Speak now or forever hold your peace!

THE duo behind Northern's new on board announcements have appealed to customers to:- 'speak now or forever hold your peace' if they've mispronounced your Local Station.

Peter Corley and Laura Palmer have pledged to return to the studio and re-record any Station name that customers believe doesn't respect local pronunciation.

Peter and Laura said:- "Whilst every effort was made to get them right 1st 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 pair both work for Northern and were asked to front the new announcements after being urged by colleagues.

Corley is a conductor based in York and Palmer is Northern's cyber security and compliance manager. Whilst this is their 1st official 'voiceover' work, Corley has some previous experience having served in the army as a radio operator before joining Northern in 2019.

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 that have already been subject to specific pronunciation work include:-

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 mis-pronouncing 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."

If the audio of your local station doesn't sound quite right, please contact Northern on Twitter (@northernassist) or via Facebook Messenger (m.me/northernassist).

Northern is the 2nd largest train operator in the UK, with 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.s

Council seeks views on major new active travel route

ON our daily Merseyside Newsbites we ran a report about the launch of a public consultation over a major new active travel route in the City that has been proposed by Liverpool City Council. Since Monday, 19 June 2023, the City Council hs been asking the public for their feedback on the proposed active travel route, which would run for approximately 8km from Childwall through Wavertree and into the City Centre.

Simon O'Brien, Walking and Cycling Commissioner for the Liverpool City Region, said:- "Cycling is great for air quality and the environment, and brilliant for our physical and mental health and wellbeing. But we shouldn't just think of getting on our bikes as exercise; it's also a cheap and easy way to commute to work, travel to School or college and even pop to the local shops. But to encourage more people to leave the car at home for short journeys we need to make cycling a really attractive option by building safe, separated routes where people can ride their bikes with confidence. That's why routes like the 3 new ones being planned around Liverpool are so important. We know that across our City Region support for new, safer cycle lanes is really high; about 70% of people back this infrastructure being built; but it's vital to get feedback from residents, road users and cyclists about specific routes, and that's why we're asking people to take part in this consultation and let us know what they think."

The 6 week long consultation runs until:- 5pm, Monday, 31 July 2023, with information and a feedback form available online at: Liverpool.Gov.UK. You can read more about the consultation and also find out about the 3 for the public events that will let them view the proposals and ask questions, within our Merseyside Newsbites report.

Funding for Liverpool's Active Travel programme comes from the European Union, the Department for Transport, Liverpool City Region's Combined Authority and planning contributions from the Council's Section 106 fund.

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