Tube train automated announcements 2005

[RacsoMoquette]

stadler: How Simply Splendid! I applauded for efforts to provide some quality recordings of the rather dour and solemn “VERA”. I am under the impression that during that evocative period the early DVA systems akin to “ANITA “VERA” and “CELIA” were real people, however just with a prosthetic system name or acronym. It seems acquir that the 1992TS DVA Janet Mayo did not have a name in quotations.

I remember hearing from other similar forums, that the general consensus regarding “VERA” was voiced by a woman called Charlotte Green, however that is all the information I bear of her.
Also purely speculation, some consider the 1995TS DVA “CELIA” to be an acronym of “Complete Electronic Line Information Announcer”. I personally do not think it is thus, and the DVA is frequently referred to as just “Celia Drummond”

Also would anyone bear any sound files regarding “VERA on the C Stock?

 

[southern442]

I remember hearing from other similar forums, that the general consensus regarding “VERA” was voiced by a woman called Charlotte Green, however that is all the information I bear of her.
Also purely speculation, some consider the 1995TS DVA “CELIA” to be an acronym of “Complete Electronic Line Information Announcer”. I personally do not think it is thus, and the DVA is frequently referred to as just “Celia Drummond”

Celia is her actual name, you can look her up. Prior to voice over work she was a vocalist in a folk band called Trees.

I believe another nickname parroted about for DVAs at the time was Sonia (Because the voice gets-sonia-nerves), was that the nickname for Janet Mayo?

 

[RacsoMoquette]

It most certainly was, Central Line drivers used to give that nickname as she got on your Sonia nerves! In my opinion I always found Janet Mayos voice to be dulcet and soothing and a far superior example to the rather subdued and monitonouse “VERA”

With that being thus, why did forthcoming DVAs in the late 1990s bear minimal and almost robotic sounding text patterns, esspeccially with the advent of the 1996TS and 1995TS initially with the latter “ANITA” would just announce the station name with out saying “ This Is“ or This Station Is” and instead of saying “ This Is A Jubilee Line Train To” she just said “ This Train Terminated At”. A similar story occurs with the original Celia Drummond DVA on the 1995TS her text pattern was moreorless the same, albeit saying “Mind The Gap” before the “ This Station Is” announcement at certain stations, at least CELIA conveyed a little for information than “ANITA”. I do wonder why the move to DVA scripts simplicity was favoured as previous DVAs akin to Janet Mayo and “VERA” conveyed a wealth more detail. For example “This is” instead of just the station name, and the former even said “This is a Bakerloo Line Train Calling At All Stations To Elephant Castle, I agree rather long winded, For me I though the Janet Mayo announcements were simplistic albeit informative and the most superior of the pre millennium DVAs.

It seems aquir to me that the Victoria Line 1967TS never received a DVA in 1997, whereas the similar 1972TS and C69/77TS did? The former units received “VERA” but why not the 1967TS? This also begs the question to why the D78TS also did not receive a DVA to as late as 2005, were they were given the same incarnation of Emma Clarke of which they retained until their departure in 2017, similar case with the 1967TS in 2001 they received Emma Clarke, and retained her, albeit virtually unchanged until their departure in 2011. Were the “VERA” announcements only meant to be trials, seeing as they were replaced swiftly by Emma Clarke in 2001 only after four years in utilization? Maybe the quality of “VERA” was so diabolical that it was decided a superior DVA akin to Emma Clarke was essential! I appreciate that the D78TS was at that stage unreferbished, but how hard is it actually to install a simple DVA system on a train?

