Tube train automated announcements 2005

[RacsoMoquette]

When was the antiquated platform equipment on Piccadilly Line stations finally replaced?
Maybe a similar story happened to the Northern Line as the announcements on the 1995TS remained unchanged the best part of fifteen years! And today they only have slight modifications to the interchange announcements!

 

[stadler]

When was the antiquated platform equipment on Piccadilly Line stations finally replaced?
Maybe a similar story happened to the Northern Line as the announcements on the 1995TS remained unchanged the best part of fifteen years! And today they only have slight modifications to the interchange announcements!

My memory from that far back is poor so i can not remember the exact year that it was removed. It was definitely still around in 2004 and the year 2004 is the latest year i can find evidence of it existing. But i have a feeling it may have lasted slightly longer until the Elinor Hamilton system was installed as i am sure i remember hearing it later than that. So i think at some point between 2004 and 2008 it was removed but i can not narrow it down further than that.

 

[LUYMun]

4. Unknown Male - This male voice is still used at Hounslow East station. It seems to be the only station he is still at.

04:12:

This one has a hint of John Elgar, though I’m unsure he ever did London Underground announcements.

Reference:

 

[stadler]

This one has a hint of John Elgar, though I’m unsure he ever did London Underground announcements.

Reference:

I can certainly see some similarity. I have never heard of John Elgar doing London Underground announcements but certainly could be him as he may well have voiced other stuff as well.

Actually you saying that makes me remember that in the recent Angela Peberdy obituary it mentioned that she did "Mind The Gap" announcements on London Underground too. There was a piece on BBC Radio and an article online which both mentioned this.

Angela Peberdy does not really sound like the female "Mind The Gap" voice who used to be at Bank and Mansion House until the early 2010s as can be heard in in post #120 in the linked videos. So i do not think that is her. However in a previous post #112 in the thread RacsoMoquette mentions a second female "Mind The Gap" announcer that was used at some stations. So this has just got me thinking that perhaps Angela Peberdy is this second female "Mind The Gap" announcer mentioned.

So considering that Angela Peberdy (who did mainline announcements just like John Elgar although she was the Ditra system and he was Infomat system) was said to have done London Underground "Mind The Gap" announcements it is perfectly plausible that John Elgar could have too. Thinking about it a lot of voiceovers have done both mainline station announcements and London Underground announcements. Julie Berry, Celia Drummond, Phil Sayer, Pauline Cavilla, Mark Stutter, are examples of five others who have done both. So it could be John Elgar although it is probably impossible to know for sure.

 

[announcements]

I always wonder why TFL throught it was necessary to get Celia Drummond to record all the Northern Line announcements again considering her original ones were fine. I presume you are right and they were recorded at the same time as her Jubilee Line ones but it seems odd that they wanted her to record them again. In the end they never seemed to really use them other than installing them on a few trains for a short period and then removing them so it seemed like a waste.

Interestingly one post on that thread says that there were three Northern Line trains delivered later with newer software which is why they have the Jubilee Line style announcements. But that does not make much sense to me as normally new announcements would not be recorded just because trains had newer software. I suspect the voice was just a trial.

Another thing i have always wondered is whether the difference between Celia MK1 (Northern) and Celia MK2 (Jubilee) was just simply a result of her voice changing over time or if TFL requested her to speak in a different tone. With her National Rail announcements the only real noticeable difference was the "New Celia" announcements recorded in the late 2010s (trialled by Amey at a few SWT stations in 2016/2017/2018 and on the 442s and 484s and 701s too) but before then most of her recordings sounded pretty much the same. So it makes me wonder if TFL requested her to use a different style or if it was just her voice naturally changing over time.

Don't forget it wasn't just the three trains that received such treatment - every train received the "please mind the gap between the train and the platform" and "stand clear of the doors" messages, which have remainded in place ever since.

I do agree we need to question the claim that the last three trains received such treatment due to better software, because the last train was delivered in 2001, and these recordings - if done at the same time as the Jubilee line - would have been 2003/4?

