Anne station Announcements

[Malcolmffc]

I've reason to believe Newcastle has gone automatic - probably because of staff shortages due to you-know-what.

The RMT?

 

[londonmidland]

I've reason to believe Newcastle has gone automatic - probably because of staff shortages due to you-know-what.

LNER has a rolling program of installing automated announcements at their stations. COVID-19 is unrelated to this. Anne has been announcing at York for a few months now.

The bigger managed stations will have Anne, and the smaller stations will be announced by Matt*

*unconfirmed regarding Matt at this moment.

 

[Parallel]

The bigger managed stations will have Anne, and the smaller stations will be announced by Matt*

*unconfirmed regarding Matt at this moment.

That’s interesting, considering he’s a GTR employee. That said, I prefer Matt to ‘Mike’ and Rodger. But I do prefer Ruth over Anne.

 

[route101]

Last time i was in Newcastle, in December , was still manual .

 

[DJ_K666]

I thought she sounded llike a right moody cow when I first heard her at Kings Cross a few years back

The best one I heard was about 15 years ago at Milton Keynes.
Sounded like Boycey from Only Fools, I was thinking they had John Challis chained to a desk in some room announcing trains..

The-ah next-ah train-ah....

 

[gimmea50anyday]

I can confirm Anne is now the voice at both York and Newcastle. Durham currently isn’t making any PA announcements at the moment, I assume this is only temporary tho

 

[Pete_uk]

Northern should roll out Rodger to complement Celia? which would be ideal on stations which have departures that are within a minute of each other on different platforms.

I have always liked the idea that each service or platform having its own voice to help with identification.

A separate voice for security and nagging announcements would allow you to ignore them more easily

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Phil Sayer was a professional voiceover artist afaik. So thought she might be as well. Well I suppose really, she is. But it seems unknown whether she's done any other recording work other than railway announcements.

Phil Sayer was a local BBC radio presenter in the Manchester area for many years before becoming a voice-over artist. Believe that, sadly, he passed away a few years ago. Understand that Phil was married for a number of years to an Elinor Hamilton who also did voiceover work and undoubtedly also did railway station on-platform automated announcements.

Always liked the timbre of the late Oswald Laurence who recorded the automated "Mind the Gap" announcements heard on the London Underground for many a year.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Link to the Oswald Laurence story...

MIND GAP VT

This is "MIND GAP VT" by ITVLondon on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

vimeo.com

 

[Mcq]

To me, on that clip, Oswald is far cleaer - in part because he separates 'Mind' from 'the gap' and doesn't run them into one. The suplimentary 'please' on the replacement is unnecessary correctness and blurs the message.

 

[Andyh82]

Phil Sayer was a local BBC radio presenter in the Manchester area for many years before becoming a voice-over artist. Believe that, sadly, he passed away a few years ago. Understand that Phil was married for a number of years to an Elinor Hamilton who also did voiceover work and undoubtedly also did railway station on-platform automated announcements.

Always liked the timbre of the late Oswald Laurence who recorded the automated "Mind the Gap" announcements heard on the London Underground for many a year.

Here he is presenting the North West News

 

[route101]

I thought she sounded llike a right moody cow when I first heard her at Kings Cross a few years back

The best one I heard was about 15 years ago at Milton Keynes.
Sounded like Boycey from Only Fools, I was thinking they had John Challis chained to a desk in some room announcing trains..

The-ah next-ah train-ah....

The announcer at Glasgow Central sounds moody !

 

[YorksLad12]

Phil Sayer was a local BBC radio presenter in the Manchester area for many years before becoming a voice-over artist. Believe that, sadly, he passed away a few years ago. Understand that Phil was married for a number of years to an Elinor Hamilton who also did voiceover work and undoubtedly also did railway station on-platform automated announcements.

Always liked the timbre of the late Oswald Laurence who recorded the automated "Mind the Gap" announcements heard on the London Underground for many a year.

I met (and video-interviewed) Phil when he became the voice of Northern. Died in 2016.

