On London Overground the announcements on the trains say the stations correctly especially Brondesbury and Brondesbury Park. But when your either at Richmond or Clapham Junction they say Bron-des-bury park and Bron-des-bury obvious that the automated announcement came from someone who was reading off a script. I also note that Imperial Wharf station which opened last September is still not announced at Clapham Junction.
Celia, the female voice, pronounces a lot of places incorrectly. A lot of West Midlands stations were re-recorded when she became an addition at Birmingham New Street because some of them were so far wrong as mentioned above.
A few years ago, South West Trains were keen to sort out 'Micheldever' but it is still incorrect to this day - in case you're wondering the correct pronunciation is 'devver', not 'deever' as she says it (although she is correct on board the trains). Several stations in the Southampton area are also incorrect...
On the other hand, Phil - the male voice - pronounces most places in the south correctly. There are a few minor quibbles such as not making the first 'd' in 'Guildford' silent but are generally more accurate than Celia.
Phil also reported on another forum that as soon as he was made aware that he pronounced a place incorrectly he made his own arrangements with Ditra to rectify the problem! At least he actually cares!
On the Imperial Wharf issue, it has been reported that it is in use correctly at Southern operated stations, but it would appear Clapham Junction is still missing the file. I'm surprised it's taken this long, but then again 'St Pancras International' was missing from Mitcham Junction for quite some time too and Mitcham Eastfields opened without its own name in its system so you got, rather amusingly, '[pause] this is [pause]'.
Missing/corrupt files are, in no ways, rare.
Oh whilst im on this why do the Male announcements always say 'Stratford (London)' and the female announcement just says Stratford. Did the male person think there is going to be a different Stratford after Hackney Wick? Or did he think Startford was in Essex? as the only other Stratford i know is Stratford upon Avon.
This is an interesting one and I've often wondered if the scripts given to both Phil and Celia to record were different or whether it was the choice of Ditra which one to use. I suspect both have recorded both 'Stratford' and 'Stratford London' and then a conscious choice was made as to which one to use in each case.
Stratford is not the only example either. Whitchurch is 'Whitchurch' for Phil and 'Whitchurch Hampshire' for Celia (I would then assume that Phil announces the county for the other one but Celia doesn't... or maybe not! Who knows?). Likewise it's 'Wellington Shropshire' for Phil but just 'Wellington' for Celia.
When you say track circuits, do you mean those 'yellow rectangular grills' on the track as you approach a station or have I lost you??
