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'Transport Secretary to pull Automated Announcements off Platforms

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Ibex

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Isn't Anne named after the person who voiced her?

What does Atos Annie actually look like and does she have her own voiceover website like I believe Phil Sayer did?

Yes, Anne is her real name. She's a senior manager at Worldline so you won't find any kind of voiceover website for her.


EMT have a constant stream of announcements on stations in addition to announcements for individual trains.

- Welcome to Derby station, use the lifts and keep your bags with you.
- Keep your bags with you and remember the 3 ‘S’s (isn’t that only for use when the threat level is critical?)
- Engineering work this weekend
- More engineering work this weekend (but we get told again how to contact station staff and find them on Twitter)
- Samaritans announcement (worthy but annoying the first time, let alone subsequently)
- Smoking and e-cigarettes are not permitted
- Don’t struggle on the stairs today! Contact a member of ‘our team’ if you need assistance.

East Midlands Trains have always had a soft spot of unnecessary waffle. Everything you've listed there should be on a poster, not in an announcement - particularly nonsense about not falling down the stairs. I'm not overly against announcements for engineering work provided it's just a very swift "Engineering work will affect trains in this area over the coming weekend, plan ahead on nationalrail.co.uk or see posters" - if the announcement is going to be reading out what the individual alterations are for each individual route on certain days at specific times then no. Just a short "oh fyi this weekend..." is fine.

The "our team" references really do make me cringe.

The Samaritans small talk saves lives announcement (Gaby Roslin) is only scheduled in the CIS I operate until 19th November so I assume that's just a short campaign to raise awareness rather than something we'll be hearing everywhere for the next 10 years.
 
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jon0844

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Regarding the See it, say it.. announcements and only being for use at critical level. I think we're currently one level off the top and that's why they are in use. That means the blue posters (switched to red after an incident that prompts the top level status) and the announcements.

I wonder if we'll ever lower our threat level?
 

Ibex

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Regarding the See it, say it.. announcements and only being for use at critical level. I think we're currently one level off the top and that's why they are in use. That means the blue posters (switched to red after an incident that prompts the top level status) and the announcements.

I wonder if we'll ever lower our threat level?

EMT are actually using the three S's announcement incorrectly from what I remember in the guidelines (not sure if there's any copies around).

As far as the Anne recordings go, for severe threat level it's supposed to be the usual one heard "This is a security message, if you see something that doesn't look right speak to staff or text the British Transport Police on 61016 - we'll sort it. See it, say it, sorted."

Then for critical it's the thankfully lesser heard version "This is a security message, now that the threat level is critical remember your three S's. See it, say it, sorted. If you see something that doesn't look right speak to staff or text the British Transport Police on 61016 - we'll sort it. See it, say it, sorted."

I can't see the threat level decreasing any time soon.
 

Bikeman78

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Also at Bath Spa and Taunton now (possibly more)
Oh joy, must be a GWR thing. How stupid do they think people are? I used to hurtle up and down the stairs at school two at a time. Occasionally I'd misjudge and fall down a few but it wasn't terminal.
 

vlad

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I heard an automated announcement at Bournville today which (paraphrased) said that passengers should stand behind the yellow line for safety reasons. The problem is that there is no yellow line at Bournville. :s
 

Parallel

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Oh joy, must be a GWR thing. How stupid do they think people are? I used to hurtle up and down the stairs at school two at a time. Occasionally I'd misjudge and fall down a few but it wasn't terminal.
I know right. Earlier I walked up the stairs and didn’t use the hand rail. Next, I'll be doing my own stunts!

In all seriousness, these announcements about the stairs are awful and should have never been approved.
 

edwin_m

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My least favourite is the announcements, posters, holograms etc that exhort people not to use the escalators with luggage. I can see the point of discouraging those with massive cases, but if everyone with any item of luggage took the request literally they would overwhelm the lift capacity at many stations.
 

johntea

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Crikey!

Went from Leeds to Huddersfield last night on a TPE, not somewhere I've been for a while

On the train itself there are now no fewer than THREE different voices doing the announcements (not including the fourth manual voice of course from a rather cheerful conductor!), you have the original female voice doing one announcement, potentially the same female voice doing another announcement but obviously recorded a lot more recently to shove in the bit about the see it, say it, sorted campaign then a male voice doing 'this train is for...' announcements!

Just to top things off, Anne now appears to be doing station announcements at Huddersfield! Which in fairness is a whole lot better than the stop and start bloke that did them previously!
 

0wley

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Really interesting topic, and something I've been debating for a while now with other colleagues.

First off, there's no real possible way to gage the utmost effectiveness of announcements, especially the automated ones with the custom sounds we're so familiar with. Although for arguments sake, let's say we concur that information is key, especially in disruption.

