But what did strike me – as it often does – was the complete inability of rail operators to communicate what was happening in clear, comprehensible English.
I quickly learned that Twitter was the best way to keep up with First Great Western services (or so I thought – turns out they’re actually quite selective when it comes to which vital updates they choose to share). But even the stuff they did put out in the Twittersphere seemed like a foreign language:
“The disruption between Eastleigh/Southampton Central and Havant have been cleared. Residual delays expected.”
Never mind the incorrect verb agreement – don’t you just hate residual delays? They hang around like a bad smell, reminding you that you’re going to be late for everything. And what about this:
“Owing to signalling problems between London Paddington and Reading some lines are blocked. Updates to follow.”
The phrase “owing to” leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, who even says that? “Owing to the fact we have no sausages, it’s bacon butties for tea”? The sole purpose of this phrase is to absolve FGW of any blame. Funny though – those pesky signalling problems are always gate crashing rail passengers’ parties, usually after a night of engineering works. And “some lines” isn’t really useful information. I don’t remember any updates following either.
Of course, none of this nonsense is new. But how nice would it be if rail operators put a little more thought into making their communications more transparent this year? Understanding how you’re going to get from A to B shouldn’t be as mind boggling as doing a Rubik’s cube.
If you’d like to read more, check out this 2011 Guardian article on railspeak, which quite rightly compares it to Orwell’s Newspeak in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
