"Train Station" - Ugh!!

[Resisting the Americanisation of the English Language]

Why has the horrible expression "Train Station" become normal parlance - and is indeed now found in written usage - in England (and for all I know as a resident of France, the UK)?

I refuse absolutely to use this abortion of an expression; what's the matter with the term I learned: "Railway Station"?

A station is a stage - or if you like "stop" and is therefore an entirely apposite term for a railway; it is of course the root of the adjective "stationary."

Those who protest "Ah ,but you say 'bus station' don't you?' are throwing a red herring into the argument. Since buses use the roads, together with cars, vans, lorries (not 'trucks' - these run on railways) coaches, motor-cycles, bicycles and a few horses, one simply must say "Bus Station" since "road station" would be ambiguous at least and in fact, inaccurate.

Since only trains run on railways, "Railway Station" is absolutely the correct term.

So there.

By the way, I have no problem at all with the term "railroad" or perhaps better "rail-road" This term is entirely sensible - as sensible in fact as "railway" - or even "rail-way"!

Until the next time.