Trivia: Examples of errors or faults or quirks with station automated announcements or departure screens or CIS systems.

[railwaytrack]

I am looking for examples of errors and faults and quirks with automated announcements and departure screens and CIS systems.

Some that i have seen are these:

• When South Western Railway replaced their Amey (Ditra) system with the Atos (Worldline) system in 2018 the "Rodger" automated announcements at Clapham Junction were announcing trains as calling at "Saint Leonards Warrior Square, Hampton Wick, Ore".

• When Southern replaced their Amey (Ditra) system with the Atos (Worldline) system in 2018 the "Matt" automated announcements at Ore were announcing trains as calling at "West Saint Leonards, Crowthorne, Battle".

• When Southeastern replaced their Amey (Ditra) system with the Atos (Worldline) system in 2012 the "Rob" automated announcements at Hastings were announcing trains as calling at "Polegate, Berwick Upon Tweed, Glynde".

• For many years until it was finally fixed around 2019 the screens on Platform 2 at Gatwick Airport would display all Thameslink services as "First Capital Connect" on the screen. All of the other platforms 1/3/4/5/6/7 were fine. So for some reason it was just this platform.

• Some of the screens on the North Downs Line seem to often forget what station they are at when they are not working. I have seen the screens at Dorking Deepdene display "Welcome To Betchworth". I have seen the screens at Dorking West display "Welcome To Gomshall". I have seen the screens at Shalford display "Welcome To Chilworth". So it seems to be a common issue on this line when the screens are not working properly. Although i think it was 2019 when i last saw this issue.

• The old Amey (Ditra) system used by Southern until 2018 at, Crawley, Faygate, Horsham, Ifield, Littlehaven, Three Bridges, stations used to have a habit of just randomly blurting out "Royston, Royston, Royston, Royston, Skipton, Rotterdam C S, Welham Green, Try To Remain Calm, Shepreth, Royston, Royston, Royston, Royston" for no reason.

• The old Amey (Ditra) system used by Southern until 2018 at, Bishopstone, Newhaven Harbour, Newhaven Town, Seaford, Southease, stations used to have a habit of announcing trains as "First Great Western Atlantic Coast Express" whenever the trains were being disrupted and delayed.

• The old Amey (Ditra) system used by Southern until 2018 at, Balcombe, Berwick, Cooksbridge, Earlswood, Glynde, Horley, Merstham, Plumpton, stations and possibly a few others too used to have a habit of announcing trains as "Intercity Charter Train" "Regional Railways Charter Train" whenever there were rail replacement buses in operation.

I would be very interested to hear any other examples of current or past similar faults or errors or quirks that people can think of or remember.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The ongoing inability to decide if Cark is "and Cartmel", "in Cartmel" or on its own. I have no idea what the station announcements presently say but it seems to change by the minutes.

 

[The exile]

The frequent occasions where GWR’s screens show the “First train” at a particular platform departing after the second one - for minutes on end - despite the fact that it is physically impossible, as they eventually accept by reversing the order of them. The staff info screens show the correct information / routing, so why is it apparently ok for the public ones to display incorrect info?

 

[Kite159]

The quirk with poor timing with the automatic announcement of a fast train approaching Grateley which plays the announcement a good 10 seconds after the fast train has passed the station!

At least for the London bound platform.

 

[Halish Railway]

Onboard a 323 between University and Selly the announcements interrupt each other due to the proximity of both stations.

It says “The next station is Selly Oak” but can be interrupted by the announcement saying “We are now approaching Selly Oak”.

 

[High Dyke]

Current LNER services stopping at Grantham announce "Change here for Skegness", completing ignoring services that also call at Sleaford, Boston or stations towards Nottingham. They even announce the same info when the last train through to Skevegas has already departed.

EMR station announcements on the 'Castle Line' announce Thurgarton with the emphasis on the Thur part, as though it's a dirty word.

A few years ago I travelled on the 21:46 Reading - Birmingham NS (XC service). Approaching Oxford the auto-announcement kicks in: "We are now approaching [silence]". Having sat at Oxford for about five minutes, awaiting departure, the announcement comes again, but this time it's realised we're at Oxford.

 

[DazCM]

A couple of years ago but on a class 166 leaving Redhill towards Reigate.

 

[Parallel]

Here are a few I can think of:

On Sunday when Carlisle trains are extended through to Whitby, Anne at Carlisle cannot announce any of the stations after Nunthorpe and just says "service to via Newcastle" but she can say them in full at Newcastle.

Ruth at Chester cannot announce 'Bramley', 'Low Moor' 'Northern' or 'Merseyrail'. The first two get ignored but Anne provides the recordings for the latter two.

Eryl at Llandudno Junction can't say 'Gogledd Llanrwst' (North Llanrwst).