It is unclear why a full line re-record was needed just to make way for a few updated phrases such as "Hammersmith & City" (instead of "Circle & Hammersmith") and "National Rail services" (instead of "Main Line..."). What's more, the fact interchanges were now added to the next station messages would not have warranted any update as they could have just used the MK1 recordings for this. However, we need to remember that during the PPP times there was a lot of money floating around for such things... Nowadays, the new recordings are only commissioned when absolutely required rather than re-recording an entire set of announcements. The last stock to receive such a lavish full overhaul of announcements was the C Stock in 2009 when the Circle line was extended; it was questionable even at the time given the only new phrase required was "This is a Circle line train to"!

My memory from that far back is poor so i can not remember the exact year that it was removed. It was definitely still around in 2004 and the year 2004 is the latest year i can find evidence of it existing. But i have a feeling it may have lasted slightly longer until the Elinor Hamilton system was installed as i am sure i remember hearing it later than that. So i think at some point between 2004 and 2008 it was removed but i can not narrow it down further than that.

I remember hearing them on the Holborn platforms as late as autumn 2008. They had just installed the Elinor announcements but hadn't yet switched off the old Julie announcements, so the two were in operation simultaneously!

 

[bramling]

Don't forget it wasn't just the three trains that received such treatment - every train received the "please mind the gap between the train and the platform" and "stand clear of the doors" messages, which have remainded in place ever since.

I do agree we need to question the claim that the last three trains received such treatment did to better software, because the last train was delivered in 2001, and these recordings - if done at the same time as the Jubilee line - would have been 2003/4?

It is unclear why a full line re-record was needed just to make way for a few updated phrases such as "Hammersmith & City" (instead of "Circle & Hammersmith") and "National Rail services" (instead of "Main Line..."). What's more, the fact interchanges were now added to the next station messages not have warranted any update as they could have just used the MK1 recordings for this. However, we need to remember that during the PPP times there was a lot of money floating around for such things... Nowadays, the new recordings are only commissioned when absolutely required rather than re-recording an entire set of announcements. The last stock to receive such a lavish full overhaul of announcements was the C Stock in 2009 when the Circle line was extended; it was questionable even at the time given the only new phrase required was "This is a Circle line train to"!

I remember hearing them on the Holborn platforms as late as autumn 2008. They had just installed the Elinor announcements but hadn't yet switched off the old Julie announcements, so the two were in operation simultaneously!

Couple of points from the above

* All 106 95 stock trains definitely had the original messages. The second version came a few years later, so it wasn’t a case that the last trains were fitted with something different from new

* The platform announcements on the Piccadilly Line were turned off at the time the 73 stock got the digitised announcements, as these took their place. They were originally provided in 1996 as part of a number of measures designed to assist the “all day peak timetable” that they tried to bring in at the time, and which ultimately the line couldn’t sustain.

 

[announcements]

As I say, I do remember hearing the Holborn announcements, at least, as late as 2008. I distinctly remember this being the case as I stood on the platforms en route home from a gig; I went back on my Facebook to check the date of this gig (I uploaded a photograph at the time) and it was October 2008.

Now if they really were switched off in late 2006 when the Picc line received its onboard Julie Berry announcements, it is possible they may have been switched on again temporarily (by accident or otherwise) during October 2008 due to the new system being installed alongside it; indeed the original blue cylindrical speakers were side by side with the new grey oblong ones installed by Tube lines.

 

[RacsoMoquette]

I thought it would be unnecessary to make a whole new thread about this topic: Why is it often more noticeable on the 1992TS to experience extremely short dwell times, especially in the core of the line? As in the 2010s it was commonplace for the doors to close even before the "This is a Central Line train to XX" announcements even played! Anyway it did seem extremely short and potentially a safety hazard as busy interchanges like Oxford Circus and Liverpool Street call for longer dwell times! Could this be part of the ATO?
Though nowadays the doors stay open now for a much more reasonable length for the last five or more years! I now find the Central Line and the 1992TS much less stressful to use, as the risk of entrapment is reduced. Even now the dwell times on the Jubilee and Northern Lines is perfectly fine! Even with ATO! Why was it the Central in particular?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Aug 2024 ==

Also why is it commonplace to hear the "This is a Central Line train to XX" announcement triggered twice or even three times? Often the latter occurs if the doors are obstructed, though not always?

