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If you’re not familiar with a palaver, here’s a good example. Yesterday, Colin and I got the train from Peterborough [1] to Newcastle Central Station [2], where we were to catch the train to Carlisle [3] in Cumbria from platform 6. A train arrived and terminated, but didn’t turn into our train to Carlisle. Instead, we were told to go to platform 12, where we boarded a train.
A man across the aisle asked if this was the Carlisle train. I said if it wasn’t, we’d all be going to the wrong place together.
A staff member told us all to get off and go back to platform 6, where the aforementioned train still stood. We waited on the platform while a discussion went on among staff members, who eventually told us to go to platform 10, where there was no train. They amended this to platform 9, where there was a train. We all got on it, not exactly convinced we wouldn’t be kicked off this one and sent back to platform 6. But it did set off, and it went to Carlisle and everything.
Amazing what trains can do nowadays.
References
- Peterborough, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterborough
- Newcastle Central Station accessibility map, https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations-and-destinations/stations-made-easy/newcastle-accessible-routes [not a very good map, but it’s the best I could find that shows the platform locations]
- Carlisle, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle
