Abbreviation of Station Signs

[EbbwJunction1]

I passed through Birmingham International last Saturday, and I noticed that all the station's signs are "Birmingham Int'l" rather than being the full version.

Is there a reason for this shortening, please? It can't be because the complete two words are too long (24 characters) as there are surely longer station names elsewhere on the system? Indeed, one not too far away (Smethwick Galton Bridge) is also 24 characters and that is shown in full - isn't it?

Yours, puzzled .... !

 

[NSE]

Smethwick is London North Western/West Midlands Railway (whatever the name is) and it’s predecessors and Birmingham International is Avanti and before that Virgin (and Intercity I guess). That might have something to do with it.

 

[Sheridan]

I suppose that ‘Int’l’ is a recognised abbreviation that will be understood by the vast majority of passengers, whereas shortening some other names may make things unclear or confusing.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Thanks, folks, that's interesting.

 

[Snow1964]

I am sure in the past, station name boards always had name shown in full, even ampersands were not used to save space. Not sure why there has been policy change, unless this is a local error.

Of course timetables and destination displays shortened the longer names to fit, but that wasn‘t an official renaming.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Thanks as well.

 

[ScottGallagher]

I've always been puzzled that Barrow In Furness is referred to as such in all publicity and announcements , however the station name boards in my lifetime have always just read Barrow where for example , 2 stops up the line Kirkby In Furness is what it is!

The anomaly being here that locals refer to just Barrow and Kirkby respectively.