 

[bramling]

As I say, I do remember hearing the Holborn announcements, at least, as late as 2008. I distinctly remember this being the case as I stood on the platforms en route home from a gig; I went back on my Facebook to check the date of this gig (I uploaded a photograph at the time) and it was October 2008.

Now if they really were switched off in late 2006 when the Picc line received its onboard Julie Berry announcements, it is possible they may have been switched on again temporarily (by accident or otherwise) during October 2008 due to the new system being installed alongside it; indeed the original blue cylindrical speakers were side by side with the new grey oblong ones installed by Tube lines.

I had a tour round Holborn which would have been in early 2008, and at that time I remember noticing a post-it note taped in the station operations room with words to the effect of “as per instruction from line general manager, Piccadilly Line platform announcements to be switched off”. This would certainly have been whilst the refurbishment was in full swing. I guess it is quite possible they returned to life at some point, I think they were controlled by a key switch on the platform. If so it could quite possibly have been by accident!

I guess all the affected stations have now received new equipment, but there may still be the odd one where the system is still operable?

 

[announcements]

Yes, certainly I remember circa the mid '10s travelling on the Piccadilly line westbound and hearing the Earl's Court ones reactivated as a one off. If I wasn't in a rush that day, I ought to have taken the eastbound back from Barons Court to Earl's Court to get some recordings. What was even stranger was it was a female voice, instead of the male voice we have on file from the folder that was shared earlier in this thread containing the various Piccadilly line platform announcement files. It now makes me wonder if I was hearing things! Another theory I have is the new Elinor Hamilton had an option to do this, and it was her doing it, but that would seem a bit strange for that to have been instructed.

 

[bramling]

Yes, certainly I remember circa the mid '10s travelling on the Piccadilly line westbound and hearing the Earl's Court ones reactivated as a one off. If I wasn't in a rush that day, I ought to have taken the eastbound back from Barons Court to Earl's Court to get some recordings. What was even stranger was it was a female voice, instead of the male voice we have on file from the folder that was shared earlier in this thread containing the various Piccadilly line platform announcement files. It now makes me wonder if I was hearing things! Another theory I have is the new Elinor Hamilton had an option to do this, and it was her doing it, but that would seem a bit strange for that to have been instructed.

The platform announcements were arranged to have a male voice in one direction and a female in the other, and this alternated from one station to the next. I think Russell Square got re-done at some point and had male on both directions.

As an aside, Leicester Square was the prototype for this scheme, and all four platforms had a male voice originally. The Piccadilly Line platforms were re-recorded when the rest of the line was done, but the Northern Line retained the original male voice for a few years.

Heathrow Terminal 4 had a platform announcement, and may have done from opening. The original male voice got replaced with a female one at some point.

 

[announcements]

Ah if Russell Square was redone, it's possible maybe Earl's Court was redone too.

Do you know when the Leicester Square announcements were recorded in the first place? I assumed all of these platform announcements were installed during the 1990s. Heathrow Terminal 4 opened in 1980s so those announcements would be even older if original!

 

[bramling]

Ah if Russell Square was redone, it's possible maybe Earl's Court was redone too.

Do you know when the Leicester Square announcements were recorded in the first place? I assumed all of these platform announcements were installed during the 1990s. Heathrow Terminal 4 opened in 1980s so those announcements would be even older if original!

I *think* they were done in preparation for a timetable which came in around 1996. Leicester Square may be very slightly older, perhaps a few months or so.

 

[stadler]

Regarding the old Piccadilly Line platform automated announcements why was there so many different voices used? I always wondered why they had multiple people rather than just one female and one male as presumably they were all done at the same time. Even if Leicester Square was the prototype it seems odd that they did not just record everything at the beginning for other stations too. Also you would think they would just use the same voices?

I know that they had a female for one direction and a male for the other direction. But there was multiple different voices used with different stations having different voices. In the recordings in post #11 on this thread you can hear five different voices. There are two females and three males. One female voice is definitely Julie Berry and the second female voice sounds very similar to Henrietta Bess so it could possibly be her. As for the three male voices i have no idea who they are but i have heard that Tim Bentinck may be one of them.

