Automatic station announcements - who decides if they should be switched off?

[deltic]

The other day I was travelling from Chelmsford to London. Sadly there had been a fatality at Whitam and the service was badly disrupted. Station staff were very good at providing a regular update of services, where they were - if they were reported full and standing and hence how long you might wait for the next train that might have some more space.

However, throughout all this were also the full range of automated announcements apologising for a train that was going from 90 to 110 minutes late to not leaving luggage unattended. The result was a continuous stream of verbiage interspersed with key real time information.

Presumably station staff can switch off automated announcements but are they allowed to do so and under what circumstances?

 

[Ibex]

It depends on whether or not the station has a CIS workstation. At my station we can do whatever we please with Dorris and frequently turn her off when there's no disruption too.
Otherwise there's no reason why they wouldn't able to ring their Control and ask them to be turned off, it's a simple tick box on the ATOS system that GA use.

 

[FQ]

I have been to Barnetby quite a few times and the first few times I went there was announcements for trains. The next time I went there was no announcements and the time I went after that there was. I didn't know why the announcements were off then as it was a bright sunny day and quite a few people were waiting.

 

[DJL]

At London Bridge automated announcements are frequently cancelled - and it sounds like the method of choice is to briefly turn on the manual announcement mic (there is always a click)

Probably 99% of these announcements are "The next train at platform 2/3 is the xx.xx to Cannon Street"

Every regular user of London Bridge knows that every* train at platform 3 (and 2 in the morning peak) is going to Cannon Street and they are every few minutes so there is really no need for that announcement - the manual announcements are far more important.

Since this same behaviour has been happening for as long as I can remember it's uprising they haven't reprogrammed it by now.

*ok - not every train - at least not during disruption. But on a "normal" day in the peak it's guaranteed.


On the subject of Announcements at London Bridge - currently platforms 3/4 have a different voice on the automated announcements to 1/2 & 5/6.
This is very useful as it allows you to a) quickly identify how relevant the announcement is to you and b) better hear it when another announcement is taking place on another platform.
I'm not aware of anywhere else that does this but I really hope they keep the same or similar arrangement when the redesign is complete.

 

[hassaanhc]

Many South West Trains stations use two different voices - Phil Sayer and some woman whose name I can't remember (same as on the trains)

 

[Parallel]

I kind of want to experience platforms 6 and 7 at Cardiff Central for automated announcements when the valley lines are heavily disrupted. Apparently they sprout a load of irrelevant information and announce that the wrong trains are arriving.

I'm not sure the name given to the female announcer that announces at Arriva Trains Wales stations (That can't pronounce Keynsham and sounds really into it when announcing ":01" ), but she's definitely different to the announcer FGW use at a lot of their stations (Ruth?).

FGW generally do three announcements before a train arrives - The first about 4 minutes before that says "Platform X for the XX:XX First Great Western service to XXXX, calling at...", a second one that says "The next train to arrive at platform x will be the xxxx First Great Western service to XXXX. This is the service from XXXX" and the third announcement happens about 30 seconds before the train arrives, and is the same as the first, unless the train has arrived early or is at the platform and then she says "The train at platform X is the..."

A little while ago I was waiting for a Weymouth bound train at Bath and the male announcer (Phil?) had just made the first announcement, and then the departure board added on two minutes, and then it must've passed the time threshold again and we got another announcement, and then the departure screen added another two minutes on and this kept going on for some time. (I assume the train was being held up at Oldfield Park). After 14 minutes and 7 announcements later, the Weymouth massif finally arrived greeted with applause by the passengers!

 

[edwin_m]

I had a very frustrating time at Cardiff Central ten or so years back when the signalling at Newport had gone down. The automated announcer was spending most of the time announcing trains that were due to make numerous stops, in two languages, but that anyone could see weren't going anywhere anytime soon. It was virtually impossible for any human being to get a word in edgeways.

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

At Preston they're permanently off, unless someone's doing a pre-recorded advertisement. (OT: Is that done elsewhere?)
There are the auto announcements of course, and until a few years back they really should have been there as the microphone was dodgy for about 5 years!

