Tube train automated announcements 2005

[Sad Sprinter]

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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Thank you. I won't ask how you get ahold of these! Incidentally the original Northern Line announcement script was "This station is Balham, change here for mainline suburban rail services" (mainline being an adjective). Only at Euston and others did she say "mainline intercity and suburban rail services". I wonder which script was written first..

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Yeah, they're weird announcements. Pretty creepy for some reason. I think I do remember these now more so than the Bakerloo Line ones.

 

[announcements]

I can't even remember, I had them on a memory stick for a long time, which I can no longer find but I remembered emailing them to a fellow railway enthusiast, who has just sent them back to me! I personally did not take the recordings, but I do agree they are most creepy - probably all the mechanical squealing in the background making some rather haunting sounds!

Incidentally the original Northern Line announcement script was "This station is Balham, change here for mainline suburban rail services" (mainline being an adjective). Only at Euston and others did she say "mainline intercity and suburban rail services". I wonder which script was written first..

The original scripts were:

"Mainline Intercity and Suburban rail services" for Euston and KXSP (the latter received "and international..." from when St. Pancras International opened, as the international announcement has previously been at Waterloo.)

"Mainline Suburban rail services" at Waterloo, Charing Cross, Kentish Town, Moorgate, Clapham North and Balham.

Mainline is an adjective in both instances.

 

[LUYMun]

That's an incredible collection of announcements, and since they're hard to come on the 'net by it's pretty much a gem. I'm planning on compiling these for a YouTube video showcasing them, would it be okay if I could use these VERA recordings given I would credit you for uploading these? @announcements

 

[bramling]

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

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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

I wouldn’t call the “Vera” announcements an estuary accent. The likes of Celia in particular could be regarded as quite well-spoken.

 

[announcements]

That's an incredible collection of announcements, and since they're hard to come on the 'net by it's pretty much a gem. I'm planning on compiling these for a YouTube video showcasing them, would it be okay if I could use these VERA recordings given I would credit you for uploading these? @announcements

No problem. No need to credit me. I cannot remember who supplied the files originally, but given how many years have passed and all that...

I wouldn’t call the “Vera” announcements an estuary accent. The likes of Celia in particular could be regarded as quite well-spoken.

VERA to me just sounds like an old-fashioned London accent. Not Estuary in a cockney sense, but not posh either. Listen to the way she pronounced her vowels in the word "side", for instance, in her "the other side of Hammersmith Broadway" message - it is of a time.

Random comparison, listen to this old clip of Delia Smith:

Listen to how she says words such as "like" and "likely". Although Delia is more clipped and refined than VERA!

 

[RacsoMoquette]

Simply Fabulous! Though am I right in thinking that the tone is slightly different to the Bakerloo recordings? I just think the voice for some reason sounds rather familiar? Though I wonder why? It certainly sounds extremely poor at flowing, noticeably worse than the Bakerloo Recordings.

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Also it will be awful shame the 20? year old Emma Clarke recordings on the Bakerloo finally are replaced by Adrian! I have just become so accustom to associate the 1972TS with Emma Clarke! Also would anyone know the current state of the new DVA and DMIs for the 72 Stock? It shan't be long now until the first unit is fitted? As all the cars now have LED lighting so when next?

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Or will existing non refurbished units receive the new DVA before they the DMIs This presumably goes for the 1992 and 1972TS?

 

[announcements]

Adrien was used for the prototype/test unit. It will be a female voice used, but whether or not this is Emma Clarke, I am not sure. My guess is it would be a new voice to future proof it, and they will use the same voice for the Central line. Fingers crossed it isn't Sarah Parnell!

It is possible they may retain Adrien for the manually selectable announcements, although even his 'see it, say it, sorted' was only him in some lines (not the Bakerloo, oddly) because it was installed during the pandemic and needed to be done quickly.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

No problem. No need to credit me. I cannot remember who supplied the files originally, but given how many years have passed and all that...

VERA to me just sounds like an old-fashioned London accent. Not Estuary in a cockney sense, but not posh either. Listen to the way she pronounced her vowels in the word "side", for instance, in her "the other side of Hammersmith Broadway" message - it is of a time.

Random comparison, listen to this old clip of Delia Smith:

Listen to how she says words such as "like" and "likely". Although Delia is more clipped and refined than VERA!

Yes that's what I mean, it's definitely an old fashioned London accent. I wonder if that suggests it was a member of staff that did the announcements?

