Are too loud and too many PRM alarms and announcements making travellers uptight.....

[trainophile]

So how many passengers for Shrewsbury over-dossed, ended up at Crewe and then complained about the lack of announcements?

None to my knowledge. I imagine the guard would have kept his eye on that possibility during his ticket checks.

 

[Alanko]

I was surprised by how talkative the 385s were, on my first few journeys on them. I don't really hear it any more, so I hope they don't add any useful information into the blurb as I will miss it.

The most annoying element of the 285 is the blurb you get approaching Haymarket. The voice says something like "Change here for bus and tram services to Edinburgh Airport". The edit in this recorded speech is really jarring. I assume they've recycled the speech from elsewhere. You end up hearing "Change T'ear for the bus and tram service" which the edited in section being delivered in a louder and more strident tone of voice. The edit adds a percussive sound to the front of 'hear' which, once you notice it, gets into your head a bit. Or maybe it is just me.

 

[Tracked]

Recently the announcements on the East Midlands HST I get in a morning seem to have been a lot louder, loud to the point that they're more than just distracting (at 6:30 in a morning). Quite often it sounds like the gain on the mic's been turned up so far that it's picking up lots of background noise as well as the conductor, which frequently makes the message unclear amid the carriage noise in the background.

Mind you, have been on a couple of Northern's finest Bouncy Bus Seat's in the last few weeks where the same had been done

 

[TUC]

I had a blissful TfW journey from Hereford to Crewe on bank holiday Monday this week. Granted it was the 0649 departure, and most people would have been half asleep (and there was only a couple of dozen on the train), but there wasn't a single onboard announcement, not even on approach to the interchanges at Shrewsbury or Crewe.

It wasn't through lack of staff attention - the guard was very diligent and walked through after each station checking tickets. I'm just grateful he didn't feel the need to keep broadcasting over the PA.

That’s really unhelpful for passengers unfamiliar with the route isn’t It?

 

[ptreanor]

Automated announcement heard on a recent GWR West Country service approaching Reading, "change here for Bournemouth, Gatwick Airport and Oxford". Surely such people are on the wrong train!

 

[BluePenguin]

Automated announcement heard on a recent GWR West Country service approaching Reading, "change here for Bournemouth, Gatwick Airport and Oxford". Surely such people are on the wrong train!

Why would that be? You can get to all of these places by changing at Reading

 

[anamyd]

Recently the announcements on the East Midlands HST I get in a morning seem to have been a lot louder, loud to the point that they're more than just distracting (at 6:30 in a morning). Quite often it sounds like the gain on the mic's been turned up so far that it's picking up lots of background noise as well as the conductor, which frequently makes the message unclear amid the carriage noise in the background.

Mind you, have been on a couple of Northern's finest Bouncy Bus Seat's in the last few weeks where the same had been done

Pacers seem to have narrowest bandwidth mics ever. Phones are apparently better quality! So much of the frequency range of those 4" speakers is unused, that even if it was, it would only loosely be termed "bass" and "treble".

 

[Dr_Paul]

Yay! The last few times I've travelled up to London on South-Western services, there has been not one 'Sorted' announcement over the tannoy.

 

[py_megapixel]

The new Northern 195s now have a wide vocabulary for their toilet, including:

• "Door opening"
• "Door closing"
  
• "Lock the door!"
• "Door locked"
• "Door unlocked"

I suspect that regular users will come to hate the seat next to the toilet for this reason.

 

[yorkie]

Why would that be? You can get to all of these places by changing at Reading

I assume @ptreanor meant a train going to the West Country, in which case I agree with you regarding Oxford and Bournemouth, but I agree with @ptreanor that it makes no sense to advertise Gatwick in this direction. That said, these trains are used on services that call at Slough, and it's probably not very practicable to differentiate the announcements depending on the calling points of previous stations.

 

[Tracked]

The new Northern 195s now have a wide vocabulary for their toilet, including:

• "Door opening"
• "Door closing"
  
• "Lock the door!"
• "Door locked"
• "Door unlocked"

I suspect that regular users will come to hate the seat next to the toilet for this reason.