Regarding the thread itself, yes the auto announcements can be frustrating in times of disruption and Colwyn Bay often announces too early, disruption or not. Crawley's an absolute killer with auto announcements in disruption though, and let's not talk about East Croydon. I have enough faith that they're switched off when needed though!

 

[Crossover]

Yeah, even when the going was good the other week when I was at Cardiff Central there was just a barrage of bilingual announcements on 6/7 one after another!

 

[Hyphen]

Yeah, even when the going was good the other week when I was at Cardiff Central there was just a barrage of bilingual announcements on 6/7 one after another!

It's always funny watching passengers at Cardiff reacting to the announcements, especially as the Welsh tends to come first on announcements on plats 1-4*. Those who understand Welsh, or those (like me - I'm English) who use the station often enough to know how to pick out the relevant Welsh words, are much quicker at reacting to things like platform alterations. It's why I don't know any Welsh numbers higher than 7 - because there aren't any Welsh announcements which would tell me to go to a plat 8

At Newport, announcements are English first.

* I very rarely use plats 6/7, I can't remember if they also do Welsh first (or use bilingual announcements at all).

 

[Tom B]

Let's not go into the LUL ones where a "good service" may be ostensibly in operation (next train 24 minutes away). I'm told that they are centrally set and the individual station staff cannot change the display. So whilst there may be a good service advertised, a particular station may be experiencing far from that.

I pity the poor sod in a hi vi on a platform with a few hundred delayed passengers, who get more and more frustrated when that is spouted over the tannoy!

Quite aside from being misleading, people will give up listening to them if they're rubbish.

 

[causton]

Let's not go into the LUL ones where a "good service" may be ostensibly in operation (next train 24 minutes away). I'm told that they are centrally set and the individual station staff cannot change the display. So whilst there may be a good service advertised, a particular station may be experiencing far from that.

I pity the poor sod in a hi vi on a platform with a few hundred delayed passengers, who get more and more frustrated when that is spouted over the tannoy!

Quite aside from being misleading, people will give up listening to them if they're rubbish.

Indeed, LUL have strict criteria of what is a "good service" and they are obviously unwilling to change the status to delays until they absolutely have to! The criteria are somewhere online I'm sure...

Edit: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/requ...ing Service Status Criteria v1 6 11 11 11.pdf

 

[DJL]

Indeed, LUL have strict criteria of what is a "good service" and they are obviously unwilling to change the status to delays until they absolutely have to! The criteria are somewhere online I'm sure...

Edit: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/requ...ing Service Status Criteria v1 6 11 11 11.pdf

Conversely you'll often be told that there are severe delays occurring even though there is still a train every few mins as you'd expect.
It matters for the drivers but on the underground the passengers don't care how late the trains are as long as they turn up at the correct frequency! (Assuming it doesn't then take 3x longer to get to destination which is another possibility)

 

[Parallel]

At Newport, announcements are English first.

* I very rarely use plats 6/7, I can't remember if they also do Welsh first (or use bilingual announcements at all).

Yup, platform 6/7 indeed get the Welsh announcement first.

I find the announcements too quiet at Newport, especially on platform 4. Very difficult to hear when a HST is just arriving or leaving!

 

[LowLevel]

They do my head in. They're all well and good when things go to plan but the moment anything out of the ordinary occurs they can't cope.

My previous employer installed them at their stations and got rid of the station announcer role as a cost saving, having them managed centrally by one bloke in the control room. Of course the co-ordination role of the announcer during disruption was invaluable, they also did things like coordinate the passenger assistance scheme and deal with platform alterations etc with the signallers.

Now it all falls on the station supervisor (duty station managers having also been costed out of the business, line management attending when they've got nothing else to do, which is rare) or the odd willing dispatcher to override it. Which is great, except during disruption they have everything else to do as well. If it fails completely, it's impossible to get around with the lack of staff, despite the legal requirement to do so (security announcements etc) so it causes a right pain in the arse - it is switched off at the click of a button if required, or can be overridden to make a manual announcement on a case by case basis - but you have to have a person there to do it.

Another issue of late is that the system depends on Network Rail's train describers - if these have problems, with they do from time to time, it completely destroys the announcing system, causing it to announce the wrong trains at the wrong time, often up to 20 minutes after they've actually left while another train is sat there.
It's telling that at, I believe, Peterborough, they were installed and then removed as being unfit for purpose and replaced with a human again.