Rodger at Bath Spa can't say where the rail replacement bus departs from.

At Pontypridd, Eryl announces (for rail replacement bus services) 'The next train to depart from the station forecourt bus stop' where as the translation is correct in English.

Ruth used to be able to announce 'Llantwit Major' fine at stations, then started ignoring it, now a weird sliced up version where she says 'Llan twitch MayJur' plays instead, but it is still said fine on board trains.

The Amey Ditra system when it was at Birmingham New Street - neither of the voices could say some of the stations along the Cambrian Coast and would repeat the previous station. i.e. "Aberdovey, Tywyn, Tywyn, Llwyngwril". The Amey system at Wolverhampton and Birmingham International I believe just missed out these stations.

There's probably loads more quirks that I can't remember.

 

[railwaytrack]

Many thanks for all of your replies so far. Interesting to hear of other ones. I have remembered a few other ones to add to the list:

• On the FGW/GWR 165/166 the old Michelle Beazley announcements (which have since been replaced by Faye Dicker and then replaced again by Janine Cooper Marshall who is the current voice) used to pronounce Betchworth as Bletchworth (with an "l" despite there being no "l" in the name).

• On the FCC/GN 365 trains many of the Julie Berry pronunciations were very strange. "Hitchin" sounded more like "Kitchin". "Huntingdon" sounded more like "Kuntingdon". "London Kings Cross" sounded more like "Blondon Kings Cross". There were some others too.

• On the SWR/SWT 458/5 the announcements would also incorrectly put the word "and" when the train was only calling at one more station. So it would say "Calling at and London Waterloo" or "Calling at and Reading" etc.

• The entire Acapela Rachael system on the 707s is a mess and could probably have a thread of its own. It often cuts off the announcement half way through. Or sometimes it repeats itself two or three times in a row. It is a mess.

• On the Atos (Worldline) system at Cheltenham Spa and Gloucester the "Anne" and "Rodger" voices pronounce Tondu incorrectly (they are pronouncing it as "Ton-Doo" instead of "Ton-Dee" which is the correct way).

• The announcements at London Overground stations do not seem to cope well with non London Overground services. The announcements for the Caterham and Tattenham Corner splitters are always a mess and do not make sense. "This train is formed of coach" is one of the nonsense things it says.

• On the Emma Hignett announcements at Norwood Junction station she always pronounced Leigh incorrectly as "Lee" instead of "Lie" which is the correct way.

• Similar to the example @Parallel gave i am sure that on the Amey system used at Crewe there was at least one station on the Heart Of Wales line was skipped out but i can not remember which one it was. I only heard this announcement once at Crewe but there was definitely at least one station skipped off. I can not remember which one.

I am sure there are plenty of other examples too that i have forgotten.

 

[owidoe]

FCC announcements used to say, with a very clear B, "Blundon Kings Cross".

 

[Strathclyder]

The quirk with poor timing with the automatic announcement of a fast train approaching Grateley which plays the announcement a good 10 seconds after the fast train has passed the station!

Have heard something similar happen quite a few times up here in ScotRail-land, most notably at Clydebank, Singer, Cambuslang and Motherwell. Usually it's due to a non-stop service - Edinburgh-Helensburgh and West Highland services respectively for the former pair and West Coast/TPE/XC expresses for the latter pair - catching up with a local stopping EMU in front. Sometimes the announcement goes off a second time before the non-stopper in question passes through.

While not a errorenous/faulty announcement per-se, this announcement for a XC service to Penzance at Motherwell - YT video below dating from November 2011, it has likely been changed between then and now - is rather jumbled to say the least.

 

[railwaytrack]

The video that @Strathclyder has just posted of a mix of different voices has reminded me of two similar ones:

• At Norwood Junction they use Emma Hignett except for the "City Thameslink" recording which seems to be the Amey "Only Woman" lady (who used to be at Brighton and East Croydon and Gatwick Airport and London Victoria and a few other stations up north).

• At Morpeth they use Celia Drummond except for the "Lumo" recording which seems to be the Amey "Only Woman" lady (who used to be at Brighton and East Croydon and Gatwick Airport and London Victoria and a few other stations up north).

I can understand the second one as Celia Drummond sadly died so was unable to record it. But i can not understand the first one as Emma Hignett still does recordings. So i have no idea why that one recording uses a different voice.

 

[gmaguire]

On the SWR she says Queenstown “Roan” instead of Road.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The quirk with poor timing with the automatic announcement of a fast train approaching Grateley which plays the announcement a good 10 seconds after the fast train has passed the station!

At least for the London bound platform.

