Rail passengers are being asked if their station has ever been mispronounced.

Peter Corley and Laura Palmer, behind Northern’s new on-board announcements, have appealed to customers to ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’, as they have pledged to re-record any station name that customers believe doesn’t respect local pronunciation.

They said: “Whilst every effort was made to get them right the first time, we know how proud people across the north of England are of their regional dialect.

“Who knows how long these recordings will be in the system – so now’s your chance to correct us if we’ve got it wrong.”

The roll-out of the new recordings began last month, with all trains in Northern’s fleet set to be using them in a matter of weeks.

Stations in Cumbria that have already been subject to specific pronunciation work include:

  • Roose, pronounced ruse.
  • Burneside, pronounced burn-e-side.
  • Aspatria, pronounced asp-atria.
  • Cark and Cartmel, pronounced cark-n-cartmel.

Tricia Williams, chief operating officer at Northern, said: “Some of the stations on our network are pronounced very differently to how they appear in writing.

“As a local, there’s nothing worse than someone mispronouncing your hometown, especially when you have to hear it every time you use the station.

“Peter and Laura have done a fabulous job, but it never hurts to check with the people that matter the most.”