Interestingly i have found some articles online about Tim Bentinck which say:

----

Buckingham Covers article:

London Underground 150, signed Tim Bentinck 'Mind the Gap'

London Underground 150th anniversary first day cover with London postmark 09.01.2013. Carried Farrington -Paddington 10.01.2013. Autographed by actor Tim Bentinck, voice of "Mind The Gap" on the London Underground Piccadilly Line.Tim Bentinck, is an English actor and writer, known for his...

www.buckinghamcovers.com

"Also for 15 years between 1990 and 2006 he was the voice of "Mind The Gap" on the London Underground Piccadilly line."

----

My London article:

The people behind the voice telling you to 'mind the gap' on the Tube

You hear it all the time - but who actually says it?

www.mylondon.news

"The Piccadilly line's "Mind the Gap" announcer was actually the Archers actor Tim Bentinck for 15 years before Julie Berry recorded it."

----

BBC News article:

Mind the Gap Tube announcement returns after wife's plea

A 40-year-old "mind the gap" recording once heard across the Tube will return to one station - so the widow of the actor behind it can hear his voice.

www.bbc.com

"Actor Tim Bentinck was the voice on the Piccadilly Line for 15 years from 1990 and was paid £200 for various safety messages."

----

It only says he did "Mind The Gap" and "various safety messages" so there is no confirmation that he is one of the voices of these platform announcements that we are talking about here. But it does say "Piccadilly Line" and the timeframe seems right. So i presume he must be one of these three unknown male voices.

It says 1990 to 2006 so if i am correct and he is one of the voices then that confirms that it was installed in 1990 and removed from 2006 and then presumably lasted until 2008 at certain stations.

Also can anyone confirm the full list of stations that had these?

I remember these had them:

• Covent Garden
• Earls Court
• Gloucester Road
• Green Park
• Knightsbridge
• Holborn
• Hyde Park Corner
• Leicester Square
• Piccadilly Circus
• Russell Square
• South Kensington

Did they have them at Kings Cross St Pancras or any stations North of there too?

Also was Leicester Square the only station to have these announcements on the platforms for the other lines? I know at Leicester Square the Northern Line platforms had them too. But i can not remember if other stations were the same. Did they have them on the Jubilee and Victoria platforms at Green Park and the Central platforms at Holborn and the Bakerloo platforms at Piccadilly Circus too?

That is interesting to hear that Heathrow T4 had them too. I never thought the announcements made it to that end if the line. I wonder why Elinor Hamilton has never been installed at the three Heathrow stations. Currently they have no automated announcements at all.

 

[announcements]

Did they have them at Kings Cross St Pancras or any stations North of there too?

I used to travel on the Piccadilly line a lot back then and I seem to remember Russell Square being the first station I would hear the announcements at on the southbound, which at the time really signified to me the feeling of arriving into the central section!

 

[bramling]

Regarding the old Piccadilly Line platform automated announcements why was there so many different voices used? I always wondered why they had multiple people rather than just one female and one male as presumably they were all done at the same time. Even if Leicester Square was the prototype it seems odd that they did not just record everything at the beginning for other stations too. Also you would think they would just use the same voices?

I know that they had a female for one direction and a male for the other direction. But there was multiple different voices used with different stations having different voices. In the recordings in post #11 on this thread you can hear five different voices. There are two females and three males. One female voice is definitely Julie Berry and the second female voice sounds very similar to Henrietta Bess so it could possibly be her. As for the three male voices i have no idea who they are but i have heard that Tim Bentinck may be one of them.

Interestingly i have found some articles online about Tim Bentinck which say:

----

Buckingham Covers article:

London Underground 150, signed Tim Bentinck 'Mind the Gap'

London Underground 150th anniversary first day cover with London postmark 09.01.2013. Carried Farrington -Paddington 10.01.2013. Autographed by actor Tim Bentinck, voice of "Mind The Gap" on the London Underground Piccadilly Line.Tim Bentinck, is an English actor and writer, known for his...

www.buckinghamcovers.com

"Also for 15 years between 1990 and 2006 he was the voice of "Mind The Gap" on the London Underground Piccadilly line."

----

My London article:

The people behind the voice telling you to 'mind the gap' on the Tube

You hear it all the time - but who actually says it?

www.mylondon.news

"The Piccadilly line's "Mind the Gap" announcer was actually the Archers actor Tim Bentinck for 15 years before Julie Berry recorded it."

