A Greater Manchester station is among those set to get their names pronounced correctly onboard trains after complaints from the public.
Residents across the North of England have responded to an appeal by Northern to help them correct the mispronunciation of local station names in onboard announcements - with Ashburys in Greater Manchester making the list for currently being pronounced without the 's' at the end.
Ashburys is in Openshaw, Manchester, on the Manchester to Glossop line at its junction with the Hope Valley line. It has been open since 1855 and is the nearest railway station to Manchester City's Etihad Stadium - and travellers have pointed out it's shortened name needs changing. There is no actual place of the name - the station is named after the Ashbury Railway and Carriage and Iron Company which built it for £175.
A bigger gaffe was calling the Euxton Balshaw Lane station - near Chorley - Euston, as in the London station. The correct pronuciation is Ex-ton Balshaw Lane.
And now, the train operator has issued a final call for feedback before the duo behind the new recordings return to the studio. Changes which are planned so far are:
Station |
Currently Pronounced |
Future Pronunciation |
| |
|
|
Burneside, Cumbria |
Burn-Side |
Burn-E-Side |
Aspatria, Cumbria |
A-Spa-Tria |
Ass-Spat-Ria |
Ashburys, Greater Manchester |
Ashbury |
Ashburys |
Euxton Balshaw Lane, Lancashire |
Euston Balshaw Lane |
Ex-Ton Balshaw Lane |
Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire |
Slaith-Wait |
Slou-Wit |
Ilkeston, Derbyshire |
Ill-Kes-Ston |
Ilks-tonne |
Cark & Cartmel, Cumbria |
Cark And Cartmel |
Cark-N-Cartmel |
Mossley Hill, Merseyside |
Mozzley-ill |
Mose-ley Hill |
With some stations, residents were keen to reiterate full place names rather than shortened versions that have been adopted over time. Those included:
Station |
Currently Announced As |
Future Announcement |
| |
|
|
Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria |
Barrow |
Barrow-In-Furness |
Dore & Totley, South Yorkshire |
Dore |
Dore & Totley |
Tricia Williams, chief operating officer at Northern, said: “I’d like to thank everyone that has sent in their feedback so far. We manage 467 stations across our network and some of them are pronounced very differently to how they appear in writing.
“That said, some corrections are, quite rightly, a request that station names be announced in full rather than shortened versions that have been adopted over time.”
If the audio of your local station doesn’t sound quite right, you can contact Northern on Twitter (@northernassist) or via Facebook Messenger (m.me/northernassist).
Customers have until the end of the month to submit their ‘suggestions and corrections'. The new on-board announcements have been recorded by Peter Corley and Laura Palmer, two of Northern’s employees.
Speaking at the time the first recordings went live on some of Northern’s trains, they said: “Whilst every effort was made to get them right first time, we know how proud people across the North of England are of their regional dialect. Who knows how long these recordings will be in the system – so now’s your chance to correct us if we’ve got it wrong.”
Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.
