At The Train Station

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.

My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and we're on the road today.

We're traveling a little bit.

That's right.

Today we have a lesson that was requested by one of our users and I think it's a very

handy lesson.

If we're traveling, we are buying tickets at a train station.

That's right.

So I personally love traveling by train.

I think it's a very romantic way to see different countries, different places.

We're going to learn all about how to get tickets and how to talk about different parts

of a train.

So let's first listen to our dialogue.

Hi, I would like to purchase a one-way ticket to Brussels, please.

Certainly, sir.

This is our train schedule.

We have an express train departing every morning and an overnight train that departs at 9 p.m.

How long does it take to get there?

About 12 hours.

We currently have tickets available only for first class on the express train.

If you'd like, you can choose a sleeper on the overnight train, which is a bit less expensive.

Yeah, I think that's the best option.

Do you serve food on a train?

12 hours is such a long time.

Yes, of course.

There is a dining car towards the end of the train where they serve meals at all times.

We do provide complimentary water and coffee for all of our passengers.

Great.

I'll take it.

Here you are, sir.

Your train leaves from platform number 9 at 9 on the dot.

Remember to be here at least 30 minutes before your scheduled departure time or else you

might miss your train.

I understand.

Thank you very much.

Have a great trip.

All right, we're back.

So now we're going to take a look at a couple of words that we've picked out for you on

Language Takeaway.

Language Takeaway.

So there are many different kinds of tickets you can purchase, you can buy for your train

journey.

The first time we're going to talk about is maybe the fastest.

This is called an express train.

That's right.

So as the name says, it's an express train.

That means it's a very fast train.

And it depends because in different places, sometimes they call it the fast train, sometimes

they call it the express train.

But basically the idea is that it's a very fast train.

And it's fast usually because it stops very few times.

For example, if we want to go on the Paris to Berlin train, it won't stop in every single

town.

It will probably only stop a couple of times.

Exactly.

So apart from the express trains that usually they'll go in the daytime, we have an overnight

train.

Overnight trains are very fun, or at least they can be fun if you have a comfortable

place to sleep.

Basically the idea is you get on the train at night and you sleep on the train and you

get off in the morning.

That's right.

It's actually a very popular way of traveling, especially if you're on a budget because you're

basically saving yourself one night of spending the night at a hotel.

That's right.

So you're going to have to find a place to sleep if you're taking the overnight train.

There are usually different options.

The most uncomfortable is usually a seat, like a hard seat.

But there are oftentimes special cars on a train where you can sleep for these overnight

trips.

What are those called?

That's right.

And those are called sleeper cars or you choose a sleeper seat.

Right.

So that's pretty easy to remember.

So you choose a sleep sleeper.

The sleeper seats are the seats that fold back like you're lying down.

But of course most places like China and India and Vietnam for example have actual cars that

have beds in them.

Right, right.

Yeah.

So you can, as the name says, you can actually sleep on this train.

Now if you're going to buy tickets, you're not going to find a sleeper train on an express

train or a train that travels during the day.

These are only available at night usually.

That's right.

So a sleeper car is what you want to look for if you're traveling overnight.

And in those cases, you oftentimes get hungry.

You need to eat.

So where do you go to eat?

That's right.

We're going to look for the dining car on the train.

Okay.

So think about the word dining room.

Dining room, dining car, this means the place where you eat.

That's right.

So we're going to look for a dining car and it's usually in the front of the train I think

and you can just go and get a quick meal over there.

That's right.

Dining car.

And finally, we have another very important word here.

It's all about getting on and off the train.

So where do you do that?

Well, you go to the platform, the specific platform where your train is leaving.

So in this case, this guy has to go to platform number nine.

Okay.

So usually that means that there is a cement or a stone block where you stand.

The train comes to the station.

People get off, you get on.

So the place where that all happens is the platform.

That's right.

And remember that in airplanes or in airports, usually you look for a terminal.

For train stations, you're looking for a platform.

All right.

And that number is going to be very important.

So look at your ticket and find out which platform your train will be arriving or departing

from.

That's right.

Okay.

So now why don't we review these words.

Let's listen to the dialogue again and we'll be back in a bit.

Hi, I would like to purchase a one-way ticket to Brussels, please.

Certainly, sir.

This is our train schedule.

We have an express train departing every morning and an overnight train that departs at 9 p.m.

How long does it take to get there?

About 12 hours.

We currently have tickets available only for first class on the express train.

If you'd like, you can choose a sleeper on the overnight train, which is a bit less expensive.

Yeah, I think that's the best option.

Do you serve food on a train?

12 hours is such a long time.

Yes, of course.

There is a dining car towards the end of the train where they serve meals at all times.

We do provide complimentary water and coffee for all of our passengers.

Great.

I'll take it.

Here you are, sir.

Your train leaves from platform number 9 at 9 on the dot.

Remember to be here at least 30 minutes before your scheduled departure time or else you

might miss your train.

I understand.

Thank you very much.

Have a great trip.

Okay.

So we've got some really great phrases today on Fluency Builder, not that many of them

but they're very useful.

