Rail Or Train?

[jourdain2]

I've noticed that the words 'Railway Station' seem to have become defunct and the (to my mind uglier) 'Train Station' is ubiquitous on the radio. When and why did this start to happen?

[gingejbee]

....perhaps at the same time that "passengers" became "customers"?

[factor-fiction]

I'm normally a bit of a pedant when it comes to issues of language, grammar and punctuation, but have never shared the concern over the use of train station instead of railway station. We are quite happy to use the term bus station for the place where we catch a bus so it seems reasonable to me to use the term train station for the place where we catch a train.

[stuey]

To go back even further: when did "railroad station" become "railway station"?

[Obiter]

Railroad is an Americanism. Railway is the UK term.

[stuey]

That's true, Obiter, now that you mention it. Do you still have passenger-cars with a holed strap, or strop, that controls the opening and closing of the windows?...I bet not.

[Obiter]

No. Doors and windows are electronically controlled.

[bookbinder]

'Train Station' requires a shorter signboard than does 'Railway Station'. My guess is that 'train' wins because it's a bit cheaper to produce than 'railway.'

[stuey]

"Passenger-carriages"?

[cupid04]

It will always be railway station for me, I still revert to pre-decimal currency when I'm shopping too.

[Obiter]

Just carriages, I think, or coaches.

[jourdain2]

Thank you all! The mention of the leather window-straps really took me back. I still think that 'Train Station' sounds 'wrong' - 'railway' has the advantage of possessing the same number of syllables as 'station'. I suppose it may have begun with 'railway train' and we became lazy. You could have camel trains, wagon trains etc. - now there would be an interesting sign, 'Camel Station'!

[stuey]

Mother; "Stuey, we're getting close to a tunnel so close the window...Now!
Stuey: "Oh! Do I have to: I like the noise the tunnel makes"
Mother: "Yes: close it right now! You want to go home smelling like a bucket of
soot?"

[Obiter]

During the daytime you always knew when you were approaching a tunnel because the lights would come on.

[jourdain2]

Just heard Nicholas Parsons on R4 insisting that 'Railway Station' is correct!

[Zacs-Master]

'Railway' suggests a 'system' run by one company.

[whiskeryron]

Zacs, now there's a twist,one company owning the rolling stock, the tracks, the signalling etc. My word wouldn't that be something ?

[jourdain2]

Almost unheard of, whiskeryron!

[Zacs-Master]

I was suggesting that the term may be historic in that in the days of the big railway companies (great Eastern etc) 'railway' station meant a place where that railways trains stopped. Now a station is where 'trains' from other companies stop and so 'train' station may be more appropriate.

[baza]

After privatisation most train operating companies were taken over by firms that ran buses, so, to make life easier for them their buses went to bus stations and their trains to train stations. Now most of them have lost their contracts perhaps we can revert back to the proper "Railway Station".