Looks like Sydney Trains is going to drop the jargon from its PA announcements.
From the SMH:
"Commuters will soon be told to “get off” the train, rather than “alight”, after Sydney Trains resolved to overhaul its station announcements to favour colloquial language.
“The phrase “this train terminates here” is also being retired, due to concerns the word “terminates” is difficult to understand.”
@sydneytrains #trains #sydney #nsw #transit #planning #train #UrbanPlanning
@ajsadauskas @sydneytrains I was amused but not surprised on a recent trip to the US to hear the announcement on the aeroplane as “de-plane” instead of “disembark” or “alight”. I suppose you have to meet people where they are with language.
@rusl @ajsadauskas @sydneytrains You think that’s bad? I was in an airport where they made passengers “deplane” to take care of a mechanical issue. When it was time to have the passengers get back on, the gate agent made an announcement asking them to “re-deplane”. 😒
The phrase “this train terminates here” will be replaced by " Get of the fucking train here, mate, or you will be spending the rest of your fucking drunk arse night in the fucking rail yard"
Doubleplusgood news!
Seriously though, alight and terminates are not hard words to understand - particularly when given context and used in repeated announcements. It doesn’t reflect well on our literacy levels if these words are now considered too difficult for the general population.