 

[xtmw]

A minority of drivers just hit the CANCEL button on the DVA panel at Notting Hill Gate and Bank on the Central... Some just find it too irritating

 

[bramling]

It most certainly was, Central Line drivers used to give that nickname as she got on your Sonia nerves! In my opinion I always found Janet Mayos voice to be dulcet and soothing and a far superior example to the rather subdued and monitonouse “VERA”

With that being thus, why did forthcoming DVAs in the late 1990s bear minimal and almost robotic sounding text patterns, esspeccially with the advent of the 1996TS and 1995TS initially with the latter “ANITA” would just announce the station name with out saying “ This Is“ or This Station Is” and instead of saying “ This Is A Jubilee Line Train To” she just said “ This Train Terminated At”. A similar story occurs with the original Celia Drummond DVA on the 1995TS her text pattern was moreorless the same, albeit saying “Mind The Gap” before the “ This Station Is” announcement at certain stations, at least CELIA conveyed a little for information than “ANITA”. I do wonder why the move to DVA scripts simplicity was favoured as previous DVAs akin to Janet Mayo and “VERA” conveyed a wealth more detail. For example “This is” instead of just the station name, and the former even said “This is a Bakerloo Line Train Calling At All Stations To Elephant Castle, I agree rather long winded, For me I though the Janet Mayo announcements were simplistic albeit informative and the most superior of the pre millennium DVAs.

It seems aquir to me that the Victoria Line 1967TS never received a DVA in 1997, whereas the similar 1972TS and C69/77TS did? The former units received “VERA” but why not the 1967TS? This also begs the question to why the D78TS also did not receive a DVA to as late as 2005, were they were given the same incarnation of Emma Clarke of which they retained until their departure in 2017, similar case with the 1967TS in 2001 they received Emma Clarke, and retained her, albeit virtually unchanged until their departure in 2011. Were the “VERA” announcements only meant to be trials, seeing as they were replaced swiftly by Emma Clarke in 2001 only after four years in utilization? Maybe the quality of “VERA” was so diabolical that it was decided a superior DVA akin to Emma Clarke was essential! I appreciate that the D78TS was at that stage unreferbished, but how hard is it actually to install a simple DVA system on a train?

A few thoughts on the above.

I don’t think the “Vera” voice was experimental, however it was certainly pretty negatively received, and some level of survey work was done where it was found that there was preference for a “Marilyn Monroe” type voice, hence why Emma Clarke was chosen.

I tend to agree that the original Janet Mayo announcements have never been bettered, though to be fair Emma Clarke wasn’t bad.

As regards why certain stocks got the systems when they did, IIRC it was done as part of a package of engineering modifications. The C stock for example got LED door fault indicator lamps at the same time. So it may well be a case of when each stock was having other work done.

For the differences between stocks, remember that in the 90s the likes were quite autonomous and independently managed. So a lot of the differences may well simply be explained by different line managements having different preferences. Fast forward a few years and it became more of Infraco thing, note how Emma Clarke never ended up on Tube Lines stock for example.

 

[xtmw]

In addition to this the 92s got 2 new manual message announcements about 6 months ago by a male. Pretty sure they are inhouse announcements?

A red signal announcement (which seems to be everyone's favourite)
A no smoking/vaping announcement

 

[RacsoMoquette]

bramling: Thanks alot, just a minor correction Emma Clarke was utilized on Metronet lines not Tube Lines.

I am interested to understand why the 1995TS and 1996TS bear the same TMS software, however first of the letters DMI text in amber while the formers text in red? Because many of Alstoms Juniper stock of that period had red DMIs. A second query is to why the script is different on the 1996TS with it just saying “Destination: Stanmore” e.g while the 1995TS (before the 2016 reverb) said “ This Train Terminates at High Barnet” e.g. I remember in 1997-8 during the first years of operation with the 1996TS they were static, I am under the impression a similar story is thus with the 1973TS. While with the latter just displaying all the messages statically, however the former showed “This Train Is For” scrolling however COCKFOSTERS was in capitals and was static for five seconds, I know from first hand that the Networker Class 365, 465, 466 had a similar setup. For example “This Train Is For CAMBRIDGE with the destination in capitals and static.

I think the 1973TS PIS indicators were modernized to their existing format when Julie Berry replaced the Manuel Male Driver announcer (Nick) in 2006. As he did perform a terminating announcement which started with “This Train Is For”

The 1996TS initially had static “Destination Stanmore” messages however were modified to be scrolling

To see original 1996TS static DMIs ( 5.14)
To hear DVA “VERA” at Oxford Circus (8.30)

 

[Taunton]

Did it get mentioned previously, but today on the Jubilee we heard quite a different voice for the train announcements; seemed new. Female, much softer cadence. Even the rest of the family commented on it!

