Announcements

[Sad Sprinter]

Why did they get rid of Celia Drummond and Phil Sawyer on the Southern/South Western routes? They sounded much more human sounding than the new announcements and were a familiar sound for many many years. The new announcements tend to. Sound. Like. This. Which seems a bit of a step back from announcements that are 15 years old.

 

[JonathanP]

Phil Sayer died almost 3 years ago, so presumably at some point there would be a problem with the need for new recordings for additional stations/TOCs/special requirements.

 

[RealTrains07]

Why did they get rid of Celia Drummond and Phil Sawyer on the Southern/South Western routes? They sounded much more human sounding than the new announcements and were a familiar sound for many many years. The new announcements tend to. Sound. Like. This. Which seems a bit of a step back from announcements that are 15 years old.

Real shame, blame First they are the ones who replaced the voices on SWR and it isnt even a good version of anne that is being used now the roger and anne announcements sounds way too robotic and out of place compared to GWR stations and elsewhere

Sick of First trying to make everything generic to match GWR standards

 

[swt_passenger]

Real shame, blame First they are the ones who replaced the voices on SWR and it isnt even a good version of anne that is being used now the roger and anne announcements sounds way too robotic and out of place compared to GWR stations and elsewhere

Sick of First trying to make everything generic to match GWR standards

You’re wrong in fact, there were announcement system changes happening well before the franchise change under SWT. There might even be a thread about from when it started.

 

[tommy2215]

What is most annoying about the new SWR announcements is that many of them include long, weird pauses between calling points. They wouldn't sound so bad if it wasn't for that.

 

[700007]

Yes I have noticed this at London Waterloo where the announcements have gone from a very smooth, professional and well stringed Phil Sayer to a very robotic version of Anne who takes long gaps to announce stations that are poorly strung together. I must be right in thinking that this is a Text to Speech version of Anne and not legitimate recordings because she sounds far better at London Liverpool Street, for example where the announcements flow very well. The easiest giveaway must be the See it, Say it, Sorted announcements and how different they sound at London Waterloo and then any other station on the railway network.

 

[Ethano92]

Yes I have noticed this at London Waterloo where the announcements have gone from a very smooth, professional and well stringed Phil Sayer to a very robotic version of Anne who takes long gaps to announce stations that are poorly strung together. I must be right in thinking that this is a Text to Speech version of Anne and not legitimate recordings because she sounds far better at London Liverpool Street, for example where the announcements flow very well. The easiest giveaway must be the See it, Say it, Sorted announcements and how different they sound at London Waterloo and then any other station on the railway network.

Agreed, she does sound very odd at Waterloo and other SWR stations. It's a shame really, announcements don't usually annoy me as I always have earphones in but for those that don't, it must be annoying to go from excessive announcements to excessive and poor sounding announcements.

Not completely related but I am intruiged to see who First will use as the voice of the 701s, the lady on the 800s, or Julie berry like almost everywhere else.

 

[Parallel]

You’re wrong in fact, there were announcement system changes happening well before the franchise change under SWT. There might even be a thread about from when it started.

SWT were trialling a KeTech system with new Celia recordings which were slower than her old ones, but to my knowledge there were no plans to roll out ATOS under SWT.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

When South Western Railway took over from South West Trains, wasn't the Phil Sayer recording re-edited so that all announcements announced the new TOC services as a South Western Railway service?

Basically the sound files of GWR and SWT would have been cut and spliced to provide the new annoucement, this will have been the only time that Phil would have announced a new Train Operating Company posthumously.

 

[RealTrains07]

When South Western Railway took over from South West Trains, wasn't the Phil Sayer recording re-edited so that all announcements announced the new TOC services as a South Western Railway service?

Basically the sound files of GWR and SWT would have been cut and spliced to provide the new annoucement, this will have been the only time that Phil would have announced a new Train Operating Company posthumously.

Exactly so why was his voice over replaced. So unnecessary

 

[Parallel]

When South Western Railway took over from South West Trains, wasn't the Phil Sayer recording re-edited so that all announcements announced the new TOC services as a South Western Railway service?

Basically the sound files of GWR and SWT would have been cut and spliced to provide the new annoucement, this will have been the only time that Phil would have announced a new Train Operating Company posthumously.

And ‘West Midlands Railway’ which Chiltern have got an imposter to record!

 

[RealTrains07]

Recently the new anne announcements have been edited so they sound like the normal version of atos anne however the change hasnt happened at all stations yet

 

[bishdunster]

I say bring back proper real human train announcers at all major stations ! (I was one many years ago).

