BRITISH train conductor Graham Palmer is the first to admit his poetic works aren’t Shakespeare, but when they’re delivered over the Tannoy his passengers certainly don’t seem to mind.

    Palmer, 52, has been giving safety announcements and other messages in verse since last year when Northern Rail encouraged their guards to give their addresses a festive flavor.

    The rhymes were a hit with travelers and have been going strong since, and he even customizes the self-penned couplets according to the stations his carriages are passing through.

    “The poems aren’t that clever really. They’re not Wordsworth, but it’s all a bit of fun,” he told Gazette Live.

    “I was a bit self-conscious to start with but I’ve got more confident now, especially when I see the smiles on people’s faces.

    “I don’t do them for every announcement and I try to mix them up a bit. For our regular passengers, it’s probably a little bit repetitive but then again, so are safety announcements!”

    Palmer, who lives in Skelton and works out of Middlesbrough Station, has worked on trains since 2006 after a career working with glass and five years as a handyman for Age Concern Teesside. His poems are anything but serious but they do get his messages about safety and ticket policy across.

    Graham said: “I’m taking the mickey out of myself a little bit and it’s all done tongue in cheek, but at least it’s getting the message across. And the best words you can hear as a conductor are ‘I’m glad it’s you today’.”

    Passenger Kath Sainsbury, of Saltburn, said Graham is “well known and liked by all his regular passengers.”

    Graham’s boss, Northern’s conductor team manager at Middlesbrough Colin Savage, is pleased with the response from the public but doesn’t expect his colleagues to follow suit if they don’t want to.(SD-Agencies)