However, times are certainly changing and so is the way regular pax stay up to date. Out of say 100 announcements I've heard over this year, i couldn't resight one back at you (well, apart from See it, Say It), and here's a kicker, I'm one of the people who DO those announcements. What I will say is silly about the article is the idea of ridding auto and going manual. The auto announcements are a kick from alterations made (be it Tyrell or LICC etc) so is the single handed first call on any change. If we were to go manual with it all, you're relying on station staff being super attentive from messages from the Control Room, it's bound to be slower.
I understand what Grayling is getting at, to be less robotic, more human, however when there is so much pressure to get the information out there there is nothing faster than a CIS Operator making a change and kicking out the Auto PA.

But what I will say, and this is only my own personal opinion (not employer) as i agree the auto announcements are fairly dross and a bit white noise. Most peak pax have heads in their phones and headphones on anyway. From my experience, the fastest and most efficient (human!) way people get their info is via Twitter. Sounds funny saying human about Social Media however we'll always reply to pax individually and in a human tone. When I do have to set an announcement I will try and tactfully use alternate language to get people to pay attention, try and be more human and upbeat, i'll essentially talk in pose just so it isn't wooden.

Couple of ideas i've batted around to make the whole thing better (vice announcements)
1) Push Notifications (for the tech savvy). Get pax to choose their regular commute train, a push notification is sent in disruption or delay (as soon as alteration is made in Control Room).
2) Live mapping - open up headcodes into an American subway style, so you KNOW your train is the eg 1G12 - or the 'G Train' (in a less headcodey way!), let pax physically see where their train is as opposed to relying on an often inaccurate tracking delay minutes. (Also see the latest Worldline changes, CIS indicators with "your train is currently between xxx and xxx - it's gone down well!)
3) Keep announcements for Hub stations - not all of us are tech savvy, so ensure the hubs maintain the auto posts as they get the biggest footfall. If you only heard it at a London terminal if might end up being less annoying(?).

What I don't think will change is the security side of things, there is a duty in this culture now to be extra cautious and announcements do the job, even though most of us may switch off (this includes the escalator safety stuff).

I think it's certainly time to reassess announcements, or maybe try and new tact in delivery. With so much progress with technology as late I wouldn't be surprised to see this change sooner rather than later, the RDG are certainly trying to push change and Worldline are getting quite innovative.

That's enough typing for a night shift...
 

the Rat

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Time was that one of my great pleasures in life was to arrive at my departing station early, wander to the end of the platform and have a ciggie whilst enjoying the ambience of the station. The ciggies have long gone from both my life and the station, but the ambience remained until a few years ago when the steady increase in announcements became intrusive.

Whilst waiting at Plymouth recently, I counted no fewer than 8 different announcents in a 45 minute period, and the worst thing is, some of them are really poorly written and end up being far longer than they need to be. "Customers are reminded to mind the gap", instead of simply "Please mind the gap". Not only is this patronising to those of us who've mastered the skills required to 'deal with a gap', it actually implies that we are then stupid enough to forget what we've learned! Aaarghh!

Let's hope a little sanity and common sense prevail in a world going slowly bonkers. And now for my medication...
 

dcbwhaley

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Time was that one of my great pleasures in life was to arrive at my departing station early, wander to the end of the platform and have a ciggie whilst enjoying the ambience of the station. The ciggies have long gone from both my life and the station, but the ambience remained until a few years ago when the steady increase in announcements became intrusive.

Whilst waiting at Plymouth recently, I counted no fewer than 8 different announcents in a 45 minute period, and the worst thing is, some of them are really poorly written and end up being far longer than they need to be. "Customers are reminded to mind the gap", instead of simply "Please mind the gap". Not only is this patronising to those of us who've mastered the skills required to 'deal with a gap', it actually implies that we are then stupid enough to forget what we've learned! Aaarghh!

Let's hope a little sanity and common sense prevail in a world going slowly bonkers. And now for my medication...

I find the announcements which warn that snow is slippery very useful. That is something that, every winter, I forget. And using 50% of the time on the screens to reinforce that message, instead of displaying train times, is very useful to passengers.
 

the Rat

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I find the announcements which warn that snow is slippery very useful. That is something that, every winter, I forget. And using 50% of the time on the screens to reinforce that message, instead of displaying train times, is very useful to passengers.

Actually, when you put it like that, perhaps I was being unreasonable. Maybe we should forget about running a railway and simply focus on health and safety in respect of the weather!!
 

Pakenhamtrain

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Couple of ideas i've batted around to make the whole thing better (vice announcements)
1) Push Notifications (for the tech savvy). Get pax to choose their regular commute train, a push notification is sent in disruption or delay (as soon as alteration is made in Control Room).
Our operator has an app that does just that:
2aN9v0d.jpg

Out goes an alert when a train is cancelled or altered along with delays on a line.
2) Live mapping - open up headcodes into an American subway style, so you KNOW your train is the eg 1G12 - or the 'G Train' (in a less headcodey way!), let pax physically see where their train is as opposed to relying on an often inaccurate tracking delay minutes. (Also see the latest Worldline changes, CIS indicators with "your train is currently between xxx and xxx - it's gone down well!)
You could do what we do with the PTV app and the Tramtracker app.
cSRDgt3.jpg

You can select the station/bus stop/tram stop and up comes the info.
9hGVhiq.jpg

DF0MSea.jpg
 
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Interesting article, once again involving the mystery that is Chris Grayling. He's now wanting to remove automated PA announcements as paasengsda find them irritating and repetitive.

