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Manual or Automated Recorded Announcements

Do you prefer Manual or Automated Announcements?


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Bletchleyite

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I personally prefer automated as it stops the waffle and tells you what you need to know, but with trains such as Eurostar and Virgin, I suppose it's nice having manual announcements as it presents the staff as friendly and willing to help.

As I've said before I quite like the "banter" of a male and female autoannouncer on the Pendolinos.

Celia re recorded some of her announcements whilst at Birmingham New Street, especially the Welsh ones. The woman at 11:11 is still there now, she always interrupts or repeats the auto announcements in her own way. (She always sounds miserable but I'm sure she's lovely really)

There's something about Brummies sounding bored even when they aren't. "Holly" on Red Dwarf was the classic.
 
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Parallel

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Platform four for the TEN forty nineeee Vurgin Twains service to WOLVERHAMPTON. Callin’ at Sandwell and Dudley and WOLVERHAMPTON.
PlatformONE for the eeleven twentysix Great Western Railway service to ...WESTON-super-Mare!! Callin’ at Bristol Temple Meeeeeds, Nail Sea and Back Well, YATTON!, Wurrle and ...WESTON-super-Mare!! This train has EIGHYT coaches.
 

petermiller36

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Please listen to the you tube clip to the announcer at 11:11, is she the same woman thats been there since mid 1980s? (You can hear her in the you tube clip at 11:11 announcing the weekly fire alarm test)


She (Jan) has been announcing at New Street since 2001.
 

Philip

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I notice both Crewe and Stockport have switched to the 'Anne' announcements. A bit surprised given that I thought Virgin were quite keen on their more friendly sounding system in place previously.
 

Parallel

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I notice both Crewe and Stockport have switched to the 'Anne' announcements. A bit surprised given that I thought Virgin were quite keen on their more friendly sounding system in place previously.
I’m wondering if they will customise the system once it is fully rolled out with another voice. You never know, Beardy himself may make an appearance!
 

brick60000

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I notice both Crewe and Stockport have switched to the 'Anne' announcements. A bit surprised given that I thought Virgin were quite keen on their more friendly sounding system in place previously.

Stafford has now also made the switch

I’m wondering if they will customise the system once it is fully rolled out with another voice. You never know, Beardy himself may make an appearance!

Would be nice! At the moment from what I've heard the new system seems to be doing most of the announcements the manual announcers did at Stafford, though I've not been there long enough to see if it's all of them. Some announcements still being made that ATOS doesn't do, like connecting trains for passengers having just arrived.
 

londonmidland

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Stafford has now also made the switch

Do you know if the auto announcements are global (played through all the speakers on every platform or zonal (played through only the relevant speakers depending on what platform the train is arriving on)
 

hexagon789

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I think it depends on the announcer. Some automated announcements are clear, consise and to the point, others seem to go on for ever, repeating themselves and spouting utter drivel. Similarly some "live" announcers mumble or enunciate so poorly you can't catch a word, others are a joy to listen to. On the whole I think I marginally prefer the "manual" touch.
 

TUC

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Whilst I prefer manual announcements I do find it puzzling why the quality of these vary between TOCs. Sometimes it's down to the PA system, but I generally find that the confidence and clarity in the voice seems to be much more consistently there in the long distance TOCs than in some of the regional TOCs. Why should this be?
 

brick60000

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Do you know if the auto announcements are global (played through all the speakers on every platform or zonal (played through only the relevant speakers depending on what platform the train is arriving on)

I think they were global from what I heard this morning, but don't quote me on it!
 
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Stafford has now also made the switch

I noticed the voice had changed at Wolverhampton too recently - I assume that's the same one being referred to here.

I'm not bothered who makes the announcements at Birmingham New Street, but for nostalgia's sake I'd love to hear this one back.

BIRMINGHAM NEW STREET
THIS IS BIRMINGHAM NEW STREET
 

Caleb2010

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I’d rather listen to a human interacting with other humans, sadly with DOO advancing as fast as it is, manually made announcement is getting more infrequent!

Driving the train is one thing, the driver should not have to make announcements as well, a second staff presence should be responsible for the rest, but this is for another forum!!
 

hexagon789

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I’d rather listen to a human interacting with other humans, sadly with DOO advancing as fast as it is, manually made announcement is getting more infrequent!

Driving the train is one thing, the driver should not have to make announcements as well, a second staff presence should be responsible for the rest, but this is for another forum!!

I would agree, driver's should only need to make PA announcements in an emergency, do ideally should still have the facility to use the PA.
 