 

[ThameslinkUser]

For all stations or just North Greenwich and Canning Town?

 

[Taunton]

For all stations or just North Greenwich and Canning Town?

As we were actually travelling between just those two, I cannot comment further .

What's notable about these two?

 

[ThameslinkUser]

They've both had their announcements re-recorded to advertise the London Cable Car and City Hall respectively.

 

[Recessio]

Does City Hall need advertising? They didn't advertise the previous one for the last 22 years!

 

[ThameslinkUser]

Old City Hall wasn't in the middle of nowhere to make a small cost saving...

 

[Taunton]

I thought the whole idea of the New City Hall was for staff and visitors to make use of the Cable Car (which actually passes over its roof) for commuting, so surely the new announcements should only be at North Greenwich, and not Canning Town ...

 

[ThameslinkUser]

City Hall themselves don't make mention of the cable car in their 'How to find City Hall' page. North Greenwich doesn't advertise City Hall in any capacity.

 

[RacsoMoquette]

Does anybody bear any recordings of DVA “ANITA” circa 1997/2003?
Also some recordings of DVA “VERA” on the C Stock would be splendid if possible.

Is DVA “VERA” still in operation on certain LUL Lifts? From memory I can possibly recall maybe Regents Park, Mornington Crescent, Chalk Farm and Hampstead may still utilise “VERA“ while does Belsize Park still have “ANITA”? From memory about ten years ago, the was an extreamley turse sounding woman who sounded similar to the latter who sounded roughly akin to this: There is NO SMOKING ANYWHERE on the UNDERGROUND! She really emphasized particular words with such vigure! Her tone sounded alike. She may have also been present at Tuffnel Park.

 

[stadler]

Does anybody bear any recordings of DVA “ANITA” circa 1997/2003?
Also some recordings of DVA “VERA” on the C Stock would be splendid if possible.

Is DVA “VERA” still in operation on certain LUL Lifts? From memory I can possibly recall maybe Regents Park, Mornington Crescent, Chalk Farm and Hampstead may still utilise “VERA“ while does Belsize Park still have “ANITA”? From memory about ten years ago, the was an extreamley turse sounding woman who sounded similar to the latter who sounded roughly akin to this: There is NO SMOKING ANYWHERE on the UNDERGROUND! She really emphasized particular words with such vigure! Her tone sounded alike. She may have also been present at Tuffnel Park.

All of the original Maggie Greenwood ("Anita") sound files (used from 1997 to 2003 until Celia Drummond was added) are here:

JubiSound101

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

LU Jubilee Line Announcements 1998

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

These are the original sound files rather than actual recordings that people have recorded on the trains.

 

[RacsoMoquette]

Fabulous! Why was “Maggie Greenwoods” announcements referred to a “ANITA”? Was it common to give DVAs a fake system name of that period? Similar story with “VERA” is it not!

 

[stadler]

Fabulous! Why was “Maggie Greenwoods” announcements referred to a “ANITA”? Was it common to give DVAs a fake system name of that period? Similar story with “VERA” is it not!

I think enthusiasts just never knew who these people were so some enthusiast just made up a name and everyone copied. This sort of thing is very common with announcers. Pauline Cavilla and Mark Stutter (the old Thales system announcers from 2005 to 2012 at Southeastern stations) were referred to at "Charlotte" and "Roger" originally. Anne Jermy (who is the most common voice of the Worldline system used at stations all over England) was referred to as "Sarah" originally. Eryl Jones (the Welsh announcer at TFW stations) was reffered to as "Glyn" originally. There are dozens of other examples. So i think people just do not know who they are and someone just makes up a name and then others copy and that becomes what they are known as.

stadler: How Simply Splendid! I applauded for efforts to provide some quality recordings of the rather dour and solemn “VERA”. I am under the impression that during that evocative period the early DVA systems akin to “ANITA “VERA” and “CELIA” were real people, however just with a prosthetic system name or acronym. It seems acquir that the 1992TS DVA Janet Mayo did not have a name in quotations.