 

[LUYMun]

No problem. No need to credit me. I cannot remember who supplied the files originally, but given how many years have passed and all that...

Thanks for that, I've uploaded them now. They do sound dreadful, the repetition of station names sound unnecessary when "change here" would do. Also, "this is a H&C/District line train calling at all stations to..." must've implied there were semi-fast or fast services to these destinations!

 

[announcements]

Thanks for uploading! As I say, no need to credit me for these but thank you anyway. One suggested edit for your video description, if I may: please remove the speculated to be Charlotte Green. As someone who used to listen to Radio 4 when she was its main newsreader, I can 100% confirm it is not her. Type in Charlotte Green to YouTube and you'll hear she is incredibly RP for one thing!

VERA on the Bakerloo line also did the "calling at all stations to" - completely unnecessary. I cringe every time I hear platform CSAs manually announced it in this way too - especially as they are quite often blindly saying it, even in times of temporary station closures!

Imagine - "Calling at all stations except <insert station name here> to X!"

 

[stadler]

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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Thank you so much for attaching all of those C Stock recordings. That is amazing. That is fantastic that we now have recordings of both the 1972 Stock and the C Stock versions of her. Thank you again for these.

Simply Fabulous! Though am I right in thinking that the tone is slightly different to the Bakerloo recordings? I just think the voice for some reason sounds rather familiar? Though I wonder why? It certainly sounds extremely poor at flowing, noticeably worse than the Bakerloo Recordings.

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Also it will be awful shame the 20? year old Emma Clarke recordings on the Bakerloo finally are replaced by Adrian! I have just become so accustom to associate the 1972TS with Emma Clarke! Also would anyone know the current state of the new DVA and DMIs for the 72 Stock? It shan't be long now until the first unit is fitted? As all the cars now have LED lighting so when next?

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Or will existing non refurbished units receive the new DVA before they the DMIs This presumably goes for the 1992 and 1972TS?

I think that it is probably just the speakers making her tone sound slightly different. Vera was introduced in the same year on both the 1972 Stock and the C Stock trains. So i would presume that the recordings for both stocks were all done at the same time in the same recording session.

Adrien was used for the prototype/test unit. It will be a female voice used, but whether or not this is Emma Clarke, I am not sure. My guess is it would be a new voice to future proof it, and they will use the same voice for the Central line. Fingers crossed it isn't Sarah Parnell!

It is possible they may retain Adrien for the manually selectable announcements, although even his 'see it, say it, sorted' was only him in some lines (not the Bakerloo, oddly) because it was installed during the pandemic and needed to be done quickly.

TFL said recently that they are looking at replacing the announcements on all lines and all stocks. It seems like they are looking for one uniform voice on all trains in the near future. I presume this will happen when the new London Overground line names get fully rolled out. I think it will likely be a brand new female voice. Another option they might use could be the new Elloise TTS voice. There would be no need for new expensive software on the existing trains as they could always use the Elloise TTS voice to generate sound files.

Yes that's what I mean, it's definitely an old fashioned London accent. I wonder if that suggests it was a member of staff that did the announcements?

I have always thought Vera is probably a member of staff. Her voice just does not sound like a professional voiceover artist. I really would not be surprised if she simply was a member of staff.

Thanks for that, I've uploaded them now. They do sound dreadful, the repetition of station names sound unnecessary when "change here" would do. Also, "this is a H&C/District line train calling at all stations to..." must've implied there were semi-fast or fast services to these destinations!

Great video. Just one thing to point out. I notice you mention the Victoria Line in the video description. I am almost certain that Vera was never used on this line. I was a very regular user of the Victoria Line back then and i do not remember hearing any announcements before Emma Clarke was installed.

Thanks for uploading! As I say, no need to credit me for these but thank you anyway. One suggested edit for your video description, if I may: please remove the speculated to be Charlotte Green. As someone who used to listen to Radio 4 when she was its main newsreader, I can 100% confirm it is not her. Type in Charlotte Green to YouTube and you'll hear she is incredibly RP for one thing!

VERA on the Bakerloo line also did the "calling at all stations to" - completely unnecessary. I cringe every time I hear platform CSAs manually announced it in this way too - especially as they are quite often blindly saying it, even in times of temporary station closures!

Imagine - "Calling at all stations except <insert station name here> to X!"

