I regularly read and enjoy your column in the MoS (and mostly agree with your viewpoints!) However I feel that you are unjustly discrediting the English language and the absorbsion of 'Americanisms' into the language.
   It is not just Americanisms which change our language, but a whole host of words and expressions from other cultures.
   The Americanism 'Train Station' is more grammatically precise than the English 'Railway Station'. Trains come to a standstill at stations (are stationary) but railways don't!! Unless you live in St. Leonards as I do!
   As usual you are the hypocrite, complaining about the Americanisation of our language while the paper you write for is adopting the American way of printing the date, June 4th!!!!
   I understand it must be frustrating to hear the English language changing, but not all changes are negative. Had English not evolved we would still be speaking the language found in Shakespeare's plays. "Train station" isn't that bad either, what do you catch at this station? A train. What do you catch at a "Bus Station", a bus, it isn't called a "road station". A "Petrol Station" is where you get petrol, that too, in theory could be called a "road station" but it would be preposterous. At least "Train Station" makes sense, even if it is an Americanism.
   The Americanisation of English English has been going for as long as I can recall. (I am now elderly, or what we now refer to in the American fashion, which often combines euphemism with a multiplication of syllables, as a 'senior cititizen'.
   This country, far more than most,is dominated by America economically, politically and, especially, culturally. It is likely therefore that the Amaricanisation of the way we speak will continue indefinitely. We do not have to rejoice in this manifestation of our subservience, however.
   While I agree with Andrew Platt in his complaint about the vaccuous facility with which TV watchers adopt Americanisms, (I also think said Americanisms grate in an English/ wannabee American accent) what irritates me is, it points to these people having never been instilled with an instinct for their national language.