Celia Drummond replacement

[Peter0124]

I couldn't tell who is who, but having Googled Alison Mckay, she's light years ahead of the Waverley and Central announcement voices.
The LNER on train one still makes a meal of Kirkcaldy which is annoying, but the rest is fine.

The Waverley and Central voice (Karen Cunningham) is still better than Scottish Female though. But I couldn't imagine Karen Cunningham announcing in smaller stations.

 

[Trainguy34]

Who does the current platform announcements in Southeastern?

 

[Peter0124]

I have attached two documents that show the seven LLPA areas. The first document shows the two LLPA that Dunfermline run and the second document shows the five LLPA that Paisley run. The eighth LLPA that is not listed on these files is the LLPA that includes the Atos Worldline systems at Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central High Level and Glasgow Queen Street High Level stations.

Also thanks for the documents! Good info that!

Who does the current platform announcements in Southeastern?

Anne does Margate, Ramsgate, Stratford Intl and Charing X from my experience. There's also a Male voice I don't know the name of.

 

[stadler]

Who does the current platform announcements in Southeastern?

Anne Jermy (Atos Anne) and a Southeastern employee called Rob are the two current automated announcers at Southeastern managed stations. Rob works for Southeastern at London Bridge currently. They have been used at Southeastern stations since 2012 and were also used at Southeastern stations between around 2002 to 2004 as well.

Some of the smaller rural Southeastern stations (like Crowhurst and Stonegate etc) currently use Acapela Rachael (Text To Speech) instead. So you will hear her at some smaller Southeastern stations.

In the past between 2004 and 2012 it was Pauline Cavilla and Mark Stutter who did the announcements at all Southeastern stations. Also at many Southeastern stations between 2000 and 2002 there was the "Boofay" voice from the old Racal system.

 

[PGAT]

There's another man who announces on Southeastern (I don't know his name) who does some miscellaneous announcements, like the 61016 one, or changing at Abbey Wood for the Elizabeth Line

 

[stadler]

There's another man who announces on Southeastern (I don't know his name) who does some miscellaneous announcements, like the 61016 one, or changing at Abbey Wood for the Elizabeth Line

Greg Scott is his name. Southeastern use him for a lot of their generic station announcements about safety and various other messages. He also does a few generic announcements at GWR and SWR and LNER stations too.

 

[islandmonkey]

I usually hedge my bets and stress both, and speak verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry, verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slooooooooowly. I could never be an announcer full stop, but especially not on a suburban line where most stations have multiple-word names!

Personally, I really like the Martin Oldfield announcements on 333s, and Justine Harris on Azumas (well, I like Justine Harris's voice, not the wording of the announcements!) - so, if I had to pick two announcers from anywhere on the network, I'd pick those two.

In terms of more plausible replacements, I also very much like Alison McKay's announcements.

But then Celia Drummond also has some funny pronunciations, like 'the next station is BiTTerne', which is pronounced too quickly, and 'Mill-10ms pause-brook' and 'Red-10ms pause-bridge'.

I do like the new Elinor Hamilton announcements on the Salisbury fleet, presumably will be rolled out throughout the rest of the SWR network at some point.

I don't know who does the GWR train announcements.

 

[Purple Train]

I don't know who does the GWR train announcements.

I think the female voice is Janine Cooper-Marshall. I stick my fingers in my ears when approaching Crowthorne (as the announcement is piercing) but find them otherwise OK.

 

[fgwrich]

But then Celia Drummond also has some funny pronunciations, like 'the next station is BiTTerne', which is pronounced too quickly, and 'Mill-10ms pause-brook' and 'Red-10ms pause-bridge'.

I do like the new Elinor Hamilton announcements on the Salisbury fleet, presumably will be rolled out throughout the rest of the SWR network at some point.

I don't know who does the GWR train announcements.

Micheldever is another one that's always been a struggle for Celia too.

 

[greaterwest]

Micheldever is another one that's always been a struggle for Celia too.

SWT did have it re-recorded and corrected in later years of their Amey system. It is pronounced "Michel-devver" but Celia originally said "Michel-deever".

 

[stan claire]

I don’t know if this is a KeTech issue but so many of Northern’s stations have their P.A volume way too low, to the point where you can barely hear anything. I’m not sure whether it was the same when they still had their ATOS installation.

