A train operator has faced criticism for mispronouncing a station name, despite re-recording announcements to fix the issue six months ago. Northern re-recorded 34 place names in August following passenger complaints, but travelers between Carlisle and the Cumbrian coast are still hearing “As-spat-ria” instead of “As-spay-tria” for Aspatria in Cumbria.
Alan Maxwell, the town’s mayor, expressed his desire to see the pronunciation corrected, stating that locals call it “Spyat-ree” but the correct pronunciation is “As-spay-tria.” Another passenger noted the noticeable error and criticized the unreliable service, saying they are just grateful when the trains are running.
Northern confirmed that Aspatria was one of the stations re-recorded last year to respect local pronunciation. A spokesperson stated that the new recordings are being rolled out across their fleet of 345 trains and are expected to be completed by summer.
Last year, Northern asked passengers for help in identifying mispronounced station names and re-recorded 34 names as a result. The company did not confirm how many updates have been implemented in the past six months but aims to complete the roll-out by summer, with onboard software systems being manually updated during train servicing.