Best & Worst ‘Live’ Station Announcers.

[Envoy]

Where Are the Best & Worst ‘Live’ Station Announcers?

 

[AlterEgo]

Do you mean human announcers?

 

[causton]

Cardiff Central always seems to have one that interrupts the auto announcements, is indecipherable and talks too quickly. Plus the speakers aren't loud enough to drown out the noise of the Class 67 in the platform that the guy is trying to announce is cancelled!

 

[bramling]

Where Are the Best & Worst ‘Live’ Station Announcers?

Carlisle has at least one who sounds very good.

 

[Blindtraveler]

I agree about Carlisle but dont really like the man who talks very fast and ends everything with an up inflection.

Lancaster has a good one and theres a bloke on LU at Westminster who always starts with Welcome to Westminster station which is a nice touch

 

[Envoy]

Cancelled.

 

[AlterEgo]

I'm not sure I like the idea of bashing individual staff. It's not very nice. Some of them might even read this forum.

 

[Envoy]

Making announcements is an important role and it is up to the management to ensure that it is carried out correctly. This should involve training to ensure high standards.

In view of the fact that individuals may be upset by this thread, I do hereby cancel it.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Agreed, never thought of that. I appologise to anyone offended

 

[richw]

Truro has one that comments on the weather when explaining where the coaches will stop, and those for coach A need to go out of the canopy into the lovely rain/sun etc. He tends to put in a humorous way though and I'd say he is one of the best i have heard.

The worst announcements, not live but automated out of sync. At Liskeard the trains were being announced after they had left! I tweeted GWR and was fixed within 24 hours after being the case for several months. I had noticed when I was getting off of trains and exiting the station. I guess if things aren't commented they go unnoticed, although GWR Twitter insisted on logging as a complaint, and couldn't grasp the observational nature of my tweet that it wasn't impacting me!

 

[TheKnightWho]

One of the strangest was on the North Downs recently, where the GPRS was clearly working correctly, but the auto announcer was set on the reverse route. We kept getting the announcement for the station we'd just left, and it kept adding to the number of stations we were apparently going to call at, which were all the ones we'd already left!

 

[greaterwest]

One of the strangest was on the North Downs recently, where the GPRS was clearly working correctly, but the auto announcer was set on the reverse route. We kept getting the announcement for the station we'd just left, and it kept adding to the number of stations we were apparently going to call at, which were all the ones we'd already left!

Haven't seen that issue since the voice on the Turbos changed for the GWR rebrand!

 

[Russonomics]

My favourites have to be either Phill The Voice or Ruth before she got the piecemeal updates to her voice bank. Ruth used to flow really naturally but these days seems to have three or four different voices or accents in the same announcement depending on where you are.

I must say I do find it humourous when she does the security announcement and it's obvious that whoever was recorded for that line had to read it in the style of an automated PA system. Her "The [time] GWATE WESTUN WAILWAY service to..." also tickles the funnybone.

 

[Deepgreen]

One of the strangest was on the North Downs recently, where the GPRS was clearly working correctly, but the auto announcer was set on the reverse route. We kept getting the announcement for the station we'd just left, and it kept adding to the number of stations we were apparently going to call at, which were all the ones we'd already left!

The NDL announcements/scrolling displays are a complete lottery. It's common to have everything somehow out of synch. For the last few weeks, the station screen at Betchworth has been showing the 0819 to Redhill as the 0919 to Redhill several minutes before the 0819 has left!

Redhill has the worst live announcements in my daily experience - distorted, crackly, interrupted by blips of silence, breaking into the constant barrage of recorded announcements, and so on. Not to mention the downright wrong/lack of information when things are disrupted.

 

[PR1Berske]

At Preston all in-station announcements are live, which is rare for a "big" station. I'm so used to the voices (including those who seem to say "Barrow, in fairness" and "Manchester Rare Pork" because of the echoey nature of the place) that it'd be a real blow if/when they ever get replaced by recorded or robotic announcements.

 

[DarloRich]

Darlington and York have proper human announcements not those bland auto talk boxes.

 

[PR1Berske]

Darlington and York have proper human announcements not those bland auto talk boxes.