I've noticed that at my local station - even though it only opened 10 years ago it mysteriously still has lower volume on the speakers which are original from when the station was opened? Then at stations with newer speakers they still don't have the best volume but they're a bit louder... I feel like it's a combination of both the speaker condition and the system volume being too low. On previous videos where they have the Anne voice the announcements can clearly be heard

Some of the smaller rural Southeastern stations (like Crowhurst and Stonegate etc) currently use Acapela Rachael (Text To Speech) instead. So you will hear her at some smaller Southeastern stations.

From what I've heard they're trying to get rid of Rachel from the network, I know Northern are replacing the CIS at their stations and are adding Celia's announcements with them, and EMR are replacing her in favour of Anne. I did quite like Acapela Rachel (fight me) mainly because of the cursed mispronunciations of so... many... stations! The stations that had Rachel near me said the arrival time after the station but that was a good feature imo

 

[stadler]

I've noticed that at my local station - even though it only opened 10 years ago it mysteriously still has lower volume on the speakers which are original from when the station was opened? Then at stations with newer speakers they still don't have the best volume but they're a bit louder... I feel like it's a combination of both the speaker condition and the system volume being too low. On previous videos where they have the Anne voice the announcements can clearly be heard


From what I've heard they're trying to get rid of Rachel from the network, I know Northern are replacing the CIS at their stations and are adding Celia's announcements with them, and EMR are replacing her in favour of Anne. I did quite like Acapela Rachel (fight me) mainly because of the cursed mispronunciations of so... many... stations! The stations that had Rachel near me said the arrival time after the station but that was a good feature imo

Yes indeed a lot of the operators do seem to be replacing her recently. Northern are replacing her with their standard Ketech system. EMR are replacing her with their standard Atos Worldline system. TFW have replaced her with Ivona Geraint who is another Text To Speech voice.

However on the other hand SWR recently started using Acapela Rachael at Dean and Mottisfont & Dunbridge recently. So she has begun making appearances at SWR stations now. Plus she is also used onboard the SWR class 707 trains too.

GWR and Southeastern are the only other operators that still use her. They use Acapela Rachael at many of their smaller stations. I am not sure if they have plans to replace her or not.

Ivona Amy is a much better Text To Speech option. She sounds a lot better than Acapela Rachael and pronounces most stations properly. So she is really the way forward if Text To Speech is going to be used.

 

[RailWonderer]

Yes i think "Only Woman" is definitely the number one best replacement for Celia Drummond so hopefully Ketech will use her if they decide to fully replace Celia Drummond at some point. I think "Only Woman" has probably already recorded every station in the UK. So if Ketech can get hold of all of the files from Amey then they may not even have to get her to record anything else. So it would be a nice and easy switch.

Nope, nothing in East Anglia or most of the South East.

EMR are replacing her with their standard Atos Worldline system. TFW have replaced her with Ivona Geraint who is another Text To Speech voice.

EMR is mostly all text to speech now

I think the female voice is Janine Cooper-Marshall. I stick my fingers in my ears when approaching Crowthorne (as the announcement is piercing) but find them otherwise OK.

I'd like to hear a lot more of her but only GWR seems to use her voice, she's the best on train voice outside of Celia (maybe that's my bias being sick of hearing Julie Berry on most trains in the SE.)

 

[dragon814]

I would like to know who the announcer is at stations such as Derby, Crewe, Stafford and indeed many others.

 

[Peter0124]

I would like to know who the announcer is at stations such as Derby, Crewe, Stafford and indeed many others.

Anne

 

[londonmidland]

EMR is mostly all text to speech now

No it’s not. We have a mix of Wordline (Anne) at our larger stations and text to speech (Rachel) at our smaller stations.

You’re probably thinking of WMR.

 

[Parallel]

Nope, nothing in East Anglia or most of the South East.

‘Only Woman’ used to be at London Victoria and announced all Southern and Southeastern departures from there without issue, including diverted ones. She was also in use at East Croydon, Brighton and Gatwick Airport so I suspect she has most of the UK recorded.

Janine announces on Heathrow Express in addition to GWR

 

[route101]

I think London Victoria is a Anne for SE side and a guy for Southern side.

 

[Peter0124]

A guy for Southern side.