 

[RealTrains07]

If their is on announcer i hate its roger, too robotic doesnt sound natural at all at least anne (in the right version) sounds more human

“Where the train separates” sounds a bit cringey in rogers voice

And please why cant the SWR announcements say coaches instead of carriages. At big stations like waterloo and clapham junction it just doesnt sound right

 

[CharlesR]

If their is on announcer i hate its roger, too robotic doesnt sound natural at all at least anne (in the right version) sounds more human

“Where the train separates” sounds a bit cringey in rogers voice

And please why cant the SWR announcements say coaches instead of carriages. At big stations like waterloo and clapham junction it just doesnt sound right

The train operating company have more to worry about than the wording and sounding of their announcements.

 

[RealTrains07]

The train operating company have more to worry about than the wording and sounding of their announcements.

True but its not like SWR put lots of effort in things anyway

 

[londonmidland]

Recently the new anne announcements have been edited so they sound like the normal version of atos anne however the change hasnt happened at all stations yet

So does it now sound like the ‘default/normal’ ATOS Anne script without all the silly cut-down, shortened words?

 

[SWRtrainfan]

Recently the new anne announcements have been edited so they sound like the normal version of atos anne however the change hasnt happened at all stations yet

That's interesting, which station did you go to that had them?

 

[RealTrains07]

So does it now sound like the ‘default/normal’ ATOS Anne script without all the silly cut-down, shortened words?

Listen here, is this normal anne?

That's interesting, which station did you go to that had them?

Westbury

 

[londonmidland]

Westbury station is managed by Great Western Railway, so the announcements would be under their version of the ATOS system, not SWR’s version. Which explains why it sounds ‘normal’.

Unfortunately I don’t see SWR changing anything regarding the wording of their announcements.

 

[RealTrains07]

Shame since GWR and SWR are both first run that they wouldnt use the same announcements but then again they are separate companies overall

 

[F Great Eastern]

Listen here, is this normal anne?

It doesn't sound terrible but doesn't sound quite as fluent as I am used to.

 

[bramling]

Why did they get rid of Celia Drummond and Phil Sawyer on the Southern/South Western routes? They sounded much more human sounding than the new announcements and were a familiar sound for many many years. The new announcements tend to. Sound. Like. This. Which seems a bit of a step back from announcements that are 15 years old.

I *really* wish the industry would move on from the “Anne” voice. It’s become increasingly prevalent over the last two decades. I’ve never liked it, but over time it’s become increasingly stale in my view.

Rob Bell would be good, and a worthy successor to the late Mr Sayer. My favourite of all time is John Elgar, a voice quite common south of the river during the 1990s - clear and commanding.

 

[RailWonderer]

I heard it was because Ditra/KeTech was a more difficult software to work with than the commonly used ATOS. They switched for convenience more than anything.
Besides the much nicer sounding Phil and Celia the other thing I miss is the three/four tone chime before an announcement which makes a departure sound more like a grand event than just another train about to leave. No ATOS stations to my knowledge have those chimes.

 

[londonmidland]

I think it’s because the chimes previously heard are copyrighted to Ditra/KeTech. ATOS does use their own two tone chime at selected stations.

 

[Camden]

I don't find Anne's voice especially appealing. Rather than being neutral, I find her delay announcements particularly grating. Her tone when she says "I'm sorry to announce... This is due to...", accent and all, she sounds like a disinterested insurance company call centre operator telling you your claim isn't being paid out. She's not sorry in the slightest.

 

[SWRtrainfan]

Besides the much nicer sounding Phil and Celia the other thing I miss is the three/four tone chime before an announcement which makes a departure sound more like a grand event than just another train about to leave.

Same here, I miss that chime as well. Also I prefer the KeTech system to ATOS.

 

[BJames]

Ordinarily I don't mind Anne's voice so much. For me it seems to work quite well in main stations Liverpool St/Euston etc. But I heard her the other day in either Putney or Clapham Junction and it did sound much more disjointed and not great at all, much different to Liverpool Street.

 

[Parallel]

Some TOCs have had Anne re-record all
the generic phrases like ‘service to’, ‘The next train to arrive at’ etc. I believe GA, GWR and SWR all use bespoke recordings for their own versions. But I think Virgin Trains uses the originals. I find it odd as you would think it is a lot more effort for not much gain. It is especially obvious on SWR as it is intertwined with original station recordings. There’s a recording difference of around 20 years there!

 

[Kieran1990]

Some TOCs have had Anne re-record all
the generic phrases like ‘service to’, ‘The next train to arrive at’ etc. I believe GA, GWR and SWR all use bespoke recordings for their own versions. But I think Virgin Trains uses the originals. I find it odd as you would think it is a lot more effort for not much gain. It is especially obvious on SWR as it is intertwined with original station recordings. There’s a recording difference of around 20 years there!

Noticed it yesterday at Guildford where old Anne and new Anne are on the same announcement. Have to say newer versions she’s a lot more softer but a there’s a tone long pauses and she sounds unsure of her self, compete that to how sharp she is at Leeds, where she’s a lot sharper