New station announcements - revisited

[Robinson]

Recent travels have taken me to both London Victoria and Birmingham New Street, 2 stations which there have been threads on this forum about recently concerning new automated announcers.

At Victoria when I went through, it was still Phil Sayer's voice on the PA. I was under the impression that he was only back for the duration of the Olympics... Anyone know why he has been kept on later?

At Birmingham New Street, I heard the new system and it is absolutely dire. Completely unintelligible. And they missed several trains without announcing them (which I have never noticed to be an issue anywhere else which has automated announcements)...

 

[trentside]

The announcements at Victoria were reverted to the old DITRA (Phil) installation due to some teething issues with the new Amey system that was installed earlier in June. Although I've heard nothing concrete, I'd assume these issues are still awaiting fixing before the station returns to the new system (or they've chosen to wait till after the Paralympics).

The new Atos system at Birmingham New Street also seems to have teething issues, I noticed when I was there recently it failed to announce a couple of trains and was missing TOC names and not offering delay/cancellation reasons.

 

[sparks2000]

At Kings Cross and Euston this week I am sure I heard "text to speech" announcements from an automated system. E.g. the announcements about "a good service". When were these systems introduced? Some of the intonation is very jarring but amazingly improved over similar systems from the past.

 

[PR1Berske]

If you concentrate on the woman (Alice??) at Manchester Picadilly, the 'inserts' using a different voice entirely have somehow become more obvious than ever!

 

[pemma]

If you concentrate on the woman (Alice??) at Manchester Picadilly, the 'inserts' using a different voice entirely have somehow become more obvious than ever!

You mean like:

Platform 7 for the 15:05 CrossCountry service to Bristol Temple Meads?

They need completely re-recording at Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Lime Street. However, probably the April 2014 timetable change will now be the best time to re-record with the franchise renewals and recasts due to happen.

 

[Bungle73]

They recently changed the announcements at Sittingbourne station from what sounded like a "human" to what now sounds like a robot. I prefer to the old ones; I don't get why they changed it.

It also,for some reason, doesn't seem to have a "the train now standing at platform..." message in its programming, so what you get is "The train now approaching platform 3 is the 15:40 to Sheerness" when the train has been sitting at the platform for the past ten minutes! :?

 

[PR1Berske]

You mean like:

Platform 7 for the 15:05 CrossCountry service to Bristol Temple Meads?

They need completely re-recording at Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Lime Street. However, probably the April 2014 timetable change will now be the best time to re-record with the franchise renewals and recasts due to happen.

That's the one


"Platform 13 for the 12:05 East Midlands Trains Service to Norwich"

or my particular favourite "...Bolton, Chorley, Buck Shore Par Kway Leyland......"

 

[Essexman]

Am I correct that Fenchurch Street is the only London terminus not to use automated announcements?

 

[user15681]

They recently changed the announcements at Sittingbourne station from what sounded like a "human" to what now sounds like a robot. I prefer to the old ones; I don't get why they changed it.

It also,for some reason, doesn't seem to have a "the train now standing at platform..." message in its programming, so what you get is "The train now approaching platform 3 is the 15:40 to Sheerness" when the train has been sitting at the platform for the past ten minutes! :?

I noticed this too a while back, sort of July time when it was introduced. The same 'robot' voice is at other SE stations, although Faversham has a different new announcer, but it actually sounds human.

 

[EM2]

Am I correct that Fenchurch Street is the only London terminus not to use automated announcements?

And St Pancras (except for FCC and Eurostar).

 

[bronzeonion]

Don't forget Marylebone!

 

[Bungle73]

And St Pancras (except for FCC and Eurostar).

I'm sure they have what I like to call "The East Coast lady" on the Southeastern platforms, at least.

 

[trivran]

Yes they do.

 

[announcements]

and East Midlands Trains platforms...

 

[EM2]

and East Midlands Trains platforms...

Er, no. My colleagues and I do announcements on East Midlands platforms.
Southeastern may have changed recently, I know they had the Boris announcements which weren't on EMT and the common areas. They tend to keep themselves to themselves, they don't tend to associate with the likes of us

 

[YorkshireBear]

That's the one


"Platform 13 for the 12:05 East Midlands Trains Service to Norwich"

or my particular favourite "...Bolton, Chorley, Buck Shore Par Kway Leyland......"

Same happens at Sheffield for Liverpool South Parkway, presume it is because it is a new station. Makes me laugh though every time.

 

[londonmidland]

If anyone hasn't seen, or heard, my video of the new announcements at Birmingham New Street, here it is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoKGFhOtJZs

 

[The Box Photter]

Real humans do sometimes make announcements at London Blackfriars, but most of the time they seem to be automated.

The problem is that the announcements aren't in phase between the platform 1 side and platforms 2, 3 & 4 side giving a very unpleasant echo effect. In addition, the same announcement is often made using the male voice on one platform and the female voice on the others, giving a rather weird effect.

Finally, we still get told to stand behind the yellow line, when there isn't one on any of the platforms.