Would be Matt - Same guy as on Thameslink

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Would be Matt - Same guy as on Thameslink

It isn’t, it’s Mike. I much prefer his voice to Matt’s.

 

[Peter0124]

It isn’t, it’s Mike. I much prefer his voice to Matt’s.

Ohh they must have changed it, because I thought it was the Thameslink guy last time I was there.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Ohh they must have changed it, because I thought it was the Thameslink guy last time I was there.

My apologies, I read it as London Bridge for some reason.

It is Matt at Victoria yes. And Mike at London Bridge.

 

[DanNCL]

Not to mention Alison voices the announcements of LNER services at stations north of Edinburgh.

She also does the announcements at those stations for the daily XC service to Penzance. She’s got a lot of England recorded already.

 

[RailWonderer]

No it’s not. We have a mix of Wordline (Anne) at our larger stations and text to speech (Rachel) at our smaller stations.

You’re probably thinking of WMR.

Most EMR operated stations are smaller stations (Stamford, Oakham, Newark Castle) I've only heard Lincoln and Nottingham still on Anne.

 

[londonmidland]

Most EMR operated stations are smaller stations (Stamford, Oakham, Newark Castle) I've only heard Lincoln and Nottingham still on Anne.

All EMR Intercity stations have Anne. None of them have changed to TTS.

 

[route101]

She also does the announcements at those stations for the daily XC service to Penzance. She’s got a lot of England recorded already.

Though I dont think any of the stations to Reading and beyond on the Cross Country network have been recorded.

 

[stadler]

Though I dont think any of the stations to Reading and beyond on the Cross Country network have been recorded.

Yes they have. Every station on the main Cross Country network has actually been recorded. Oxford, Reading, Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton Airport Parkway, Southampton Central, Brockehurst, Bournemouth, etc, have all been recorded. All the stations on the route to Penzance have been recorded too. In fact she has even recorded, Devonport, Dockyard, Starcross, Menheniot, Lostwithiel, Quintrell Downs, St Columb Road, Roche, Bugle, Luxulyan, many other stations, etc, despite the fact they have no direct Scottish services. Alison Mckay has recorded a huge amount of stations.

You can see all of the Alison Mckay (Ketech) files here:

ScotRail announcements June 2022-20230624T175813Z-001

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

You can see all of the Scottish Female (ASL) files here:

FOI202200540

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

So both of the two main voices used on the Scotrail network have recorded a large amount of English stations. Including many that are not served by direct trains from Scotland any more. They can both certainly announce Cross Country services to Reading and beyond.

 

[bicbasher]

Atos Anne replaced Emma Hignett at London Overground core stations and it makes me think I'm at a London Terminal. Luckily Emma is still in use at ELL stations from New Cross Gate to Crystal Palace which still use Ditra, a legacy of being ex Connex/Southern stations.

 

[stadler]

Atos Anne replaced Emma Hignett at London Overground core stations and it makes me think I'm at a London Terminal. Luckily Emma is still in use at ELL stations from New Cross Gate to Crystal Palace which still use Ditra, a legacy of being ex Connex/Southern stations.

Some of the London Overground stations (like on the GOBLIN line) have gone from Anne in Silverlink days to Emma Hignett and then back to Anne again. A similar thing happened at Gatwick Airport and on the entire Southeastern network where Anne was replaced and then returned years later. I personally prefer Emma Hignett being used.

Unfortunately i have heard the London Overground are looking to replace the Amey system soon. So it is likely that Anne will be used on the entire London Overground network eventually. It is a real shame as i have always thought that Emma Hignett works very well at these stations and has become such a well known London voice.

The remaining London Overground stations that still have the Amey system with Emma Hignett are the very last stations in the UK with a BR era Ditra derived system still remaining. The voice has changed to Emma Hignett when LO took over and the system has been updated many times but this system dates back over thirty years from British Rail days. It will really be an end of era when this system gets replaced.

 

[TUC]

When you think how much of a fuss the Scottish would kick up about an English accent (even though RP is considered "neutral") being used there, I don't see why it's therefore acceptable to use a Scottish accent in England if it isn't the other way round.

I get the point. I suspect it would vary in different parts of England though. There does seem to be a certain type of Londoner who hears accents from all around the world every day and yet claims not to understand a Scottish or Irish accent.