Tags
bad English, English, poor English, rail, rail announcements, railway, redundancy, tautology, train announcements, trains, UK
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‘The next station stop is…’ Virgin Trains, like other UK rail services, seems to delight in using ridiculous English. Photo courtesy of http://www.hippyshopper.com.
Anyone who has travelled on a train in the UK will have heard ridiculous pompous announcements along the following lines (pun intended):
The next station stop is…
‘Stop’ is redundant.
We are arriving into…
No, no, no! we are arriving at…
Passengers alighting…
What’s wrong with plain old ‘getting off’?
Please ensure you take all your personal possessions with you.
(a) I don’t have all my possessions on the train. (b) This implies the existence of impersonal possessions. What are these?
I seem to think that I have heard most of these expressions on practically every UK train journey I have made, regardless of the rail company. Would anyone care to comment?
Here’s a BBC article on rail announcements. The comments below it are most relevant.
Corporate Clanger's 