While I do agree about the latter, man-made PA's are often inaudible, and I doubt they'd be PRM-TSI compliant.

Regardless, the article is here, and quoted below:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rail-passengers-to-be-rid-of-platform-announcements-zbjgmm2gf
Totally off-topic but how do you get that RailMiles display?
 

Adrian635

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I'm not sure it is. Much as ATOS Annie sounds dreary as anything, her intonation is extremely clear and the information is generally accurate.
I think Atos Anne sounds absolutely amazing and she's my favourite announcer of the ones I've heard so far.
 

AlexNL

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I'm also a fan of Anne. Her voice is clear, sounds natural, it's pleasant to listen to and seems to work well for all sorts of messages.
 

Spartacus

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They need to do something about the announcements at Huddersfield: long winded announcements about every TPE service being late ALL THE BLOODY TIME! You can easily get two or three different ones for the same train as the minutes lateness change, full volume all over the station, I was there for a little over 10 minutes and felt it was akin to a form of torture!
 

whhistle

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Regarding the See it, say it.. announcements and only being for use at critical level. I think we're currently one level off the top and that's why they are in use.

I wonder if we'll ever lower our threat level?
It's been that way for a long time now.
People don't care what the threat is these days because it's just "usual".

The criteria for different levels of threat should be changed as, like you suggest, we'll never really lower it now.
 

mpthomson

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It's been that way for a long time now.
People don't care what the threat is these days because it's just "usual".

The criteria for different levels of threat should be changed as, like you suggest, we'll never really lower it now.

No they shouldn't. There are an awful lot of people on this board who are extremely naïve and complacent about this. Those of us who understand as we work within it or have reason to know what the current threat actually is would strongly disagree. It's worth reminding people that the last successfully initiated IED in the UK (even if it was incompetently designed) was on a mass transit rail system. That it didn't kill a significant number of people was down to a faulty build and nothing else. There was also a viable device found on a train at broadly the same time. It's still a significant threat.
 

Bikeman78

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Couple of ideas i've batted around to make the whole thing better (vice announcements)

2) Live mapping - open up headcodes into an American subway style, so you KNOW your train is the eg 1G12 - or the 'G Train' (in a less headcodey way!), let pax physically see where their train is as opposed to relying on an often inaccurate tracking delay minutes. (Also see the latest Worldline changes, CIS indicators with "your train is currently between xxx and xxx - it's gone down well!)
Quite a few stations have these already. They're primarily for staff but any passenger that understands headcodes can use them. Of the top of my head they have them at Swindon, Gatwick and King's Cross. No doubt lots of other places too. Another option for anyone with a smartphone is opentraintimes.
 

Bikeman78

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No they shouldn't. There are an awful lot of people on this board who are extremely naïve and complacent about this. Those of us who understand as we work within it or have reason to know what the current threat actually is would strongly disagree. It's worth reminding people that the last successfully initiated IED in the UK (even if it was incompetently designed) was on a mass transit rail system. That it didn't kill a significant number of people was down to a faulty build and nothing else. There was also a viable device found on a train at broadly the same time. It's still a significant threat.
I guess you mean Parsons Green? I can't believe that people stood metres away filming it on their phones.

I don't really know what difference "see it, say it, sorted" is supposed to make. If some idiot stands next to me on a tube train with a device in their rucksack, how am I supposed to know until it's too late? Anyway, I'm more likely to be killed in a car crash.
 

Pigeon

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Utter scaremongering rubbish. From someone who apparently has an institutional investment in the idea and for some reason thinks that means their words should be given more weight, instead of the Mandy Rice-Davies response.

The incident you refer to was over ten years ago. I and no doubt many others on here can remember when the IRA were popping things off all the time, and they were actually competent at it too - yet there was far less whining and mithering about it. The real "threat level" is way down on what it used to be. It's just that the threat level going down has been accompanied by a massive increase in the propagandist attempts to foster paranoia about it. Fortunately - as can be seen from other responses in this thread - we are beginning to get to the stage where the propaganda stops working because people are fed up with hearing it.

It's not a case of being "naive and complacent". It's a case of being aware that the chance of being killed in a terrorist attack is less than the chance of dying from an accident getting out of bed. Or from any of innumerable other everyday events that go wrong so rarely nobody considers the possibility at all.

It's also a case of being angry that the propaganda and "security" rubbish plays right into the terrorists' hands but the people disseminating it are apparently too dim to see this. Terrorists' aim is to cause disruption. But actual terroristing isn't very effective; the disruption that it does cause is very limited in all three of time, space and scope. Being able to sit around and do nothing for years on end while the target government messes people around in the name of "security" and does your job for you must be absolute jam for them. The more people fret about an insignificant risk the more the terrorists win.
 

whhistle

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There are an awful lot of people on this board who are extremely naïve and complacent about this.
Yep, but the point still stands.
We're in a constant state of "critical" and will be, perhaps forever now. So people will be complacent towards it as it's now the norm.
 
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