It's when they add:

"I'd give it 10 minutes if I were you"

that it'll get really annoying

 

[anamyd]

It's when they add:

"I'd give it 10 minutes if I were you"

that it'll get really annoying

 

[Dr_Paul]

It's when they add:

"I'd give it 10 minutes if I were you"

that it'll get really annoying

Well, they could have that line from The Royle Family, 'Take my advice, nobody go in that lavatory for at least half an hour.'

 

[brad465]

One annoying thing about the PRM alarm changes I find is that they've replaced every sound often where it wasn't necessary to, if volume is all that matters. From Southeastern experiences, the old alarm sounds of Networker doors closing was the same, if not a bit louder, than 375/376/377s, but the latter is not having them done up from understanding. Networker door open noises though were quiet though so that needed a fix. Also from some GWR 165/166 use in the last year their door closing alarms seem to be quieter now than they were before the refurbishment of them, which might be good for an "annoyed ear", but if assisting hard of hearing people is the aim of changing the alarms that seems counterproductive

 

[pt_mad]

Just the way it has to be in such a health and safety focused society. The day the 'please mind the gap' announcement fails at a station that has a big gap and someone trips over and says there was no warning, well...

 

[TUC]

Just the way it has to be in such a health and safety focused society. The day the 'please mind the gap' announcement fails at a station that has a big gap and someone trips over and says there was no warning, well...

‘Mind The Gap’ is very important if you are visually impaired. My wife has had the experience of her guide dog falling onto the track.

Of course it is only helpful if it is only used where there really is a gap. Using it universally would be meaningless.

 

[TUC]

Can anyone explain why there seem to be so many upgraded Northern trains that have VDU station announcements but no automated audible announcements? Have they for some reason been fitted with visual but not audible systems or have they been turned off on some trains?

 

[Gems]

Can anyone explain why there seem to be so many upgraded Northern trains that have VDU station announcements but no automated audible announcements? Have they for some reason been fitted with visual but not audible systems or have they been turned off on some trains?

Not turned off, some staff either don't know or can't be bothered to set it up correctly. They go to the default which will offer the VDU but not audible. There is also a issue when certain units are coupled up.

Love the new Northern unit announcements in a Geordie accent.

 

[Tom B]

Just the way it has to be in such a health and safety focused society. The day the 'please mind the gap' announcement fails at a station that has a big gap and someone trips over and says there was no warning, well...

What about when someone trips over at a station with a large gap, they have heard announcements to mind the gap at other stations which had a tiny or non existent gap, so subconsciously discounted it as yet another pointless announcement?

 

[TUC]

Not turned off, some staff either don't know or can't be bothered to set it up correctly. They go to the default which will offer the VDU but not audible. There is also a issue when certain units are coupled up.

Why would the default be VDU only? Surely logically the default should be for both to operate?

 

[Taunton]

Having been free of them since inception, the Docklands Light Railway has finally succumbed to "Mind the Gap" announcements, which of course have recently been found to be not verbose enough so its "Mind the Gap between the train and the platform edge" across TfL. This is despite the DLR being immaculately engineered from the start for straight platforms, perfectly level trains and no gap at all. None.

 

[py_megapixel]

Having been free of them since inception, the Docklands Light Railway has finally succumbed to "Mind the Gap" announcements, which of course have recently been found to be not verbose enough so its "Mind the Gap between the train and the platform edge" across TfL. This is despite the DLR being immaculately engineered from the start for straight platforms, perfectly level trains and no gap at all. None.

If they put "mind the gap" on lines with level boarding, they will surely cause people to regard is as meaningless waffle, including where it is necessary.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Can anyone explain why there seem to be so many upgraded Northern trains that have VDU station announcements but no automated audible announcements? Have they for some reason been fitted with visual but not audible systems or have they been turned off on some trains?

