UncleEbenezer wrote:"This train has five carriages" would be more concise.
Have you guys been complaining to station operators?!? 'Cos.....
Actually, the phrase that I believe has been in use for as long as I remember has always been "formed of N coaches", not carriages. See the first photo below from London Bridge in 2016.
However, I've recently noticed at London Bridge, and also at Charing Cross and Waterloo East, that the signs and announcements now say "has N coaches".
The second photo, which I took today at London Bridge, shows a horizontally scrolling line at the bottom of the destinations area that says. "A Southeastern service which has 8 coaches.". Furthermore, the (automated) platform announcements now say "This train has N coaches".
So, at those three stations at least, it's very recently changed from "formed of" to "has". Anything to do with any of you lot?
However, the signs at the suburban stations still say "formed of", which is a little curious as I'd always imagined all electronic signs were fed from the same source.
London Bridge, 2016
https://www.londonreconnections.com/2016/new-london-bridge-station-first-impressions/
London Bridge, today
https://imgur.com/a/Fa3dPWX