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Very long on board announcements

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peteb

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Not annoying, thats been covered, just long. Any candidates for longest announcement? To start, the XC Manchester to Bournmouth tonight had an introductory announcement that was nearly interrupted by the Stockport stop! Very amusing, detailed, etc and almost 7 minutes long! Covered stations called at, facilities, distancing, mask wearing, concerns. Nice to get a human and not a computerised voice.
 
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I would imagine Manchester to Milford Haven would be longer still.

Other ones that immediately spring are services on the Heart of Wales line, as well as the 08:20 XC service from Aberdeen to Penzance (I believe it's still running, don't know if covid put a stop to it).
 

Mcr Warrior

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Didn't we have a fairly similar thread to this a few weeks ago?

Reckon the longest announcements will quite possibly be for TfW services just starting on their journey and calling at all/most stations on the Cambrian Coast or Heart of Wales lines, particularly if the announcements are made bilingually in both Welsh/English.
 

peteb

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I used to enjoy listening to announcements made by English conductors grappling with Welsh pronouncinations! However in more recent years most ATW or TFW on- train staff I've heard sound as though they speak Welsh fluently, maybe its a requirement of the job nowadays?
 

Smidster

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Not annoying, thats been covered, just long. Any candidates for longest announcement? To start, the XC Manchester to Bournmouth tonight had an introductory announcement that was nearly interrupted by the Stockport stop! Very amusing, detailed, etc and almost 7 minutes long! Covered stations called at, facilities, distancing, mask wearing, concerns. Nice to get a human and not a computerised voice.

That sounds like absolute hell.
 

gallafent

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That sounds like absolute hell.
Yes, 7 minutes is completely ridiculous. I'd love to see a transcript, so as to be able to see which 90% could be cut advantageously. Experiencing things like this is why I favour completely automated announcements except in really exceptional circumstances.
 

alangla

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Last time I got an XC from Penzance it was heading for Glasgow Central. The guard had just about finished “Motherwell and Glasgow Central” as it arrived at St Erth.
 

317666

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I had a Southern OBS last year whose announcements lasted the full length of Victoria - Clapham and Gatwick - Three Bridges. They weren't even any good, it was a Portsmouth/Bognor splitter and he kept getting the two portions muddled up!
 

Chris217

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I pity any guard that has to announce any long distance services with all the station stops announced at every station!
Years ago in Cardiff Central,station announcements used to include some 'change here for' conections en route.
They don't seem to do that much on trains or stations these days.
I guess with all the other on board and station security announcements etc like no smoking 61016 and the like,I imagine it would be a constant drivel of the same boring announcements.
On trains,TPE are the worst offenders for repeated automated announcements.
Southern in my opinion being one of the best.
As for stations.
As wonderful I think Cardiff Central is,it takes 1st prize for too many automated announcements given that they are also repeated in Welsh
 

BluePenguin

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Rainham - Luton on Thameslink is particularly long. The train is usually departing by the time the announcement gets to Harpenden

Dover Priory - London Victoria is a good example. Currently Southeastern are stopping at every single station as far as Bromley South

Southampton Central - London Victoria is another. Especially in the peak when stopping at the Arundel Valley stations.

Birmingham New Street - London Euston is very long at times
 

Rescars

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In BR days, the announcements at Euston for The Clansman (07.35 or thereabouts to Inverness via Birmingham New Street and then calling at a lot of stations in Scotland) used to take quite a while. First stop of very many was at Watford Junc if I recall correctly. Someone else out there will surely know.
 

alan

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As mentioned the cross country announcements can be especially long. One option I’ve heard on the Penzance train (boarding at Leeds) is to guard stating the stations to Plymouth then ‘all advertised stations to Penzance’. Seems far more efficient
 

steamybrian

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In BR days I would loved to have heard the station announcement at Waterloo for the 1100 Atlantic Coast Express with its 7 portions with its final coach (or two) arriving at Padstow. In those days no onboard PA announcements.
 

NoMorePacers

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The TfW COVID safety thing announcement is rather long (it was funny on the City Line where it wouldn't even finish waffling on before the train reached the next stop).
 

BJames

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As mentioned the cross country announcements can be especially long. One option I’ve heard on the Penzance train (boarding at Leeds) is to guard stating the stations to Plymouth then ‘all advertised stations to Penzance’. Seems far more efficient
I was going to say this - does the guard really need to list every single station to Glasgow Central between Penzance and St Erth? Likelihood is that train would be quite quiet at that point anyway, and most passengers won't be going anywhere near the north of England, let alone Scotland. I'm not convinced it's necessary to list past, say, Birmingham, and then start announcing stations beyond there properly at maybe Taunton. Otherwise it's absolutely unnecessary noise pollution.

Also to add - not NR but I find the Victoria Line annoucements have been incredibly long recently, with the train cancellations on Circle/H&C and other issues, it can start announcing as soon as it's pulled away from a stop and then continue until it's pulled in, when it starts the next announcement of which station we're at. That's then cut off by a "please mind the doors" before the announcement starts telling us about all the disruption immediately. Can be pretty much constant for the entire journey. Note this isn't always, just sometimes when there's multiple lines disrupted that the Victoria Line serves.
 

furnessvale

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Annoying: 1. Buffet car attendants who list every item on the menu.
2. One particular guard (now gone) on the Buxton line, who would try to list all stations on a Piccadilly to Buxton service in one breath.

Amusing: Lancaster station announcer listing connections from Hoek of Holland as far as Moscow.
 

james60059

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Back in the late 1990's there was a London Waterloo - Fishguard Harbour service operated by South Wales and West, didn't run for long IIRC. I know you could catch a later train from Paddington and meet the train at Swansea. Anyway I believe there was at least 30+ stops.
 

185

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One particular guard (now gone) on the Buxton line, who would try to list all stations on a Piccadilly to Buxton service in one breath.
His seven second long announcements were legendary. Unlike this prerecorded garbage now - every single stop, 45-50 seconds long... look what you've wished for!
 

northernbelle

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Some of the TfW announcements at places like Shrewsbury are very long - especially where many of the stations are mentioned twice each time because they're request stops. That's without the two or three pre-arrival repeats of the entire announcement.
 

DorkingMain

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Annoying: 1. Buffet car attendants who list every item on the menu.
2. One particular guard (now gone) on the Buxton line, who would try to list all stations on a Piccadilly to Buxton service in one breath.

Amusing: Lancaster station announcer listing connections from Hoek of Holland as far as Moscow.
Agreed. Onboard announcements should list crucial information that's relevant to most or all passengers. The flavours of Walkers Crisps you have in the buffet car is not that.

If you lecture people too much, they're going to stop listening and then they'll miss something that's actually important to hear.
 

Rescars

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Back in the late 1990's there was a London Waterloo - Fishguard Harbour service operated by South Wales and West, didn't run for long IIRC. I know you could catch a later train from Paddington and meet the train at Swansea. Anyway I believe there was at least 30+ stops.
Yes. I recall catching this on an up working from Cardiff. It provided a connection with Eurostar at Waterloo. So the conductor on my train provided the information (of which there was indeed a lot) in both English and (very ropey) French!
 

87007

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Had a train manager on a Virgin service announced all the connections available at each stop, which platform too, was good information, just went on a bit too long
 
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