Train line gets an earful over mispronouncing station name

A TRAIN operator has come under fire for mispronouncing a station name, six months after re-recording its announcements to amend the problem.

Northern said it had re-recorded 34 place names in August following criticism from passengers over the errors.

But months later, those travelling between Carlisle and the Cumbrian coast have complained that the town of Aspatria is still being announced “As-spat-ria” rather than “As-spay-tria".

Alan Maxwell, the mayor, told the BBC: “In local dialect, people call the town ‘Spyat-ree’, but the correct pronunciation is ‘As-spay-tria’. To have it right [on the trains] would be nice.”

Another passenger said the error was “really noticeable” and complained about the service itself. They said: “The service is so unreliable, we’re just grateful when the trains are running”.

Northern confirmed to the BBC that Aspatria was one of the re-recordings it did last year “as part of a programme to ensure our onboard announcements respected local pronunciation”.

A spokesman for Northern said: “Aspatria was one of 34 station recordings that were re-recorded in August 2023 as part of a programme to ensure our on-board announcements respected local pronunciation. The rollout of those new recordings across our fleet of 345 trains continues apace, with the process due for completion by the summer.”

Last year the company asked passengers across its network for help flagging any mispronounced station names.

The operator could not confirm how many re-recordings had been implemented the subsequent six months, when approached by the BBC.

Northern told the broadcaster it hoped to complete the roll-out of its updates by the “summer”.

Onboard software systems are updated manually by engineers when trains are serviced.