The irritation of travel announcements
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve travelled to Oxford, Bristol, Manchester and Derbyshire – all by train. So I have considerable sympathy with David Marsh who explains in this article his objections to the strange language used in rail announcements.
It’s not only the words that are used for travel announcements; it’s also the way those words are delivered. For some reason, the sentences are pronounced in an undulating, sing-song fashion, totally unlike normal conversation. And it’s not just rail announcements; the same experience is to be found on the London Underground and on airlines.
I picked up on this irritating phenomenon at the beginning of my short story “Coming In To Land”.