in the railway station.
Got a ticket for my destination.”

[kernelbogey]

I think 'into' X station is guards' jargon; and intended to allow for the train stopping at the last signal before the station itself, which may be regarded as 'into' rather than fully 'at'!

Compare 'our next station stop' to distinguish from an apparently random stop in open countryside.

[Andrew]

It’s like when we changed from being passengers to customers and trains started arriving ‘into’ stations.

Ed Reardon, where art thou now? He did an amazing piece about railways, covering the change from passengers to "customers" and how services improved (or were they just "re-nationalised"?) together with a philippic about trains in British Railway's days, with surely guards, sporting war medals, beer cans on the floor, no-one knowing when the train would arrive etc. etc. Totally brilliant!

[vinteuil]

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... and, talking of railway stations - - - "parkway"



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[cloughie]

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... and, talking of railway stations - - - "parkway"


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In the old GWR days of chocolate and cream rather than dark green, stations that were some way away from the towns they served had Road tagged on, now they tag on Parkway and eg in the case of Bodmin Road we now have Bodmin Parkway. I wonder how many visitors to this land have boarded a S Wales train from Paddington, alighted at Bristol Parkway and been totally miffed at being so far from the centre of the city!

[vinteuil]

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Parkway_railway_stations_in_Britain

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[cloughie]

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Parkway_railway_stations_in_Britain

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Lelant Saltings having not the capacity has now been closed and now St Erth Park and Ride Hub is in operation which combines the Parkway and the Interchange with parking and links with local Kernow buses. It is also notorious for causing traffic queues on the A30 at the end of the Hayle by-pass.

[LHC]

Ed Reardon, where art thou now? He did an amazing piece about railways, covering the change from passengers to "customers" and how services improved (or were they just "re-nationalised"?) together with a philippic about trains in British Railway's days, with surely guards, sporting war medals, beer cans on the floor, no-one knowing when the train would arrive etc. etc. Totally brilliant!

I remember traveling from Liverpool to London on British Rail at the time that it’s slogan was “we’re getting there”, which itself seemed an admission that the general level of service was so poor that the most you could hope for was that the train would arrive at its destination at some point.

Anyway, on this particular Sunday the train I was on arrived in London an hour earlier than scheduled. This caused much confusion, with several passengers checking their watches to make sure they hadn’t stopped. As I alighted, the guard winked at me and said ‘and don’t say we’re not getting there”.

[LezLee]

For a long time the slogan above the entrance to Edinburgh Waverley read:- "Training Beats Coaching"

[LMcD]

Recommended reading: '11 Minutes Late - A Train Journey To The Soul Of Britain' by Matthew Engel.

[LezLee]

Recommended reading: '11 Minutes Late - A Train Journey To The Soul Of Britain' by Matthew Engel.

I second that.

[oddoneout]

In the old GWR days of chocolate and cream rather than dark green, stations that were some way away from the towns they served had Road tagged on, now they tag on Parkway and eg in the case of Bodmin Road we now have Bodmin Parkway. I wonder how many visitors to this land have boarded a S Wales train from Paddington, alighted at Bristol Parkway and been totally miffed at being so far from the centre of the city!

Not so much Parkway as Partway?

[Count Boso]

... and, talking of railway stations - - - "parkway"

Is the word 'parkway' the objection? Out of town stations have more flexible connections (Avignon Centre v Avignon TGV, for example). But I suppose Didcot Hitachi, Bodmin Hitachi might do?

[LezLee]

I've always thought of 'Parkway' as a Park & Ride area where you park, then get the train into town.