On the original subject of live v. pre-recorded announcements, a peculiarity of Cardiff Central is that, for some reason, as Paddington to Swansea trains approach the station the automated message is often followed by a live announcer bellowing in a rather scolding voice (and with the microphone set far too high) "Swansea train platform 3, platform 3 for Swansea", or words to that effect. I don't know why this is felt to be necessary. I always feel as if we Swansea train passengers are being treated as particularly thick and need to be shouted at. Besides which, in 10+ years of using the service I've only known one occasion on which the Swansea train did not depart from platform 3!
I've noticed that too, especially in the waiting room and it makes everyone jump! Mind you, if you think Cardiff is bad, try Newport. There's a member of staff who is more or less constantly shouting over the microphone, usually with even less information than the autoannouncements. And he tends to cut off the autoannouncements mid-sentence. So it will say something like:
Autoannouncer "The next train to arrive at platform four is the 13:36 Arriva Trains Wales service to Holyhead. Calling at Cwmbran, Pontypool and New Inn, Abergave*BING BONG* PLATFORM 4 FOR YOUR HOLYHEAD TRAIN. HOLYHEAD TRAIN. PLATFORM 4. CWMBRAN. PONTYPOOL. ABERGAVENNY. HEREFORD AND STATIONS TO HOLYHEAD. PLATFORM 4 FOR STATIONS TO HOLYHEAD."
"Your attention please on platform three. We are sorry that the 12:40 service to London Padd*BING BONG* NEXT TRAIN ON PLATFORM 2 IS FOR CAAAARDIFF. CARDIFF TRAIN. PLATFORM 2. THE NEXT TRAIN AT PLATFORM 2 IS FOR CARDIFF CENTRAL. ONCE AGAIN. PLATFORM 2 IS YOUR CARDIFF TRAIN."
I think ATW needs to roll out some training as some stations are unbearable. That said, stations like Chester and Shrewsbury are fine.
At 14:44 there's the fairly new (since last summer?) "See it / Say it / Sorted" message. This is interesting in that 1) the English precedes the Welsh, and 2) the same voice reads both versions. Can anyone tell me, is this announcement an ATW speciality? (I've made only a couple of train journeys outside Wales in recent months.)
Most large 'category A' stations should have the 'See it, say it, sort it' messages. Various people voice it though, depending which TOC it is. Some TOCs like GWR just roll it out to every station with announcements. I guess the reason why they got someone different to record it was because (I'd imagine) she is local to Cardiff, and it was probably a cheap informal set up to quickly record something, rather than having to get Eryl and Ruth to go to a studio (though next time they're there, they should record it IMO). The Welsh lady also makes announcements about 'Buying before you board' and 'sloping platforms' too; the latter being played at selective stations. She also occasionally records ones for specific engineering works too. Sadly I find her announcements a bit annoying but I guess they do the job.