Automated Announcements

[313103]

With regard to Clapham Junction London Overground announcements have not been made for about 2 weeks now!

All you get is the pesky 'Please do not leave cases or parcels anywhere on the station blah, blah, blah. I mean how many people actually carry parcels! Perhaps its been turned off because Celia (whos breaking my heart) probabaly doesnt know there is a Imperial Wharf yet!

 

[KT4YU]

Haha! DW I'm sure Celia doesn't mean it...Though maybe the problem could be caused by the problems that the other platforms at CJ are experiencing?? As I said before I'm pretty sure I've heard Celia say Imperial Wharf a few days prior to her being turned off.... Who knows what's happening...

 

[thefab444]

It sounds like the whole thing needs to be reset... again!

Delay announcements are off on a lot of the platforms as well.

 

[philjo]

They have changed the setup at Cambridge since I was last there - it is now the same as used at Kings Cross & Leeds etc (Sarah?). It isn't particularly clear on the open air platforms e.g. ends of 1, 2&3.
I preferred the old voice used which could always be clearly heard.

 

[Jordy]

Yes i've heard about that, she has been referred to as Sarah for quite a while but apparently she is actually called Anne and works at Atos. Presumably the old systems at Bishops Stortford, Whittlesford and Audley End have also been replaced by her.

 

[KT4YU]

@fab444 - shows how much they care when it's been like this for weeks, are the Ditra zones all centralised, or does each platform hold a unit..One thing I don't understand is why Phil does the global announcements on Celia's platforms, it's not like ATOS where global announcements can play simultaneously - wouldn't it be better (& more realistic) if each announcer did their own announcements? One thing you could mention to SWT too is there seem to be no announcements in the subway area...

 

[thefab444]

As far as I know they are centralised to the Wimbledon Control Centre, with local centres controlling the long line PA.

Clapham Junction itself is split into 3 separate systems, the Windsor platforms (2 - 6), the SWML platforms (7 - 12) and the Brighton platforms (13 - 17).

I don't think there are any speakers in the subway?

 

[KT4YU]

Yeh there are penton sound projectors setup back to back...

So does southern have any input on the systems at Clapham Junction? They really should have left CIS & PA up to Network Rail or a dedicated third party not to TOCs...

 

[alexdodds]

The PA at Sunderland station has now changed as part of the improvements done there.

It is now all done by ditra and uses the version of Phil Sayer as heard at Meadowhall the chimes are included as well.

Phil does the train announcements and i think it sounded like Celia doing the no smoking, CCTV and luggage notices.

For the metro announcements Phil says Tyne and Wear metro service to x calling at all stations to x and for the northern and grand central he announces them in the usual way.

 

[Green Lane]

I was at Chester today, the recording of the station name "Runcorn East" is very quiet compared with other stations on the line. As I was alighting there, I said to myself, 'did she say "Runcorn East" then as I didn't hear it?' Second time round I did hear it, but it's very muted for some reason.

Coming back via Merseyrail, the station "Green Lane" was missed out all together on the voice announcement. I was so offended! Luckily for me though it did at least appear on the scrolling display and the train did actually stop there.

 

[KT4YU]

Celia doing the no smoking, CCTV and luggage notices.

Thats pretty rare..normally the other way round... or just Phil!

 

[alexdodds]

Thats pretty rare..normally the other way round... or just Phil!

Well it sounded like Celia doing those warning announcements anyway its the same at Meadowhall

 

[Jordy]

If its the same as Meadowhall, and I'd imagine that's fairly likely, then it will indeed be Celia doing the safety announcements.

 

[Mojo]

I'm sure the announcer at Severn Tunnel Junction is a relation to the Frosties tiger: "this service is operated by Grrrrreat Western."

 

[37372]

Ahh the text to speech system I couldn't help but laugh at that, it's also at Kidsgrove.
http://www.acapela-group.com/text-to-speech-interactive-demo.html
Select Rachel from the drop down list and you can make your own STJ style announcements, it's the same program used!

 

[Jordy]

If you type in "Great!" she says it just like she does for "Great Western"

 

[Mojo]

If you type in "Great!" she says it just like she does for "Great Western"

Indeed, but the gap is less between the "Great" and "Western" on the real announcement. Attached is a clip from the end of one of the announcements.

 

[route101]

Anyone like the SPT Automated Annoucements at station around Glasgow? For some reason i dont like the patronising ' use both exits ' at Glasgow Queen St and the ill sounding lady at Edinburgh Waverley.

 

[alexdodds]

I prefered the old announcements at Edinburgh Waverley (1998 to 2004)

 

[scotsman]

I prefered the old announcements at Edinburgh Waverley (1998 to 2004)

Agreed, Alex.

 

[thefab444]

Thats pretty rare..normally the other way round... or just Phil!

Yes, for some reason the Northern system has Phil doing trains and Celia doing safety stuff. A bit similar to the Chiltern system, although this has Celia doing trains as well. Both of these seem to be a cut down version of the Ditra system that FCC/SN/SWT/FGW use.

