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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
National
Neal Keeling

Northern says it will pronounce Greater Manchester train station correctly in future after complaints

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.

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