Are there any male automated announcements on trains?

[bramling]

The Phil Sayer announcements at Waterloo (Bakerloo southbound) are a perfect example of authority without sounding like a 30s voice over.

You wouldn’t have liked my local station in the 90s when it was all manual announcements. Both of the regular supervisors were proper “old school” railwaymen, and they absolutely boomed through the PA when announcing trains pretty much as Peter Lodge does at Enbankment. No scope for not hearing or misunderstanding. Now we have the awful Anne announcements instead, which are hardly an improvement, and are pretty useless during disruption as well. Isn’t progress wonderful.

 

[Krokodil]

The railway's inability to get the volume of annoucements right to be heard over ambient noise, but not be startling, mystifies me. Automated ones are far better in general than 'live' ones - is there no indication on the handsets of the volume for users? So often an automated announcement will play, at normal volume, and then the same annoucement is, annoyingly, made by the crew but so softly as to be inaudible and therefore cause consternation. The railway is its own worst enemy in this regard.

Microphones can vary wildly between units, even within the same class.

 

[800301]

Interestingly the male voice on platforms (‘Roger’ I believe?) has not recorded Marsh Barton and as such it is spliced from two different stations (presumably Moreton-in-Marsh/Dilton Marsh and something else) so sounds very disjointed and unnatural.

Speaking of Moreton-In-Marsh and that line, Worcestershire Parkway is announced on IET’s by a male voice since the station opened, although I’ve been assured that it will soon be updated to the correct female announcement pending new TMS updates

 

[tom1649]

The Piccadilly Line 1973 stock had a male announcer when it was first refurbished. It only triggered when the driver entered one of the codes, so it wasn't heard very often.

 

[northwichcat]

Northern 195s and 331s seem to have swapped to a Yorkshire man

"Welcome aboard this northern service t'Manchester Airport"

Preferred the previous woman

All their on board annoucements have included a male voice for a number of years. On the Sprinters a female voice makes the next station announcement, promptly following by the male voice warning about the platform gap, and if it's a big station, a line about retaining tickets for inspection and to report anything suspicious to BTP.

 

[J-2739]

All their on board annoucements have included a male voice for a number of years. On the Sprinters a female voice makes the next station announcement, promptly following by the male voice warning about the platform gap, and if it's a big station, a line about retaining tickets for inspection and to report anything suspicious to BTP.

But on the Civities, that system appears to have been dispensed with.

 

[Goldfish62]

[deleted]

 

[coradiafan2000]

I can only remember Transpennine using a primary male voice.

I was slightly disappointed when I boarded a 195 last week and heard a new male voice. I quite liked the previous female voice, It was upbeat in a way that wasn't grating like the GWR voice is. Is this the norm on all Northern services now?

Speaking of that previous Northern voice, a few months ago I was on a Lincoln- Leeds service and when listing the station calls "Worksop" was yelled at twice the volume of the other stations. It made me jump out of my skin but certainly reminded me to get off there! Has that happened on any other services or was it just a glitch on that particular set?

 

[Purple Train]

I can only remember Transpennine using a primary male voice.

I was slightly disappointed when I boarded a 195 last week and heard a new male voice. I quite liked the previous female voice, It was upbeat in a way that wasn't grating like the GWR voice is. Is this the norm on all Northern services now?

Speaking of that previous Northern voice, a few months ago I was on a Lincoln- Leeds service and when listing the station calls "Worksop" was yelled at twice the volume of the other stations. It made me jump out of my skin but certainly reminded me to get off there! Has that happened on any other services or was it just a glitch on that particular set?

I seem to recall the same thing happening to me on my last Lincoln-Sheffield journey.
The Julie Berry GA announcements on 720s make me laugh as the terminating station is announced much deeper and at twice the volume. Makes it sound very sinister.

 

[FOH]

When first introducted, the SWT 'Desiro' fleet used Phil Sayer. He was soon replaced by Celia Drummond but she too has now been replaced.

I really hated when the voice was changed. The man's voice sounded so clear and great continuity between the words. When it changed to the female voice it sounded robotic and like different bits of pitch and length were spliced together

 

[humbersidejim]

The voice of TPE, Hull Trains and Lumo is a former radio presenter who is now a driver. And very good (at both) he is, too.

 

[stadler]

There has been a lot of male onboard voices. Probably more than station voices. But they are certainly not as common as female voices.

Here is a list (broken down by if they voice the main announcements or just the safety and additional announcements) of some onboard male voices:

MAIN ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• The FGE and ONE class 317/321/360 male voice - used on the 317/321/360 between 2004 to 2008

• The Heathrow Connect class 360 male voice - used on the Heathrow Connect 360 between 2004 to 2008

• The Heathrow Express class 360 male voice - used on the Inter Terminal Transfer shuttle (T123 to T4) between 2012 to 2014

• The SWT 458/0 male voice - used on the SWT 458/0 between when they were introduced and when they got converted to five car units

• Martin Oldfield - used on the Northern Rail class 333 between when they were introduced and now - although he is being replaced soon

• Nick (driver based at Arnos Grove depot) - used on the LU 1973 Stock between 1996 to 2006

• Neil Rudd - used onboard the TPE 185/397/802/MK5 trains

• Peter Corley - used on the Northern Rail class 195/331 (alongside Laura Palmer who does the safety announcements) since a few months ago - being rolled out to all other classes