As for the Acapela TTS announcements, I guess they use the Acapela Box feature to modify pronounciations, although I suspect they put "GREYT! Wesssstern" in there purely because it is so funny.

In other news, I've got in contact with SWT about the changes to the announcements Clapham Junction; in about a month I'll get a reply, hopefully with some changes made.

 

[Aictos]

Just quickly, who does the ATOS Origin announcements seeing as by the end of September both FCC routes will have this system in place rather then the existing Ditra and Funkwerk systems.

And by the way, I'm not 100% sure on the existing system that Moorgate GN uses but thankfully it still has chimes

 

[PhilipW]

The worst thing about these automated announceemnts is that they assume everyone is an idiot. Not just endless and unnecessary repititions but useless "nanny state" remarks.

For example:

"This train divides at xxx with the first 4 coaches going to yyy and the last 4 going to zzz. Please make sure you are in the correct coach" .... time and time again. Derrrrrr, thank you for that last statement of the obvious.

Then when stations are close apart we get
"The next station is aaa" followed 5 seconds later "We are now arriving at aaa" followed a few seconds later by "This is aaa".

I knew I should have left my brain at home. The train comapny assumes you never had one in the first place.

 

[Jordy]

Just quickly, who does the ATOS Origin announcements seeing as by the end of September both FCC routes will have this system in place rather then the existing Ditra and Funkwerk systems.

And by the way, I'm not 100% sure on the existing system that Moorgate GN uses but thankfully it still has chimes

Oh no that means Sarah, or Anne which is apparently her real name. She is very annoying.

I'm not particularly bothered about the loss of Funkwerk, as its pretty awful, but it will be a shame to see the Ditra go on the Great Northern. Funkwerk turned out to be rather a waste of money in the end I guess, its only lasted a couple of years hock:

 

[thefab444]

Just quickly, who does the ATOS Origin announcements seeing as by the end of September both FCC routes will have this system in place rather then the existing Ditra and Funkwerk systems.

And by the way, I'm not 100% sure on the existing system that Moorgate GN uses but thankfully it still has chimes

As Jordy says, that means Anne (or Sarcastic Sarah) will be coming to FCC, unless FCC get a member of staff to record the samples like Wessex Trains did (Ruth), but this is unlikely. Glad to hear Funkwerk is going, hopefully Northern (WYPTE) will follow suit and replace their dreadful Funkwerk system soon as well. Looks like some kind of FCC GN trip is in order to get some Ditra recordings in before it's replaced.

I wasn't aware Moorgate had automated announcements? Or are they manual, just using chimes - most manual announcers don't bother triggering the chimes sadly.

 

[philjo]

The GN system wasn't working at some stations this morning.
All of the screens were blank at Letchworth and proper manual announcements were being made here & also at Stevenage.

Anne is now in use at Cambridge and you cannot hear her properly in some areas of the platforms - especially the open-air sections of 1&2. I do find her rather annoying!
At the moment, Phil can generally be heard over the noise of an HST (though maybe not the GC ones!) or 225 going at speed through Potters Bar.

Presumably the ATOS system can cope with announcing dividing trains? I think this is one of the only problems with the existing Ditra. Some services divide at Letchworth Garden City or Royston each day but unless a note is placed on the screens (it sometimes is added then disappears at the next timetable change), there is no indication of this. It usually catches out a few people at Letchworth who got on the back unit at KX going to the stations only served by the front unit (often to be the ones with lots of luggage as well!)

Does the replacement system have the chime facility ? - I like the chimes used at stations such as Didcot, Bath & Doncaster.


I think the most annoying station I heard recently was at Gloucester.
There were 3 trains due to depart close together in about 15 minutes time (XC to Birmingham, FGW to Paddington & FGW 156 to Frome)
The system constantly announced these 3 trains non-stop for over 15 minutes (inc telling you that the 1st class of the paddington train will be at the back on arrival which will be at the front on departure), with the odd "unattended luggage" notice put in for good measure.
I was glad to get on the Paddington train (in the quiet coach!)

 

[Jordy]

No chimes on Atos usually, although its possible. Yes it can handle dividing trains, but so can Ditra, presumably its just not setup correctly.

 

[philjo]

Thanks.
I remember asking FCC once about the announcements for dividing trains on the GN route & was told that the current system couldn't handle this without a software upgrade.

 

[Aictos]

Chimes are possible on the ATOS system as it's a option from within the system although I cannot see FCC wanting to use this option.

The new CIS system is intended to first be live on the GN between August/September with the TL following in October/November simply because of how much trouble the current GN system is ie if there's disruption on the Kings Lynn to Letchworth route then the CIS has to be taken offline for the whole GN but this isn't so much a problem for the TL.

As to a member of FCC staff supplying voice samples, I really don't know if FCC will go down that path but I guess it's 99% going to be that Anne.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I hate chimes - especially on Eurostar!