Northern Seeks Public Input for Accurate Station Pronunciations

In a bid to ensure the correct pronunciation of station names during announcements, Northern, the prominent train operating company, initiated a consultation process with residents in June. Now, as the final step, Northern is inviting residents to provide feedback on proposed changes before recording new announcements.

Peter Corley, a conductor based in York, and Laura Palmer, a cyber security and compliance manager, have been selected by their colleagues to lend their voices to the announcements.

The duo are committed to respecting local pronunciation and aims to rectify discrepancies between the written and spoken forms of various Northern-served stations.

Following the initial consultation process, Northern has compiled a table of station names along with their current and planned pronunciations. The proposed changes are as follows:

Aside from addressing pronunciation concerns, feedback from residents also revealed a preference for using full place names rather than the commonly used shortened versions.

Northern acknowledges this sentiment and aims to incorporate the changes accordingly. The table below showcases the current and planned pronunciations for selected stations:

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, please 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.