----

BBC News article:

Mind the Gap Tube announcement returns after wife's plea

A 40-year-old "mind the gap" recording once heard across the Tube will return to one station - so the widow of the actor behind it can hear his voice.

www.bbc.com

"Actor Tim Bentinck was the voice on the Piccadilly Line for 15 years from 1990 and was paid £200 for various safety messages."

----

It only says he did "Mind The Gap" and "various safety messages" so there is no confirmation that he is one of the voices of these platform announcements that we are talking about here. But it does say "Piccadilly Line" and the timeframe seems right. So i presume he must be one of these three unknown male voices.

It says 1990 to 2006 so if i am correct and he is one of the voices then that confirms that it was installed in 1990 and removed from 2006 and then presumably lasted until 2008 at certain stations.

Also can anyone confirm the full list of stations that had these?

I remember these had them:

• Covent Garden
• Earls Court
• Gloucester Road
• Green Park
• Knightsbridge
• Holborn
• Hyde Park Corner
• Leicester Square
• Piccadilly Circus
• Russell Square
• South Kensington

Did they have them at Kings Cross St Pancras or any stations North of there too?

Also was Leicester Square the only station to have these announcements on the platforms for the other lines? I know at Leicester Square the Northern Line platforms had them too. But i can not remember if other stations were the same. Did they have them on the Jubilee and Victoria platforms at Green Park and the Central platforms at Holborn and the Bakerloo platforms at Piccadilly Circus too?

That is interesting to hear that Heathrow T4 had them too. I never thought the announcements made it to that end if the line. I wonder why Elinor Hamilton has never been installed at the three Heathrow stations. Currently they have no automated announcements at all.

It was Russell Square to Earl’s Court inclusive. Leicester Square was prototype, which is presumably why the Northern Line got it as well. The Piccadilly Line announcements at Leicester Square were replaced when the whole scheme went live, but Leicester Square retained the original voice on the Northern Line (which I think may have been replaced by a female voice when the station got refurbished, but which didn’t last long at all). Russell Square was also replaced at some point for some reason, possibly station refurbishment.

The T4 announcement was something completely different. There was originally a male voice, which may well have dated from opening. Here the intention was presumably to prevent people alighting at the wrong station. At some point in the 90s it was replaced with a rather less clear female voice, which was abolished at some point probably when the trains got their DVA.

 

[RacsoMoquette]

After digging in to the extensive library of eBay! I managed to get hold of Underground News issue 431 page 385. Which briefly mentions the new DVA modification on C Stock which was VERA! Though, what I found was nowhere near as detailed as I hoped, it is still better to bear some information regarding this interesting DVA than none at all!

 

[announcements]

Thanks for sharing and I promise I'll upload the VERA recordings for the C Stock soon, I am just waiting on a friend (who I shared them with) to pass them on, as I no longer can locate them my end.

 

[stadler]

I used to travel on the Piccadilly line a lot back then and I seem to remember Russell Square being the first station I would hear the announcements at on the southbound, which at the time really signified to me the feeling of arriving into the central section!

It was Russell Square to Earl’s Court inclusive. Leicester Square was prototype, which is presumably why the Northern Line got it as well. The Piccadilly Line announcements at Leicester Square were replaced when the whole scheme went live, but Leicester Square retained the original voice on the Northern Line (which I think may have been replaced by a female voice when the station got refurbished, but which didn’t last long at all). Russell Square was also replaced at some point for some reason, possibly station refurbishment.

The T4 announcement was something completely different. There was originally a male voice, which may well have dated from opening. Here the intention was presumably to prevent people alighting at the wrong station. At some point in the 90s it was replaced with a rather less clear female voice, which was abolished at some point probably when the trains got their DVA.

Thank you. That confirms what i thought. I never heard anything at Kings Cross St Pancras station. I am very surprised that they were never installed there as that is the first station in Central London and a major well used station.