Elinor Hamilton was the voice of the Underground I thought, although I think she was replaced after making some comedy announcements for someone else, which seems like overkill. Romantic that I am, it pleases me to think that Elinor is doing the station stop announcements while Phil does "Mind the gap" and similar.

On TPE: now that they take the faster route between Manchester and Liverpool, Leeds passengers no longer get to hear "Liverpool South Parkway" expressed one octave lower than the rest of the station calls. She makes up for it with "Low Moor" though. In the beginning she couldn't pronounce "Keighley" at all ("Keith-ly", for anyone who doesn't know).

Also on TPE: did no-one else find it odd that services mostly in the north of England had on-train announcements done by a woman from the midlands? Most noticeable when she talked about "luggage and other heavy oitims"

 

[CW2]

For many years the "Mind the Gap" announcements on the Piccadilly Line were done by actor Tim Bentinck, best known for his radio 4 role as David Archer in The Archers.

 

[johntea]

A rather amusing video of Phil Sayer from 2009 when he rocked up at Bradford Interchange with a megaphone when they were promoting CIS upgrades

The man now standing...

His dulcet tones are well known to millions of rail passengers. Now people in Bradford have had the chance to put a face to the voice of station announcements.

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk

 

[BJames]

I met (and video-interviewed) Phil when he became the voice of Northern. Died in 2016.

Elinor Hamilton was the voice of the Underground I thought, although I think she was replaced after making some comedy announcements for someone else, which seems like overkill. Romantic that I am, it pleases me to think that Elinor is doing the station stop announcements while Phil does "Mind the gap" and similar.

Elinor Hamilton still voices these announcements: "Victoria Line: The train now approaching is to Walthamstow Central. Please stand back from the platform edge." And occasionally I used to hear "Northern Line: The next train to Mordern via Bank will arrive in 2 minutes. Next station: Belsize Park."

Emma Clarke was the underground announcer who did the comedy announcements, you can hear them here:

You can hear Emma Clarke's actual announcements here: https://emmaclarke.com/voiceover-demos/london-underground/

She was the Victoria Line and (correct me if I'm wrong) I believe still in the Bakerloo and Central lines.

In terms of Anne, I'd always wanted to see what she looks like, just to match a face to the name. I quite like the announcements at Liverpool Street, Victoria, Paddington etc, but seen people say her pronounciation is off elsewhere in the country... I'll have to listen out for the different announcers next time I head up north.

 

[YorksLad12]

A rather amusing video of Phil Sayer from 2009 when he rocked up at Bradford Interchange with a megaphone when they were promoting CIS upgrades

The man now standing...

His dulcet tones are well known to millions of rail passengers. Now people in Bradford have had the chance to put a face to the voice of station announcements.

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk

That's the very event I referred to in my earlier post. He graciously allowed me to test my camera and interviewing skills out on him afterwards (pro tip: don't do it next to a diesel train about to depart). The megaphone was his idea!

 

[route101]

When were Anne announements introduced?

 

[northernchris]

When were Anne announements introduced?

I seem to think Leeds gained them just after the station upgrade, so early 2000s.

In the beginning she couldn't pronounce "Keighley" at all ("Keith-ly", for anyone who doesn't know).

She also mis-pronounced Frizinghall initially. I remember when the system was first introduced at Leeds it sounded awful, but now I think Anne is the best of the recorded announcements

Anne also has different ways of saying places depending on the station. At Leeds, Meadowhall is pronounced as spelt, but at Sheffield it's more Medderhall.

 

[py_megapixel]

Anne also has different ways of saying places depending on the station. At Leeds, Meadowhall is pronounced as spelt, but at Sheffield it's more Medderhall.

She does, and in some places they're both flawed. For example, there are two "Manchester Piccadilly" recordings, one of which has a disconcerting pause before it and one of which is lower pitched than the rest of the script for some reason.

However, despite this, the system still conveys the required information, which means that theoretically it's fine. It could be better of course but it works.

 

[YorksLad12]

Oh, they're definitely better than they used to be (although someone could have checked local pronunciations before deployment - I think she gets "Slaithwaite" correct, anyway), which is why "Liverpool South Parkway" and "Low Moor" sound so tacked-on.