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An anecdote from the early days of recorded announcements:

In the early 1970's a friend was on a stopping Victoria-Brighton train and overhead the conversation between two elderly women on the train. After a couple of stops, they had spotted that it was the same (female) voice announcing at each station. They concluded that the announcer must be travelling on the train and getting out to make the announcements at each station. Initially puzzled by a station where the voice was different, they concluded that the announcer must be entitled to a break for a cup of tea. But when the train pulled out of a subsequent station with the announcement still playing, they became quite agitated, concerned that the poor announcer had been left behind in error.
 

hexagon789

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An anecdote from the early days of recorded announcements:

In the early 1970's a friend was on a stopping Victoria-Brighton train and overhead the conversation between two elderly women on the train. After a couple of stops, they had spotted that it was the same (female) voice announcing at each station. They concluded that the announcer must be travelling on the train and getting out to make the announcements at each station. Initially puzzled by a station where the voice was different, they concluded that the announcer must be entitled to a break for a cup of tea. But when the train pulled out of a subsequent station with the announcement still playing, they became quite agitated, concerned that the poor announcer had been left behind in error.

What would they have made of the first on-board automatic announcements on the Mk2ds one wonders!
 

brick60000

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At Stafford this morning, an interesting announcement...
"Good morning. Welcome to Stafford. I am pleased to inform you that your services from this station are running on time this morning", or words to that effect. Interesting coming from ATOS! Has anyone else heard this anywhere else?
 

hexagon789

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At Stafford this morning, an interesting announcement...
"Good morning. Welcome to Stafford. I am pleased to inform you that your services from this station are running on time this morning", or words to that effect. Interesting coming from ATOS! Has anyone else heard this anywhere else?

No, never. Be interesting to see if it alters itself according when there's disruption.

I can't imagine people would be best pleaded of there are 2 hour delays to everything and it's still pleased to inform everyone that services are running on time! :lol:
 

Parallel

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At Newport (South Wales) I’ve heard “We’d like to advise you that services are subject to disruption and delay because of... a broken down train. Every effort is being made to restore services to normal, as quickly as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience this will cause you” when there was no broken down train and just a couple of delays on the Marches (not due to that reason though). This was automated, though probably manually triggered...
 
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They'll probably need to find another male one at some point. The advantage of having both male and female is that you can have announcements playing on two platforms at once, because the brain can separate the two quite easily, much less so if it's the same voice.
Happens at my local station, it's good.
 

Bletchleyite

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I would agree, driver's should only need to make PA announcements in an emergency, do ideally should still have the facility to use the PA.

Thameslink drivers generally seem very vocal, almost following the LU policy of announcing something even if something is nothing ("we're stopped, we don't know why yet" kind of stuff). And I love the Dutch "bing bong bong" - I hope that stays permanently!
 
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Thameslink drivers generally seem very vocal, almost following the LU policy of announcing something even if something is nothing ("we're stopped, we don't know why yet" kind of stuff). And I love the Dutch "bing bong bong" - I hope that stays permanently!

I've had that a lot on Lu, it's great, and all the drivers on TL are great whenever this is an announcement.
 

hexagon789

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Thameslink drivers generally seem very vocal, almost following the LU policy of announcing something even if something is nothing ("we're stopped, we don't know why yet" kind of stuff). And I love the Dutch "bing bong bong" - I hope that stays permanently!

They have a Dutch announcement tone on the PA system?
 

Bletchleyite

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Interesting, think I prefer the SBB/CFF/FFS ones personally.

I think it's a shame the UK TOCs don't come up with signature jingles. The SNCF one is *so* French, for example, and while there are a few variants I love the atmosphere and German-ness of the DB "bong-bing".

I also used to like the VT Mk3 "strum", which (while it was specified for ICWC and isn't a Virgin-ism) did tie in nicely with Virgin's music roots.
 

hexagon789

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I think it's a shame the UK TOCs don't come up with signature jingles. The SNCF one is *so* French, for example, and while there are a few variants I love the atmosphere and German-ness of the DB "bong-bing".

I also used to like the VT Mk3 "strum", which (while it was specified for ICWC and isn't a Virgin-ism) did tie in nicely with Virgin's music roots.

I think of the UK ones the Mk3 "strum" as you put it is one of the best.

I suppose one of the reasons for not having a signature tune is the changeover of franchisees and it's likely not seen as a priority.
 
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I prefer the automated ones because they’re louder, clearer, introduce no background noise, and the structure is generally the same. As someone with moderate to severe hearing loss, these things are crucial. I’m not sure I have _ever_ fully understood a manual announcement on a train.
 
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