I remember hearing from other similar forums, that the general consensus regarding “VERA” was voiced by a woman called Charlotte Green, however that is all the information I bear of her.
Also purely speculation, some consider the 1995TS DVA “CELIA” to be an acronym of “Complete Electronic Line Information Announcer”. I personally do not think it is thus, and the DVA is frequently referred to as just “Celia Drummond”

Also would anyone bear any sound files regarding “VERA on the C Stock?

Anita was found out to be Maggie Greenwood recently but she is still most commonly referred to as Anita as that is what everyone has known her as for so many years. She also used to do the English announcements on the Nuremburg U Bahn trains. I think someone said that Anita stood for "Annoying In Train Announcer" so presumably whoever came up with the name was not a fan of her announcements.

Someone else years ago said that Celia stood for "Creates Excellent Line Information Ambience" so there seems to be a few different acronyms that people have made up but of course Celia Drummond is her real name.

Vera apparently stood for "Very Erratic Repetitive Announcer" according to what i have heard from some people.

I have never been able to find out who Vera was but that is interesting that you mention Charlotte Green as that is the first time that i have ever heard any name.

Charlotte Green is the right sort of age and has done some voiceover work and worked at the BBC so was the sort of person who TFL would have chosen at the time:

Charlotte Green - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

You can listen to her showreel here:

Charlotte Green - Excellent Talent

excellenttalent.com

She does not really sound exactly like Vera but this was almost thirty years ago and voices do change. So it may be her. It is difficult to know for sure.

Unfortunately i have never been able to find any recordings of Vera on the C Stock trains.

In addition to this the 92s got 2 new manual message announcements about 6 months ago by a male. Pretty sure they are inhouse announcements?

A red signal announcement (which seems to be everyone's favourite)
A no smoking/vaping announcement

Adrian Hieatt is his name. He is indeed a staff member. He is being used to replace Emma Clarke entirely on the refurbished 1992 Stock trains (and refurbished 1972 Stock trains too) which have started entering service. On the refurbished trains he announces the stations and destinations and everything. On the unrefurbished trains they have begun adding his voice for the manual generic announcements only.

 

[RacsoMoquette]

Would anybody else bear any recordings of DVA "VERA" on the C Stock?
I read before on a District Dave's thread that the 1972TS (Pre 2024 Refurbishment) that the units still bear the original system from 1997, does this mean that DVA "VERA" and older iterations on Emma Clarke still exist? Or have they been permanently deleted from the system.

I have been reliably informed that the C Stock (Pre Sarah Parnell in 2009) also had the same system akin to the 1972TS

Have DVA "VERA" announcements ever been initiated after 2001 accidently?

Also, who does the Bakerloo Line approaching terminating announcement? for example " Ladies and Gentleman, this train terminates at the next station, please leave the train at the next station, taking your belongings with you! To me it sounds akin to Sarah Parnell. Why did it replace Emma Clarke initially?

 

[meridian222017]

Does anybody bear any recordings of DVA “ANITA” circa 1997/2003?
Also some recordings of DVA “VERA” on the C Stock would be splendid if possible.

Is DVA “VERA” still in operation on certain LUL Lifts? From memory I can possibly recall maybe Regents Park, Mornington Crescent, Chalk Farm and Hampstead may still utilise “VERA“ while does Belsize Park still have “ANITA”? From memory about ten years ago, the was an extreamley turse sounding woman who sounded similar to the latter who sounded roughly akin to this: There is NO SMOKING ANYWHERE on the UNDERGROUND! She really emphasized particular words with such vigure! Her tone sounded alike. She may have also been present at Tuffnel Park.