 

[londonmidland]

When Anne announces Liverpool Lime Street with a via point included, the included audio clip is distorted, so it sounds like "Liver'pl Lime Street"

 

[apinnard]

I remember the class 360’s when first introduced by FGE in the mid 2000’s. The bloke who did the announcements on those sounded like a propa Essex boy.

 

[Lloyds siding]

I was at school with Phil Sayer, not in the same class, but in the same year. Always got on well with him...he was a lot of fun....especially on days out from school. It took me years before I realised that the guy presenting the North West News was him...this was because he'd changed his name, voice and appearance! There's a video of Phil and his wife Elinor on YouTube doing their voices.

 

[prod_pep]

The Anne voice has had several mispronunciations, some of which haven't been sorted, some which have. One of her worst is Euxton Balshaw Lane, originally wrongly pronounced 'Yookst'n' but later corrected to 'Ext'n' at most stations, although not in the more recently introduced VT ones. I'm fairly sure Balshaw is pronounced 'Bolshaw' as well, as it is on Northern's on-train announcements.

Beyond that, Alvechurch has always annoyed me as the 'e' should be silent. She also pronounces the full 'stone' in a number of cases where it should be reduced as well, e.g. Shenstone and Atherstone.

Although I will credit her for at least getting Slaithwaite right.

 

[Parallel]

On TPE: now that they take the faster route between Manchester and Liverpool, Leeds passengers no longer get to hear "Liverpool South Parkway" expressed one octave lower than the rest of the station calls. She makes up for it with "Low Moor" though. In the beginning she couldn't pronounce "Keighley" at all ("Keith-ly", for anyone who doesn't know).

I think her voice is quite a lot deeper than it used to be but I think ATOS speed up/pitch shift most of her new recordings so they flow better. There are some exceptions like ‘Low Moor’ and ‘Liverpool South Parkway’, and also ‘Dore and Totley’ at Manchester Piccadilly. Also, most of her generic bits from SWR’s version of the CIS. She’s not a professional voice over artist and people’s voices naturally change over time, and her original recordings can’t be far off being 20 years old now.

In terms of Anne, I'd always wanted to see what she looks like, just to match a face to the name. I quite like the announcements at Liverpool Street, Victoria, Paddington etc, but seen people say her pronounciation is off elsewhere in the country... I'll have to listen out for the different announcers next time I head up north.

There is a small photo of Anne here, about a third of the way down on the page.

Anne also has different ways of saying places depending on the station. At Leeds, Meadowhall is pronounced as spelt, but at Sheffield it's more Medderhall.

All ATOS voices use three recordings for each station: start of sentence, middle of sentence and end of sentence. It’s more noticeable with some voices than others. Also, some TOCs use different versions of Anne, GWR definitely use a bespoke version. Then you get mispronunciations corrected and phrases added on a local basis too, so the system varies a lot! She says ‘Lan dud no’ at Manchester Airport, yet ‘Llan did no’ at Piccadilly!

 

[py_megapixel]

All ATOS voices use three recordings for each station: start of sentence, middle of sentence and end of sentence. It’s more noticeable with some voices than others.

Yes that's true. And I believe that all stations have all three recordings, even if they are unused (i.e, end-of-sentence recordings for many stations are never used but still exist). Possibly someone more familiar with the system can back me up on this.

 

[Parallel]

Yes that's true. And I believe that all stations have all three recordings, even if they are unused (i.e, end-of-sentence recordings for many stations are never used but still exist). Possibly someone more familiar with the system can back me up on this.

End of sentence recordings should exist for all stations regardless of how often they’re used, unless there’s either a bug with the system, or the voice over doesn’t do the inflection well. Anne’s ‘Barrow in Furness?’ and Ruth’s ‘Shrewsburyyy!’ are ones that stand out for me.

 

[DJ_K666]

Does anyone remember the woman at York who used to (iirc) announce the trains live but in a really weird sing-song voice?

 

[greaterwest]

And I believe that all stations have all three recordings, even if they are unused

Can confirm, unless it was missed during recording, all stations should have all 3 recordings.