Good afternoon, I was just wondering why the series of Summer Steam Charter trains from York via Settle to Carlisle, operated by Railway Touring Company, which they call the Waverley are called "The Waverley". To me, the Waverley is the route that used to run from Carlisle to Edinburgh and is now partly reopened again.
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Probably the same reason that national newspaper/TV journalists these days call any rail passengers "commuters" - a general degradation of language. If some journo or PR graduate of 21 sees a special train called "The Waverley" - he or she thinks its a generic name for all specials, and there is no seasoned editor in place to question it, let alone correct it. No joke!
The evidence is easy enough to find: few folks, even in the UK, seem to know the difference between "alternative" and "alternate" these days, and mix them up on a regular basis. There's a thread around on here just now which talks about "pre-existing" railway infrastructure. (What is the difference between 'existing' and 'pre-existing' please?)
And don't get me talking about that abortion of an Americanism "back to back" - a diablolical expression which I first heard on a US radio station only in 1990.
signed, very grumpy and disgusted IronDuke of Dorking, etc etc