Also i just found this Tim Bentinck recording of his London Underground announcements on his website:

Voice Summary | Timothy Bentinck Actor

A summary of the voice work of the actor Timothy Bentinck

www.timbentinck.com

So that confirms that he is indeed one of the voices of the Piccadilly Line platform announcements that we are talking about. Comparing the recording on his site to the recordings in post #11 on this thread it sounds like he is yet another voice. If so that makes four male voices and two female voices that were used for these. Although it could just be the quality of the recordings so maybe he is one of the voices in post #11 on this thread. It is difficult to tell for certain.

After digging in to the extensive library of eBay! I managed to get hold of Underground News issue 431 page 385. Which briefly mentions the new DVA modification on C Stock which was VERA! Though, what I found was nowhere near as detailed as I hoped, it is still better to bear some information regarding this interesting DVA than none at all!

View attachment 164889View attachment 164892

Thank you for researching this. Although it does not give details of her name it is still interesting to see the first unit that was fitted. So it seems to indicate that they were possibly trialling it on one C Stock unit before rolling it out to all as it mentions only one six car set initially having it. Also that is helpful to narrow down exactly when as we knew it was 1997 but that gives an exact date when the first unit had automated announcements installed.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

When they hired Celia Drummond to do all of her Jubilee line recordings, why didn’t they add destination announcements to her already fairly long script? It seems weird that they randomly retained “Anita” for those.

 

[announcements]

Yes it does seem strange unless Jubilee line management wanted to retain her voice for posterity - not dissimilar to the Northern line management wanting to retain Celia Mk1 as much as practicable.

It was Russell Square to Earl’s Court inclusive. Leicester Square was prototype, which is presumably why the Northern Line got it as well. The Piccadilly Line announcements at Leicester Square were replaced when the whole scheme went live, but Leicester Square retained the original voice on the Northern Line (which I think may have been replaced by a female voice when the station got refurbished, but which didn’t last long at all). Russell Square was also replaced at some point for some reason, possibly station refurbishment.

Listening back to the files shared in Post #11 of this thread, it appears the female voice that replaced the prototypes at Leicester Square was Henrietta Bass. She sounds similar to the voice I heard on the eastbound at Earl's Court in latter years, so I think she may have replaced the male voice on the platform as well.

 

[starlight73]

Listening back to the files shared in Post #11 of this thread, it appears the female voice that replaced the prototypes at Leicester Square was Henrietta Bass.

I think so too - the way she says “line” sounds like Henrietta’s announcements at Hammersmith District

 

[stadler]

When they hired Celia Drummond to do all of her Jubilee line recordings, why didn’t they add destination announcements to her already fairly long script? It seems weird that they randomly retained “Anita” for those.

I have always wondered that too. One suggestion could be that Celia Drummond charged per word so they decided to save money by keeping Maggie Greenwood (Anita) for the destination announcements and only getting Celia Drummond to do the required new next station and this station and interchange announcements. Or perhaps they thought having a different voice for destinations would help it stand out more especially when the train was terminating at an intermediate station.

Yes it does seem strange unless Jubilee line management wanted to retain her voice for posterity - not dissimilar to the Northern line management wanting to retain Celia Mk1 as much as practicable.


Listening back to the files shared in Post #11 of this thread, it appears the female voice that replaced the prototypes at Leicester Square was Henrietta Bass. She sounds similar to the voice I heard on the eastbound at Earl's Court in latter years, so I think she may have replaced the male voice on the platform as well.

I think so too - the way she says “line” sounds like Henrietta’s announcements at Hammersmith District

I too always thought that Henrietta Bess was that voice used on some of the old Piccadilly Line station announcements. The voice sounds the same as her current Voice Perfect announcements that are still in use. So i would say it is highly likely that it is indeed her.

 

[RacsoMoquette]

Yes it does seem strange unless Jubilee line management wanted to retain her voice for posterity - not dissimilar to the Northern line management wanting to retain Celia Mk1 as much as practicable.


Listening back to the files shared in Post #11 of this thread, it appears the female voice that replaced the prototypes at Leicester Square was Henrietta Bass. She sounds similar to the voice I heard on the eastbound at Earl's Court in latter years, so I think she may have replaced the male voice on the platform as well.