Elinor Hamilton still does the "calling at all station to" at Metronet stations. If you go to stations like, Maida Vale, Regents Park, Shepherds Bush, Victoria, etc, you will still hear Elinor Hamilton saying "calling at all stations to x" in all of her announcements. Pauline Cavilla always did it too. It does seem a bit pointless everywhere except the Metropolitan Line and Piccadilly Line as all others lines never skip stations.

 

[RacsoMoquette]

Oh! Right it would be unfortunate when all the DVAs on TFL receive one uniform voice, I thought each line. Having a different voice e.g in the late 00s mid 2010s to be very interesting, and really gave the line its individual identity! Do you think the standardized voice will be Adrian Heiet, Elinor Hamilton or Emma Hignett?

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As replacing all the DVAs to encompass all the new London Overground line names will be a hefty task! Do you think, we have seen the end of the vile Sarah Parnell impersonations of Emma Clarke? Those were torrid quality and extreamly unpleasant on the ear!

 

[stadler]

Oh! Right it would be unfortunate when all the DVAs on TFL receive one uniform voice, I thought each line. Having a different voice e.g in the late 00s mid 2010s to be very interesting, and really gave the line its individual identity! Do you think the standardized voice will be Adrian Heiet, Elinor Hamilton or Emma Hignett?

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As replacing all the DVAs to encompass all the new London Overground line names will be a hefty task! Do you think, we have seen the end of the vile Sarah Parnell impersonations of Emma Clarke? Those were torrid quality and extreamly unpleasant on the ear!

Adrian Hieatt will not be the new voice. He is only a temporary voice. TFL stated that research has shown that a female voice is preferred. I am not sure who the new voice will be but i think it could even be a brand new female voiceover artist who has not been used by TFL before. So they may well even pick someone completely new. Or as mentioned they could always used the Acapela Elloise TTS voice on the other lines. We will have to wait and see. I am hoping they pick a nice clear RP professional voiceover artist.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Oh! Right it would be unfortunate when all the DVAs on TFL receive one uniform voice, I thought each line. Having a different voice e.g in the late 00s mid 2010s to be very interesting, and really gave the line its individual identity! Do you think the standardized voice will be Adrian Heiet, Elinor Hamilton or Emma Hignett?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Sep 2024 ==

As replacing all the DVAs to encompass all the new London Overground line names will be a hefty task! Do you think, we have seen the end of the vile Sarah Parnell impersonations of Emma Clarke? Those were torrid quality and extreamly unpleasant on the ear!

I wonder if having one voice for all lines is a bad idea. Having different voices after changing lines keeps you more alert

 

[announcements]

Louisa Gummer anyone?

 

[stadler]

I wonder if having one voice for all lines is a bad idea. Having different voices after changing lines keeps you more alert

To be honest i doubt that most ordinary passengers even notice a difference in voices between lines. It is probably only something that enthusiasts and staff and people with an interest in transport notice. So i doubt it will make much difference.

Louisa Gummer anyone?

I doubt that Louisa Gummer would be the new voice. She was chosen by KeTech where as the new voice will be chosen by TFL directly. So this makes me think that it is unlikely that it will be her.

 

[announcements]

I thought KeTech supplied the Jubilee line announcements too, yet weirdly they received the Sarah Parnell treatment, so I assumed it was anything goes these days! Plus, Adrien made his way onto both the Northern and Piccadilly lines (but not the Jubilee line, oddly?) - both of which are KeTech.

Regarding the average person not noticing the different voices across different lines, you're probably right, however I do think people will notice if the voice chosen and/or recording is of poor quality - so I hope they get it right!

 

[stadler]

I thought KeTech supplied the Jubilee line announcements too, yet weirdly they received the Sarah Parnell treatment, so I assumed it was anything goes these days! Plus, Adrien made his way onto both the Northern and Piccadilly lines (but not the Jubilee line, oddly?) - both of which are KeTech.

Regarding the average person not noticing the different voices across different lines, you're probably right, however I do think people will notice if the voice chosen and/or recording is of poor quality - so I hope they get it right!

Yes indeed KeTech do still manage the Jubilee and Northern and Piccadilly lines. Although i think the 2024 Stock is probably another supplier. I did always wonder how Sarah Parnell ended up on the Jubilee Line trains.

My presumption is that TFL needed Sarah Parnell to record other new recordings at the same time (maybe for the Bakerloo Line and Central Line trains) so they decided to ask Global Radio to get her to do these additional recordings for the Jubilee Line too. They probably just thought they would ask them as she was doing the recordings for the other lines anyway and it saved KeTech from finding a new voice. I guess the new Northern Line recordings were done at a different time and this time KeTech had to find a new voice. I could be wrong but that is my best guess.