The first one is a kind of ticket you can buy.

That's right.

We're looking for a one-way ticket to Brussels.

Okay.

So a one-way ticket means you go to Brussels but you don't come home.

Maybe you have a flight later or you have a car waiting for you.

You don't need a return ticket on that train.

One-way ticket is the opposite of a round-trip ticket.

That's right.

So usually, for example, if you live in New York and you're going on vacation, you're

going to buy a round-trip ticket because you need to go back to your city.

But in this case, we're getting a one-way ticket.

So we're just buying a ticket that will only take us there.

It's not going to bring us back.

Okay.

One-way ticket.

And after that, we have a good question.

This is something we can ask in many, many different situations.

Here the person buying the ticket wants to know how long does it take to get there.

He's talking about Brussels.

That's right.

So let's take a look at this structure.

We can say how long does it take to and then we can add another verb there.

So for example, we want to know the amount of time it is going to require.

For example, here we are asking how long does it take to get there, in this case to Brussels.

We're asking how much time is needed to go to Brussels, but what if we change the last

part?

Well, there's anything.

We could say anything here.

We could say how long does it take to bake a pizza?

Or for example, Marco, how long does it take for you to do your hair in the morning?

Like 20 seconds.

Not very long.

Not very long.

You could even change the name of the place you're going to.

So how long does it take to get to Beijing?

Exactly, so just remember this structure when you want to ask the amount of time needed.

Of course, there are other ways and sometimes it's very common to make a little bit of mistakes

saying how much time to Beijing or something like this.

Or how many hours.

We don't really say that in English.

We say how much time.

So how much time does it take?

All right.

And what about when the person that's selling the ticket said, okay, the train leaves from

platform number nine at nine on the dot?

Okay, so I'm not really sure where this idea of a dot comes from, but I think it has to

do with clocks.

So basically when you look at a clock and all of a sudden the hand comes to 12, so it's

nine o'clock, the hand is on the 12, that is on the dot.

That means exactly.

Okay, so the train is leaving at nine zero zero, not nine 30, not nine 15.

It's leaving exactly at nine o'clock.

So we can also say this in normal speech when we're talking to our friends.

I could say, Marco, we're going to leave at six on the dot.

Any later and we'll miss the movie.

Exactly.

But when you say on the dot, you're usually emphasizing that it leaves promptly.

It's not going to be late and you're kind of emphasizing a person to be on time.

Yes, please don't be late because, so nine oh one or in my case, six oh four, these are

not okay because they're too late.

Exactly.

So I'm going to pick you up at four o'clock on the dot.

Usually means I don't really want to wait, so please be ready at four.

All right, so on the dot.

All right, so now let's listen to our dialogue for the last time and we'll be back to talk

with you a little bit more.

Hi, I would like to purchase a one-way ticket to Brussels, please.

Certainly, sir.

This is our train schedule.

We have an express train departing every morning and an overnight train that departs at nine

PM.

How long does it take to get there?

About 12 hours.

We currently have tickets available only for first class on the express train.

If you'd like, you can choose a sleeper on the overnight train, which is a bit less expensive.

Yeah, I think that's the best option.

Do you serve food on a train?

12 hours is such a long time.

Yes, of course.

There is a dining car towards the end of the train where they serve meals at all times.

We do provide complimentary water and coffee for all of our passengers.

Great, I'll take it.

Here you are, sir.

Your train leaves from platform number nine at nine on the dot.

Remember to be here at least 30 minutes before your scheduled departure time or else you

might miss your train.

I understand.

Thank you very much.

Have a great trip.

All right, so you mentioned you really like to travel on trains.

I do.

Why is that?

Well, I like that trains are kind of slow.

Many trains are slow.

Some trains, as we said, like express trains are faster.

But if you're traveling in a new place, it's a wonderful way to see the country because

maybe you're going from one city to another city.

Well, it's nice to see what's in between cities.

So that's why I like to be on trains.

I actually also really enjoy taking the overnight trains because I sometimes get a little bit

uncomfortable if I travel for too long, for example, on an airplane or a car.

So if I fall asleep and I wake up where I wanted to go, it's really nice.

Well, and I think it's nice also to be kind of rolled asleep, you know, lulled asleep

by the train.

Have you had any like very memorable train experiences?

Traveling around, I have met some interesting people and actually they, you know, local

people.

So they start talking to you and really curious because obviously you're a foreigner in their

country and try to get to know you and maybe even give you a little bit of advice.

And if you don't speak the language, it's even a little bit more interesting because

you're trying to communicate and you pick up a lot of words.

That's true.

I actually heard some really interesting stories from people who took the Trans-Siberian Railway

from Beijing to Moscow.

They said the more vodka you drink, the more foreign languages you speak.

So I don't know if any of our users have done that.

You guys should let us know if you have any fun train travel experiences.

I know Marco certainly has some.

I've got some of my own.

So we'll all have to share on our website, EnglishPod.com.

Right.

And if you have any other questions, we'll see you guys there.

Bye.

Bye-bye for now.