I like the fact that the Jubilee Line management have retained “ANITA” for the destination announcements, her informative and authoritarianism tone is welcome after the Celia Mk2! With that being this and at a similar timescale why did the Central Line management not retain the Janet Mayo “This train terminates at” announcements? As weirdly they retained only one word of Janet Mayo and it was “Liverpool Street”! Why? Surely it would have been more convenient to just replace it the standardized Emma Clarke? Anyway I liked the warm yet soothing qualities of the Janet Mayo DVA!

 

[announcements]

They don't make 'em like they used to, that's for sure! The '09 stock is so loud, patronising and verbose by comparison.

Regarding the "charge by the word" claim, I believe that was me joking in an earlier post. I think these days LUL will commission the updates in such a way that they only replace phrases when absolutely necessary, presumably to cut down on time spent in a recording booth. Whereas the Celia MK2 upgrades seemed to have pretty much everything recorded across both the Northern and Jubilee lines, so unlikely they would have stopped her short from recording the termination messages specifically.

On the point about termination messages, does anyone have any recordings of Celia MKII's termination messages? I am guessing they were the same script as MKI, otherwise they wouldn't have created separate 'MKIII' files in 2015!

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I like the fact that the Jubilee Line management have retained “ANITA” for the destination announcements, her informative and authoritarianism tone is welcome after the Celia Mk2! With that being this and at a similar timescale why did the Central Line management not retain the Janet Mayo “This train terminates at” announcements? As weirdly they retained only one word of Janet Mayo and it was “Liverpool Street”! Why? Surely it would have been more convenient to just replace it the standardized Emma Clarke? Anyway I liked the warm yet soothing qualities of the Janet Mayo DVA!

I wasn’t around for Janet Mayo, but I always loved the Emma Clarke central line announcements for that very reason. Certain stations sound very reassuring like “Chancery Lane” or “Barkingside”.

I was just around for VERA, but I never remembered them. But I do remember vaugely when Emma Clarke was put it on the Bakerloo

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Sep 2024 ==

They don't make 'em like they used to, that's for sure! The '09 stock is so loud, patronising and verbose by comparison.

Regarding the "charge by the word" claim, I believe that was me joking in an earlier post. I think these days LUL will commission the updates in such a way that they only replace phrases when absolutely necessary, presumably to cut down on time spent in a recording booth. Whereas the Celia MK2 upgrades seemed to have pretty much everything recorded across both the Northern and Jubilee lines, so unlikely they would have stopped her from recording the termination messages specifically.

On the point about termination messages, does anyone have any recordings of Celia MKII's termination messages? I am guessing they were the same script as MKI, otherwise they wouldn't have created separate 'MKIII' files in 2015!

That is true, the later announcements from Celia MK2 onwards are louder and more piercing. Accents change too. VERA had a working class estuary accent you don’t hear much anymore, and more Home Counties voices like Celia or ANITA seem to have fallen out of favour

 

[announcements]

The closest to an Estuary accent you get these days is the DLR announcer. Although she does sound awfully dreary and I cannot wait for the new trains to use someone different.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

The closest to an Estuary accent you get these days is the DLR announcer. Although she does sound awfully dreary and I cannot wait for the new trains to use someone different.

Yes she is a weird one, “the next stop IS Island Garhdens *angry face*”

The change of announcements on the London Underground is an interesting case study on the demographic changes in England in the past 25 years

 

[LUYMun]

Thanks for sharing and I promise I'll upload the VERA recordings for the C Stock soon, I am just waiting on a friend (who I shared them with) to pass them on, as I no longer can locate them my end.

Any updates on this?

 

[announcements]

Sorry for the delay, I now have the VERA C Stock files and attach accordingly. Prepare to cringe at how cumbersome they are e.g. KXSP where it suffixes each line with a "line" (history repeating itself with the revised Elizabeth line announcements doing this?!) followed by an "also" to mention "suburban and mainline services" - different to on the Bakerloo line e.g. at Waterloo where she said "mainline railways". This is strange as the Northern line at the time treated mainline as the umbrella term, from which it differentiates between suburban, intercity and international rail services. Whereas these VERA recordings treat mainline and suburban as as separate.

The termination messages are quite good at Hammersmith and Edgware Road.

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== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Sep 2024 ==



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Sep 2024 ==



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Sep 2024 ==



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Sep 2024 ==



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Sep 2024 ==



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Sep 2024 ==



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Sep 2024 ==