Have Virgin Trains dropped automated announcements?

[thenorthern]

This may seem a strange question but has Virgin Trains dropped their automated on board annoucements?

I don't think I have heard one in weeks and all announcements seem to be done by the train manager now.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think it's the guard's decision if they are used or not. I heard them used last week.

 

[deltic]

not on the ones I've been on recently - get worst of both worlds with both automated then train manager both saying the same thing

 

[LowLevel]

They seem to have brought them in at Stockport station now as well

 

[swt class 450]

Dont they have to be switched on and used to comply with the disability requirements? It seems strange that the Guard gets to decide.

 

[AlterEgo]

Dont they have to be switched on and used to comply with the disability requirements? It seems strange that the Guard gets to decide.

No, there just have to be announcements. Doesn't matter if they're automated or not.

 

[CC 72100]

Certainly not - on my train down to London on Saturday the guard did no manual announcements for the whole 2 hour journey, relying on automated announcements throughout. Not what I expected from an Intercity service between two very significant stations!

 

[Bookd]

It might be interesting as to what is compulsory, and maybe automated, and what is not.
I generally use SWT, with usual automated announcements, and sometimes that is all. Some guards will give additional announcements, usually after leaving Richmond towards London, which sometimes may go overboard but will often give service status on LO and LU and any other pertinent information. This seems like good service and (in the context of other threads) shows that the guard is involved in the experience of the journey

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Heard the usual automatic announcements on my VT service today, so I don't think they've been dropped!

 

[deltic]

No automated announcements on my Virgin train today!

 

[thenorthern]

The announcer on my train said "after Stockport it will be full steam ahead to Manchester Piccadilly" loved that phrase and I hadn't heard it in years.

 

[miami]

On today's Crewe-Euston 0757 service we boarded, fairly short shop advert, then nothing for 10 minutes. Then an automated "we will shortly be arriving at Chester", which got me slightly concerned.

Checked google maps and we were down in staffordshire so that was fine. We just arrived at first stop, Rugby, and there was a manual "we're now at rugby" announcement, followed by an automated "we are now at Chester" announcement.

So automated announcements are working, but they're about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

 

[MK Tom]

Leaving Milton Keynes last week on the 16:47 to Euston I got "Welcome on board this Virgin train to ... calling at ...". I'll never understand why VT announcements leave off the destination station when listing stops.

 

[All Line Rover]

Leaving Milton Keynes last week on the 16:47 to Euston I got "Welcome on board this Virgin train to ... calling at ...". I'll never understand why VT announcements leave off the destination station when listing stops.

Because it is the destination and, like the origin, is not a calling point?

You wouldn't say "this is the Virgin Trains service from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, calling at London Euston, Crewe, ...", nor would you say on departure from the last station before Euston "this is the Virgin Trains service to London Euston, calling at London Euston".

 

[168lover]

Because it is the destination and, like the origin, is not a calling point?

You wouldn't say "this is the Virgin Trains service from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, calling at London Euston, Crewe, ...", nor would you say on departure from the last station before Euston "this is the Virgin Trains service to London Euston, calling at London Euston".

SWT do ' this train is for London Waterloo calling at London Waterloo'

 

[causton]

Personally I would! I would definitely say "This train is for London Waterloo, calling at London Waterloo only"!

 

[Ibex]

They are still in use, as everyone has mentioned above. They only recently re-recorded their entire set of on-board announcements with the voices of two radio presenters bouncing off each other like a chat show which can be a bit cringeworthy so I'd be very surprised if they dropped them anytime soon.

Again (as mentioned above) they've installed automatic station announcements at Stockport so it does make me wonder if Virgin are going to start weeding out all the human announcers. Possibly the last TOC to do so? Happy to be corrected!

 

[bILLOO]

SWT do ' this train is for London Waterloo calling at London Waterloo'

I enjoy the auto-announcer that lists all the stations from Waterloo to Waterloo via a certain loop.

 

[FOH]

Southern do "this train is for London Bridge, the next station is London Bridge"

 

[deltic]

No automatic announcements on this mornings Virgin service

 

[tsr]

Southern do "this train is for London Bridge, the next station is London Bridge"

Only on some of them, not all!

Many Electrostars will only do "Welcome aboard the Southern service to London Bridge" (or whatever) and leave it at that.

It's always useful doing an announcement like that at East Croydon/Norwood Junction anyway, when appropriate, because it emphasises that the train is not calling at any of the Metro stations. You'd be surprised how many people get off the train when you do announce it...

 

[D1009]

not on the ones I've been on recently - get worst of both worlds with both automated then train manager both saying the same thing

Yes that was my experience as well. On the 390s the automated ones are too LOUD.

 

[miami]

Only announcement so far on tonight's 2300 Euston to Manchester was an announcement by someone congratulating his sister and brother in law for going to manchester for two weeks (??)

I boarded late (about 2258_ so snuck in to a first class carriage and walked up inside. Dropped my bags off and then headed up to the shop, which was shut. Only virgin member of staff I've seen was a presumably off-duty person lounging in a seat in first class. I'm sure the train manager is far too busy sorting out safety things like his sister's honeymoon (or whatever) to bother passing through the train and checking tickets.

 

[JaJaWa]

Richard's been recording some too so they could be coming soon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dy2tWz0OUM (unless that film is purely a comedic sketch).

 

[boxy321]

The Euston-Edinburgh train read out the full stop list 3 times when leaving Brum airport this morning. I still don't know nor care where Oxenholme is. Is it a halt or something where they load cattle?

 

[MK Tom]

It just sounds horribly wrong when the announcements say "calling at Stoke on Trent, Stockport..." and you're expecting "and Manchester Piccadilly" like any other announcement would have but it's not there.

Anyway my point was that leaving MKC it gave us an announcement with gaps where 'London Euston' should have been, just saying "this Virgin Train to...".

The Euston-Edinburgh train read out the full stop list 3 times when leaving Brum airport this morning. I still don't know nor care where Oxenholme is. Is it a halt or something where they load cattle?

It's where you get off for Northern's swanky "new" service to Windermere.

 

[DeeGee]

Because it is the destination and, like the origin, is not a calling point?

You wouldn't say "this is the Virgin Trains service from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, calling at London Euston, Crewe, ...", nor would you say on departure from the last station before Euston "this is the Virgin Trains service to London Euston, calling at London Euston".

Stick an "only" on the end and it's fine by me. Quite a useful announcement, actually to someone who doesn't know (or care for) the stopping pattern of the train but only wants to get off at the terminus.

 

[All Line Rover]

Stick an "only" on the end and it's fine by me. Quite a useful announcement, actually to someone who doesn't know (or care for) the stopping pattern of the train but only wants to get off at the terminus.

Rather than say "this is a Virgin Trains service to London Euston, calling at London Euston only" or "this is a Virgin Trains services to London Euston, only", why not simply say "this is a non-stop Virgin Trains service to London Euston"?

 

[A Challenge]

Whem the guard shut all but his door at Bagshot, which meant I could here it, from that platform, "This is a South West Trains service to Ascot Only", not to Ascot calling at Ascot only! See the History Reporting Thread for more details on this.

 

[thenorthern]

The Euston-Edinburgh train read out the full stop list 3 times when leaving Brum airport this morning. I still don't know nor care where Oxenholme is. Is it a halt or something where they load cattle?

The announcements are wrong as "Oxenholme" isn't a station its officially its "Oxenholme Lake District".

The station in Oxenholme which is a small village just south of Kendal, the village is odd as its named after the station which itself is named after a cattle farm.