That's not my experience on the Northern refurbed 150s and 158s. At every station you get what I can only describe as a somewhat...er...simple-sounding woman telling you "This is <wherever>. The next station will be <wherever's next>" followed by a faux-chummy male voice telling you that if you're leaving the train, don't forget to take your possessions with you. You also get liberal repetition of the tiresome "see it say it sort it" nonsense that most sensible people rightly ignore.

I still don't know who exactly these announcements are for. Are there really people who get on a train at random and need to be repeatedly told where it's going? Surely anyone sensible would check that before boarding?

 

[Railman10]

If they put "mind the gap" on lines with level boarding, they will surely cause people to regard is as meaningless waffle, including where it is necessary.

I seriously believe that the frequency of trivial and unnecessary announcements at stations (especially on London Transport) causes most people to switch off concentration so that when there is an announcement in an emergency, it takes valuable seconds before people start listening. I wish the idiots who think endless announcements about using credit cards to touch in, or telling us that there is a “good“ service on all lines, or to keep ALL my belongings with me, or see it say it sort it, are a necessity, would realise that they are NOT appreciated by most passengers who find them grossly irritating!

 

[Dr_Paul]

Yay! The last few times I've travelled up to London on South-Western services, there has been not one 'Sorted' announcement over the tannoy.

I spoke too soon, didn't I? Yesterday on two South-Western services I sat down, the doors closed, the train moved off... and there was that dreaded simpering 'sorted' voice over the Tannoy.

 

[Doomotron]

I still don't know who exactly these announcements are for. Are there really people who get on a train at random and need to be repeatedly told where it's going? Surely anyone sensible would check that before boarding?

Because they're useful? I'd hate if they didn't say these things. I even find it calming to have announcements on trains, especially when it is Julie Berry speaking. If I don't hear the announcements, I will automatically think something is wrong. These announcements are especially useful when I'm far from home, when I don't know the stations or service patterns.

 

[ComUtoR]

I still don't know who exactly these announcements are for.

They are for those who need them. For whatever reason, THEY need an announcement.

Are there really people who get on a train at random and need to be repeatedly told where it's going? Surely anyone sensible would check that before boarding?

My local station has about multiple ways to get to Charing Cross. When I'm just heading into town I don't actually care which specific route I need. However, when I'm on the train; I like to know where its actually going so I can gauge arrival times, passenger loading, stopping pattern, disruption options and plain curiosity.

We also have a line where your only option is the train that turns up. However, this route splits further down the line. You want to know which service your on.

 

[43096]

Well, they could have that line from The Royle Family, 'Take my advice, nobody go in that lavatory for at least half an hour.'

Or maybe “You might want to send a canary in first.”

 

[py_megapixel]

I seriously believe that the frequency of trivial and unnecessary announcements at stations (especially on London Transport) causes most people to switch off concentration so that when there is an announcement in an emergency, it takes valuable seconds before people start listening. I wish the idiots who think endless announcements about using credit cards to touch in, or telling us that there is a “good“ service on all lines, or to keep ALL my belongings with me, or see it say it sort it, are a necessity, would realise that they are NOT appreciated by most passengers who find them grossly irritating!

I must say, when I get on a train and I'm tired, I often wish that the announcements would shut up so that I can have a peaceful journey. If it was just something like "This train is for Bristol Temple Meads; the next station is Bristol Parkway" then I could cope with that, but a full minute of non-smoking areas, suspicious luggage, familiarisation with the emergency procedures and so on is incredibly unpleasant. I get the impression that they do it to protect themselves from lawsuits over health and safety issues with an "I told you so" defence, but if there was an emergency which required specific instructions not detailed on the posters, how many passengers would just switch off because of the previous nonsense to which they had been subjected?

 

[YorksDMU]

So, despite all of these annoying announcements, there are still passengers who do not know where a train is going to. It happened last Friday on the 16.20 Scarborough to Hull service. Several passengers asked me and other passengers if it was the train for Bridlington and Hull, despite the ‘woman’ (PIS) stating clearly it was that train going to those stations.
So I don’t know what to say, except I will start using ear plugs and hope for the best.