Also used to be the case at Horley on the Brighton main line. For non-stopping trains on their way towards London, the "Please stand well clear..." announcement invariably didn't play until the train was already rattling past platform 3 at a fair speed. Think it's been fixed now.

 

[Adoarable]

The announcements at Cambridge use a peculiar intonation of "London Kings Cross" with particular stress on the "Kings". I get the need to distinguish Kings Cross from Liverpool Street at this station but it would sound more natural with equal emphasis on "Kings" and "Cross".

 

[Snow1964]

For years SWT class 455 trains on Kingston loop, used to show destination as Strawberry Hilli on then newly installed screens in saloons. It was years before typo got amended

 

[Magdalia]

The announcements at Cambridge use a peculiar intonation of "London Kings Cross" with particular stress on the "Kings". I get the need to distinguish Kings Cross from Liverpool Street at this station but it would sound more natural with equal emphasis on "Kings" and "Cross".

Having used London trains from Cambridge for 50 years this stress is very sensible. It is important for the announcement to specify which station immediately after saying London, by stressing the first syllable of the station name. That's done with Kings Cross and Liverpool Street, and it goes back to the days when the announcements were made by a real person.

 

[LancasterRed]

Anne(?) pronounces Euxton incorrectly - what she says is closer to Euston Balshaw Lane. I am surprised this one has not been fixed as for those hard of hearing and/or unfamiliar with the railway one could easily mistake the two!

 

[jfollows]

The on-train Northern announcements refer to "Handfuth" which is incorrect, the correct pronunciation of the second syllable rhymes with "north". However she seems to get Sandbach right now; originally we had "Sandback" on the automated station announcements at least.

 

[dosxuk]

Jubilee Line train at the weekend just sounded extremely happy about it's destination...

This is a Jubilee Line train to... [pause] Willesden Green

 

[Bletchleyite]

The on-train Northern announcements refer to "Handfuth" which is incorrect, the correct pronunciation of the second syllable rhymes with "north". However she seems to get Sandbach right now; originally we had "Sandback" on the automated station announcements at least.

I'm fairly sure ATOS Annie pronounces "Slaithwaite" as it's written rather than "Slawit" as is correct. I've also heard the wrong pronunciation of Welsh stations e.g. "LanDUDno" on an automatic announcement somewhere but I forget where.

 

[galwhv69]

Clapham Junction P15 today. Screen shows next train to Crystal Palace & Norwood Junction (West Croydon service) at 0916 but also shows a train to Portsmouth Harbour also at 0916 also on P15

 

[route101]

Have heard something similar happen quite a few times up here in ScotRail-land, most notably at Clydebank, Singer, Cambuslang and Motherwell. Usually it's due to a non-stop service - Edinburgh-Helensburgh and West Highland serivces respectively for the former pair and West Coast/TPE/XC expresses for the latter pair - catching up with a local stopping EMU in front. Sometimes the announcement repeats itself if the non-stopper is going slowly enough.

While not a errorenous/faulty announcement per se, this announcement for a XC service to Penzance at Motherwell - YT video below dating from November 2011, it was likely changed between then and now - is rather jumbled to say the least.

When XC ran to Southampton or Guildford from Glasgow Central, there wasn't any auto announcement's for them.

 

[Halish Railway]

Celia at Northern stations says ‘Landon Kings Cross’ and ‘Grarntham’ when announcing the LNER and Grand Central services.

 

[jfollows]

Clapham Junction P15 today. Screen shows next train to Crystal Palace & Norwood Junction (West Croydon service) at 0916 but also shows a train to Portsmouth Harbour also at 0916 also on P15

Wrong thread, perhaps?

 

[galwhv69]

Wrong thread, perhaps?

No? It's a fault with a departure screen?

 

[jfollows]

No? It's a fault with a departure screen?

Ah, OK, sorry!

 

[stuu]

I was once on a Southern train which kept announcing that this was coach 9 of 4

 

[duncananderson]

Last time I went into London from Reading (28th April) the automated announcement said the train was formed of 13 coaches.
GWR Trains between Reading and Paddington can be 5, 9 or 10 coaches if IETs, or 4/8 if 387s. TfL rail services are 7 or 9. Not sure how you could make 13 from any of those!

 

[Sheridan]

On the screens at Bodorgan (and I presume other Anglesey request stops, which seem to have the same system), if there is a train formed of two units, the Welsh will read ‘Blaen 2 hyfforddwyr’ for front two coaches, but unfortunately ’hyfforddwyr’ means coaches in a sporting sense, and the word order is wrong; it should be ‘2 cerbyd blaen’.

And if there’s no unit allocated to the rear portion, instead of just displaying it as a single unit, it reads ‘Cefn 0 hyfforddwyr’. (Again word choice and order is wrong, aside from being simply unnecessary.)