 

[Hophead]

On the subject of Announcements at London Bridge - currently platforms 3/4 have a different voice on the automated announcements to 1/2 & 5/6.
This is very useful as it allows you to a) quickly identify how relevant the announcement is to you and b) better hear it when another announcement is taking place on another platform.
I'm not aware of anywhere else that does this but I really hope they keep the same or similar arrangement when the redesign is complete.

Pretty sure that Gatwick had alternating male/female announcements on each pair of platforms, but I've not been detained there long enough recently to know if that's still the case. More important is that it avoids 'announcement clash' if both voices are running at the same time.

 

[samogers]

Many South West Trains stations use two different voices - Phil Sayer and some woman whose name I can't remember (same as on the trains)

Do you mean Celia? (Can't 'remember her full name)

Her and Phil Sayer announce on many southern stations

 

[hassaanhc]

Do you mean Celia? (Can't 'remember her full name)

Her and Phil Sayer announce on many southern stations

Yeah that's the name, I'm sure it is her that does the stations too at places like Woking, Clapham Junction etc

 

[infobleep]

Conversely you'll often be told that there are severe delays occurring even though there is still a train every few mins as you'd expect.
It matters for the drivers but on the underground the passengers don't care how late the trains are as long as they turn up at the correct frequency! (Assuming it doesn't then take 3x longer to get to destination which is another possibility)

One morning on the jubilee line the automated announcements were saying a good service. The lady on the platform interjected, I appreciate it's not what you want to hear when delays are occurring.

There have been times when TFL have claimed a good service and as has been said, at a particular station it is not so. They should be more flexible but I'm sure they are only trying their best.

As for announcements. Very rarely I hear them switched off mid announcement when a train has already left the station. However too often they are making automated announcements after the doors have closed. I would prefer it if they could resolve that problem.

Also who decides what time of night announcements should be silenced. Is it based on the local environment and noise laws?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Aictos]

It's telling that at, I believe, Peterborough, they were installed and then removed as being unfit for purpose and replaced with a human again.

Peterborough is my local station and they have NEVER had a automated PA system installed as they have a Station Announcer located in Peterborough PSB doing ALL announcements.

I know they used to be able to update the CIS on Platforms 4/5 at Peterborough in the former Platform Office which is now a Waiting Room but not sure if they still have the ability to do that.

As to FCC for example, they have something called Disruption Mode whereas only trains actually proven to be running will be displayed on CIS screens so no chance of seeing a list of trains with CANCELLED next to them, also bear in mind that FCC Platform Staff CAN request to have the announcements turned off and do them manually which in times of disruption is better as you don't get the barrage of announcements for stuff that has nothing to do with the train service in terms of disruption.

 

[PHILIPE]

We have problems on Platforms 6/7 (Valley Lines) at Cardiff Central when there is disruption. The announcements keep spouting forth what should be happening and a real voice trying to cut across with what is actually happening leaving many passengers completely confused.

 

[talldave]

Yesterday at Gatwick, an automated announcement went out about a platform change for the Gatwick Express. This was shortly followed by a manual announcement advising customers to ignore the previous announcement.

The other game to play when things go wrong is to finish the announcement more appropriately in your head:

During snow disruption...."If you see anything suspicious..... [like a damned train]."

And all the time " the train now standing at platform n..... [appears to be invisible]."

 

[plastictaffy]

It's always funny watching passengers at Cardiff reacting to the announcements, especially as the Welsh tends to come first on announcements on plats 1-4*. Those who understand Welsh, or those (like me - I'm English) who use the station often enough to know how to pick out the relevant Welsh words, are much quicker at reacting to things like platform alterations. It's why I don't know any Welsh numbers higher than 7 - because there aren't any Welsh announcements which would tell me to go to a plat 8
.

Should you ever need to know.......http://www.surfacelanguages.com/language/Welsh/reviewwords/Numbers--1-to-10.html

 

[SamS]

Slightly off topic but I wondered who decides when to play the wet weather announcement?
Today at Sheffield there was very light drizzle but every 2-3 minutes there was an announcement warning us to be careful (well actually, it sounded like she was telling you off) as surfaces "might be slippery".