Northern Rail has been pronouncing Chesterfield wrong - here's how

The train operator received 47 formal requests from commuters to re-record announcements with multiple submissions for Aspatria in Cumbria (to be pronounced ‘as-spay-tria’) and Ilkeston among others.

Politicians in Ilkeston were not impressed after it was proposed that ‘Il-kes-ton’ would become ‘Ilks-tonne’; with all political parties on Erewash Borough Council uniting around the Il-kes-ton pronunciation.

As previously reported, Cllr Tony King, who is a Conservative councillor for Ilkeston West on Derbyshire County Council, said: “The pronunciation of Ilkeston is definitely Il-kes-ton and NOT Ilks-tonne”. He added that the new announcements from Northern rail had made him “cringe”.

This appeared to prompt a u-turn, as reported last month, and Northern has now confirmed it will stick with the original pronunciation – much to the delight of local councillors, no doubt.

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But one Derbyshire train station that will be changed is Chesterfield: commuters will be able to say goodbye to the rather harsh emphasis on ‘-field’ and hello to a, hopefully, much smoother pronunciation of the town.

The new recordings, which will now be rolled-out across Northern's fleet of 345 trains, were required following an upgrade to on-board software. Announcements also cover important topics like safety information and details of how to report suspicious behaviour and criminal acts.

On completing the re-recordings, the duo behind the new announcements – Northern employees Pete Corley and Laura Palmer - issued a video message to thank customers for their feedback.

Tricia Williams, chief operating officer at Northern, said: “This has been such an interesting process and proof if ever it were needed of the passion our customers have for the North.

“Some of the stations on our network are pronounced very differently to how they appear in writing – it’s important to get these things right.

“I’d like to thank Pete, Laura and all of the on-board systems team for their persistence with this project – and to everyone that took the time to get involved and speak-up for their hometown.”

Among the stations being re-recorded are Accrington, Barnsley, Chesterfield, Dodworth, Hessle, Langwathby, and Wombwell.