Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[smittims]

Yes, re 'train station', 'train track' etc. A classic example of anti-language. 'Railway' is a perfectly good word; it doesn't mean anything else and is explicit. There is no good reason for excising it from our language.

[cloughie]

Yes, re 'train station', 'train track' etc. A classic example of anti-language. 'Railway' is a perfectly good word; it doesn't mean anything else and is explicit. There is no good reason for excising it from our language.

I hate the term too, it sounds clumsy! Maybe that is because Railway Station is what I’ve known for most of my life - however, very reluctantly logically I may go to a Bus Station to catch a bus and so to a Train Station to catch a train (not a railway). The Temperance Seven song, Pasadena, however, would not have had the same whistle had it started ‘Oh you train station’.

[kernelbogey]

In Bournemouth, there is a 'Travel Interchange'.

[Serial_Apologist]

I hate the term too, it sounds clumsy! Maybe that is because Railway Station is what I’ve known for most of my life - however, very reluctantly logically I may go to a Bus Station to catch a bus and so to a Train Station to catch a train (not a railway). The Temperance Seven song, Pasadena, however, would not have had the same whistle had it started ‘Oh you train station’.

Poor logic though - no one has ever spoken of busways!

[oddoneout]

Poor logic though - no one has ever spoken of busways!

I don't know about "no-one"... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambri..._Guided_Busway and https://www.busways.com.au/ (although admittedly not in this country)

[Bryn]

I don't know about "no-one"... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambri..._Guided_Busway and https://www.busways.com.au/ (although admittedly not in this country)

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

[french frank]

Poor logic though - no one has ever spoken of busways!

Most bus routes aren't dedicated 'busways', a term presumably invented to designate a dedicated road/way/path. Railway has more in common with 'chemin de fer', ferrovia, ferrocarril, Eisenbahn, where rail is just more specific than iron.

I'm not sure that a bus station and a (railway) station are similar things. 'Train station' would suggest a terminus, like a bus station, rather than a stop along a route.

[Sir Velo]

Most bus routes aren't dedicated 'busways', a term presumably invented to designate a dedicated road/way/path. Railway has more in common with 'chemin de fer', ferrovia, ferrocarril, Eisenbahn, where rail is just more specific than iron.

'Train station' would suggest a terminus, like a bus station, rather than a stop along a route.

Ah, but why would it though? What's the logic? And if so, why wouldn't "railway station" also suggest a terminus?

Nonetheless, we don't talk of "plane stations", or "car stations" so I will continue to use railway station if for no other reason, than it is inherently more elegant!

[smittims]

A railway station is still that if there are no trains in it! And many 'trains' are only one coach so aren't really 'trains'. It's just a question of clarity, which is surely what language is about.

For the same reason I always say 'aeroplane' as it's unambigious. 'Plane ' can mean sveeral different things.

[Bryn]

The one that gets on my nerves is "station stop", which, to me, appears to be tautologous.

[kernelbogey]

The one that gets on my nerves is "station stop", which, to me, appears to be tautologous.

I think it's to distiniguish it from those random stops at signals, fields full of cows etc.

[french frank]

Ah, but why would it though? What's the logic?

I.e. why would 'train station' suggest a terminus? On the exact analogy of 'bus station' (vehicle + station) which is a terminus, not an individual stop,

And if so, why wouldn't "railway station" also suggest a terminus?

It can be either, a terminus or an individual stop. But 'railway station' and 'bus station' are not analogous, because 'railway' has a much wider meaning (= the entire system, or a section of it or the track itself), whereas 'bus' is just the vehicle. Bus network, or busway have meanings which overlap with both.

Be this all as it may - or may not - much of the dislike, I suspect, comes from the unnecessary import of the American term when we already have a perfectly adequate British one. The late Jean contended that a shorter term tended to replace a longer one, in which case why "The next station stop ..." rather than "the next stop .."? NB To suggest that 'The next stop' may be at a stop signal rather than a station is mere pedantry, since we don't get "Oh, oh, we're going to have to stop at a signal in a minute. The next stop will not be Basingstoke station, as announced, but the traffic signal approximately 500 yards before the station platform".

[oddoneout]

I.e. why would 'train station' suggest a terminus? On the exact analogy of 'bus station' (vehicle + station) which is a terminus, not an individual stop,

The bus station in the city here is both - in fact the impression I get when I'm there is that relatively few buses terminate there, as in everyone gets off. For most of the services it is just a stop on a longer journey, whether city based or in from from outside.

[french frank]

The bus station in the city here is both - in fact the impression I get when I'm there is that relatively few buses terminate there, as in everyone gets off. For most of the services it is just a stop on a longer journey, whether city based or in from from outside.

It's my limited experience then. I was judging by Bristol and Chur, in Switzerland, where buses from many routes draw into bays - like railway termini - and there are departure and arrival boards. You can change buses, but very few would simply stop for a minute or so and then drive out straight away: they'd need to wait for passengers to arrive from other routes to get on. And there are ticket and enquiry offices. I imagine buses stand there overnight once the service ends for the day. That's what I would call a 'bus station'.

[cloughie]

Poor logic though - no one has ever spoken of busways!

No its not its perfectly logical. …and ff most bus stations in Cornwall are bus stops and termini depending on what route they serve.