• Phil Sayer - used on the SWT 170/444/450 from when they were introduced to 2006

• Michael Comyn - used onboard all Irish Rail trains for the English announcements

• Malachy Mckenna - used onboard all Irish Rail trains for the Irish announcements

• Mark Bryant - used onboard the current Tyne & Wear Metro trains

• Eryl Jones - used onboard the TFW 197/231/398/756/MK4 for the Welsh announcements

• Nicholas Owen - used on the Croydon Tram between 2006 and now (alongside Theo Spring who does the safety and additional info announcements)

• Ray Brooks - used on the Croydon Tram between 2000 and 2006

• Bryan Lyndop - the previous Blackpool Tram onboard voice

• Andy Mitchell - the current Blackpool Tram onboard voice

• The LU 1986 Stock Male Voice - these trains had both a male voice and a female voice who both did the main announcements

SAFETY AND SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Michael Meech - used on the LU 1996 Stock for safety and special announcements between 1997 to 2017

• Adrian Hieatt - used on the LU 1973 Stock and LU 1995 Stock for "See It Say It Sort It" announcements between 2022 and now

• Dan Akers - used on the LU S Stock for "Mind The Gap" announcements between 2015 and now

• Matthew Streeton - used on TL/SE/GN 700/707/717 for "Mind The Gap" and "Short Platform" announcements and on the C2C 357/387/720 for "See It Say It Sort It" announcements

• Phil Sayer - used on the LU S Stock for the "Mind The Gap" announcements between 2013 to 2015 and on the Midland Metro CAF Civity Tram for the safety announcements between when they were introduced and now

• David Sheppard - currently used on the GWR 150 158 165 166 387 800 802 MK3 for the safety announcements

• Johnny Ball - currently used on the GC 180 for the safety announcements

• Avanti and LNER Male Voice - used on 390/800/801 for the safety announcements

• Northern Rail Male Voice - used on the 150 153 155 156 158 170 319 321 322 323 769 (previously on the 195 331 too for the safety announcements (alongside Trisha Jarman who does the main announcements) - being replaced soon though

• Scotrail Male Voice - used on the 156 158 170 314 318 320 334 for the safety announcements between 2002 to 2006

There are probably some other voices i have forgotten as well.

I believe the Sheffield Supertram has also had lots of past and present male voices - Jon Rand / Gerard Fletcher / Jeff Cooper / Paul Timmins / Andy Pope - used onboard their trams.

I think generally TOCs seem to prefer male voices for the safety announcements and female voices for the main announcements but there are some exceptions to this.

 

[exbrel]

in my eyes male and female are accurate... as per the Oxford Dictionary also the Cambridge dictionary...

 

[ThisIsSurbiton]

Nottingham's buses use David Lloyd, who has a perfect voice for this, sounding a little like a chummier Phil Sayer, but as I'm much more used to his radio work I keep expecting him to introduce a song or tell us the news! I'm surprised we don't get more broadcasters and particularly news people doing this work

 

[Parjon]

I know that there are various automated announcers with male voices used at stations, but I've never come across one on a train. Are there any, and if not, why not?

Yes. On Northern. Out of Liverpool Lime Street we have heard a male Geordie with some curious vernacular, and also a ridiculous pastiche of a male down-the-mines supposedly-northern accent that tells us our train is going "Tut" Blackpool North. Or "Tut" Wigan Northwestern. At every stop.

I can only assume male voices are less common because they apparently can't speak properly.

TPE use a male voice for most (all?) automated announcements (at least on the 397’s which I use).

There's also the auto-woman with the sore throat that threatens you about traveling with the wrong ticket.

 

[BeccaOnATrain]

The new Northern announcer has an extraordinarily Northern accent! It took me by surprise when I first heard the latest one. Not sure when they changed it?

 

[stadler]

The new Northern announcer has an extraordinarily Northern accent! It took me by surprise when I first heard the latest one. Not sure when they changed it?

They changed it at the end of May and beginning of June so about two months ago. It used to be Trisha Jarman who was a professional voice over artist. Now they have Peter Corley (for the main announcements) and Laura Palmer (for the safety announcements) who are both Northern staff members. So far only the 195 and 331 have changed. But they have plans to switch over the other classes over the next few months. But i agree Peter Corley certainly has a very strong Northern accent. Peter Corley has a much stronget accent than the previous announcers.

 

[Parjon]

I can only remember Transpennine using a primary male voice.

I was slightly disappointed when I boarded a 195 last week and heard a new male voice. I quite liked the previous female voice, It was upbeat in a way that wasn't grating like the GWR voice is. Is this the norm on all Northern services now?

Speaking of that previous Northern voice, a few months ago I was on a Lincoln- Leeds service and when listing the station calls "Worksop" was yelled at twice the volume of the other stations. It made me jump out of my skin but certainly reminded me to get off there! Has that happened on any other services or was it just a glitch on that particular set?

Apparently any station that starts with a W.

 

[stadler]

Apparently any station that starts with a W.

Yes there was an issue before where the volume would increase massively for all stations beginning with a "W" but it only seemed to be on the 195 and 331 trains. The other classes were not affected. Anyway the issue is gone now as they have changed the voices on the 195 and 331 so that seems to have fixed the issue.