The new See It Say It Sorted announcements are really odd. They rolled it out on all lines around the same time but yet on some stocks they got Adrian Hieatt (1973 Stock / 1992 Stock / 1995 Stock) and some stocks got Sarah Parnell (1972 Stock / S Stock) and some stock got nothing at all (1996 Stock / 2009 Stock) so it all seems very random. I am not sure how this was decided.

 

[announcements]

Regarding Celia MK4 (i.e. the recordings for night tube announcements), is there a reason why they asked her to record "Victoria line services" for Stockwell, Warren St. Euston and "Jubilee line services" for Waterloo? Why the need for "services" - they could have just used the existing files without the need for a completely new recording.

 

[croydontangle]

I seem to remember DLR announcements taking the form of "DLR, train is for [destination]" but can't find any videos of it... have I just hallucinated this?

 

[Jimini]

I seem to remember DLR announcements taking the form of "DLR, train is for [destination]" but can't find any videos of it... have I just hallucinated this?

Can’t say I remember that one personally (daily user between 2001 and 2011.)

 

[Boalbads]

Hello, (first post so sorry if I make any obvious mistakes), was just wondering because i've seen the C stocks have destinations for Wembley Park, on the Metropolitan line, would there have been VERA announcements for this?

 

[bramling]

Hello, (first post so sorry if I make any obvious mistakes), was just wondering because i've seen the C stocks have destinations for Wembley Park, on the Metropolitan line, would there have been VERA announcements for this?

I can’t remember for sure, but I think the system did have the capability to do up to Wembley Park. It definitely had recordings for the entire District Line.

The original setup on the C stock was actually quite well done. As well as the there lines the stock served, it was possible to set “special service” routes.

 

[announcements]

I seem to remember DLR announcements taking the form of "DLR, train is for [destination]" but can't find any videos of it... have I just hallucinated this?

On train: "This train is for X" (no mention of the DLR)

Platforms: "The next train to arrive at platform X is for X" (no mention of the DLR)

 

[Boalbads]

I can’t remember for sure, but I think the system did have the capability to do up to Wembley Park. It definitely had recordings for the entire District Line.

The original setup on the C stock was actually quite well done. As well as the there lines the stock served, it was possible to set “special service” routes.

Sounds interesting, were there specific special service routes or were you able to add/remove stops manually?

 

[Dstock7080]

Sounds interesting, were there specific special service routes or were you able to add/remove stops manually?

On C Stock there were regular pre-set routes available, such as:
Hammersmith-Barking
Wimbledon-Edgware Road
Inner rail Circle
etc.
Once selected these could be amended to starting station on that route and finishing station on that route; eg. Parsons Green-Earl’s Court.
There was also a ‘special service’ section where any logical route between two stations (if in memory), could be set, eg. Upminster-Goldhawk Road; High Street Ken-Ealing Common, West Brompton-Blackfriars

 

[Boalbads]

On C Stock there were regular pre-set routes available, such as:
Hammersmith-Barking
Wimbledon-Edgware Road
Inner rail Circle
etc.
Once selected these could be amended to starting station on that route and finishing station on that route; eg. Parsons Green-Earl’s Court.
There was also a ‘special service’ section where any logical route between two stations (if in memory), could be set, eg. Upminster-Goldhawk Road; High Street Ken-Ealing Common, West Brompton-Blackfriars

Assuming the special service stations included the Metropolitan line, would you have been able to set it as a fast/semi-fast, or would you have been able to enter stations you weren't stopping at? (assuming it was going beyond Wembley Park)

 

[A60stock]

I believe the C stock has run further than Wembley Park, right the way up to Amersham, although I am not sure if this pre-dates the use of announcements on the trains.

I would certainly be interested to hear Met Line stop announcement recordings on a C stock!

 

[Boalbads]

I believe the C stock has run further than Wembley Park, right the way up to Amersham, although I am not sure if this pre-dates the use of announcements on the trains.

I would certainly be interested to hear Met Line stop announcement recordings on a C stock!

I've seen a video somewhere of one running the Chesham shuttle at some point, but I don't know when or if it had announcements.

 

[Dstock7080]

Assuming the special service stations included the Metropolitan line, would you have been able to set it as a fast/semi-fast, or would you have been able to enter stations you weren't stopping at? (assuming it was going beyond Wembley Park)

MET Line destinations were not available on C Stock DVA.