There are no lifts with the 'Vera' voice left on the system. The last ones were Lambeth North and Elephant & Castle (Bakerloo line), and were replaced in late 2014. These were station specific messages announcing landmarks and bus connections available on the way up, and directions to the platforms and the destinations each one serviced going down. In addition, you could get it to say 'please DO NOT obstruct the doors' if you purposely blocked them from closing.

They were already a surreal throwback to a long gone era of the underground at that point!

Would anybody else bear any recordings of DVA "VERA" on the C Stock?
I read before on a District Dave's thread that the 1972TS (Pre 2024 Refurbishment) that the units still bear the original system from 1997, does this mean that DVA "VERA" and older iterations on Emma Clarke still exist? Or have they been permanently deleted from the system.

I have been reliably informed that the C Stock (Pre Sarah Parnell in 2009) also had the same system akin to the 1972TS

Have DVA "VERA" announcements ever been initiated after 2001 accidently?

Also, who does the Bakerloo Line approaching terminating announcement? for example " Ladies and Gentleman, this train terminates at the next station, please leave the train at the next station, taking your belongings with you! To me it sounds akin to Sarah Parnell. Why did it replace Emma Clarke initially?

There are no 'old versions' of announcements still loaded into any system on any stock - the data storage available is limited, so each time an update is made, it overwrites the previous version.

 

[ballas]

Adrian Hieatt is his name. He is indeed a staff member. He is being used to replace Emma Clarke entirely on the refurbished 1992 Stock trains (and refurbished 1972 Stock trains too) which have started entering service. On the refurbished trains he announces the stations and destinations and everything. On the unrefurbished trains they have begun adding his voice for the manual generic announcements only.

Just to note of course that he is not being used to replace Emma Clarke entirely, he is only being used for testing. A new female voice will be used on the refurbished trains.

 

[xtmw]

Adrian Hieatt is his name. He is indeed a staff member. He is being used to replace Emma Clarke entirely on the refurbished 1992 Stock trains (and refurbished 1972 Stock trains too) which have started entering service. On the refurbished trains he announces the stations and destinations and everything. On the unrefurbished trains they have begun adding his voice for the manual generic announcements only.

He made his 'debut' in 2020 with the face covering announcements on the 09 and S stock! Long gone now.

There never was a red signal announcement on the 92s and the no smoking one was updated to include the use of e-cigarettes & vapes. The red signal announcement seems to be favourable among many T/OPs !

 

[Jimini]

The red signal announcement seems to be favourable among many T/OPs !

Think I've read somewhere that if they stop at a red for more than 60 seconds in a tunnel they have to play that one.

 

[xtmw]

It's 90 seconds in a station and 45-60 in a tunnel. However most just play it after 30 seconds.

 

[Dstock7080]

Manual announcements must be made before 30seconds delay in tunnels

 

[Jimini]

Manual announcements must be made before 30seconds delay in tunnels

Ta for clarifying chap!

 

[bramling]

There are no lifts with the 'Vera' voice left on the system. The last ones were Lambeth North and Elephant & Castle (Bakerloo line), and were replaced in late 2014. These were station specific messages announcing landmarks and bus connections available on the way up, and directions to the platforms and the destinations each one serviced going down. In addition, you could get it to say 'please DO NOT obstruct the doors' if you purposely blocked them from closing.

There is actually one lift which still has these messages. One of the two at Mornington Crescent. Probably best to keep quiet about it or it will get changed!

 

[Recessio]

Manual announcements must be made before 30seconds delay in tunnels

By manual do you mean a recorded announcement but manually selected by the driver, or does the driver have to actually make an announcement themselves over the tannoy?

 

[meridian222017]

There is actually one lift which still has these messages. One of the two at Mornington Crescent. Probably best to keep quiet about it or it will get changed!

Thanks, I was genuinely unaware that one still remained!

As heard in the second half of this video, just the one 'Vera' lift with 'stand clear of the doors please' and the obstruct message mentioned earlier - none of the extra stuff found in the old Bakerloo lifts.
I did try to ask TfL many years ago if they had further information about, or indeed the original recordings of these messages, but alas they could find nothing as usual.

Another video suggests these lifts are due for replacement soon in any case.