Topic for another thread perhaps, where are holding out against the recorded robots?

 

[AlterEgo]

Topic for another thread perhaps, where are holding out against the recorded robots?

Birmingham New Street had real announcers.

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.c...-as-station-announcer-moves-on-after-30-years << did they replace him with a human too?

 

[blotred]

I have always found East Croydon in the AM Peak to be helpful, clear and articulate.

 

[kevconnor]

My concerns with live announcements have never been with the person but rather the technology in use would be so quiet or muffled as to make any announcement inaudible.

 

[racklam]

Crewe still has human announcements. One lady who does them there has the most soothing voice I've ever heard.

 

[louis97]

Birmingham New Street had real announcers.

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.c...-as-station-announcer-moves-on-after-30-years << did they replace him with a human too?

Birmingham New Street has had automatic announcements for a good few years. The guy leaving is someone who had been working alongside the automatic announcements (obviously not for the whole 30 years!), and most recently was recorded as an automatic voice himself - although in the last year he was removed due to new clips being required and obviously he'd left so could not record them.

 

[fowler9]

Crewe still has human announcements. One lady who does them there has the most soothing voice I've ever heard.

I was going to mention one of the blokes at Crewe who has a very friendly and relaxing voice.

 

[kevconnor]

Crewe still has human announcements. One lady who does them there has the most soothing voice I've ever heard.

I now have an image of her being something like the lady on the M&S food ads.

That would make for an interesting announcer.

 

[Ianno87]

The human announcer at Salford Crescent in the 1990s had his announcements down to a fine, brain-less art.

"Platformoooooonethevictoriatrain. Salfordcentralmanchestervictoria"

 

[Iskra]

Wakefield Westgate has the best, I've forgotten his name but he often does comedic announcements.

 

[faltskog36abba]

The best announcer was a man named Ashley at Stalybridge station in the 90s/2000s. He was an Asian guy and as the Tannoy system was very poor it was difficult to understand what was being said, what a lovely man he was as he used to come out on the platform and inform you if your train was running late and even let us in his office for a warm on cold evenings. Myself and an elderly friend were waiting for the local train back to Manchester Victoria and my friend would of missed her connection to Swinton as the train was delayed- no problem for Ashley as he rang Victoria and a taxi was waiting for her when she arrived. He must be retired now.

 

[Bletchleyite]

At Preston all in-station announcements are live, which is rare for a "big" station. I'm so used to the voices (including those who seem to say "Barrow, in fairness" and "Manchester Rare Pork" because of the echoey nature of the place) that it'd be a real blow if/when they ever get replaced by recorded or robotic announcements.

Is the female announcer I recall from evenings in Preston in the 1990s who used to sing the announcements still there?

Or there was the Aussie at Euston, or Mr Gathurstappleybridgeparboldhoscarburscoughbridgenewlanebescarlanemeolscopansouthport at Manc Picc...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[507021]

I quite like the live announcements at Lime Street, although I haven't heard one for a while.

 

[Parallel]

My favourites have to be either Phill The Voice or Ruth before she got the piecemeal updates to her voice bank. Ruth used to flow really naturally but these days seems to have three or four different voices or accents in the same announcement depending on where you are.

I must say I do find it humourous when she does the security announcement and it's obvious that whoever was recorded for that line had to read it in the style of an automated PA system. Her "The [time] GWATE WESTUN WAILWAY service to..." also tickles the funnybone.

I really like the Ruth announcements, most still flow okay but it must've been around 20 years since she originally started recording them so the shoehorned bits are quite noticable - They could probably do with re-recording her announcements again. One of her announcements at Shrewsbury made me laugh a few months ago, it was something like

"The next train to arrive at platform ...fffour? Will be the eleven. Twenty-threevirgintrains Service from LUNDUN EUSTUNnnn. This train will terminate HERE." It was almost like a parody of an autoannouncement.

I don't mind Anne's voice but her and Roger's announcements on GWR are far too slow and juddery, and not engaging. They're like "Platform. Three. For the..." *SNORE*

Ruth's voice is currently employed on ATW's 158s and 175s CIS. Will she be on the 150s too when they are fitted with CIS?