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Title: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: BerkshireBugsy on March 07, 2012, 10:23:28 On the way home last night from Reading to Thatcham on the above service there was an announcment by the TM with a slight twist to it. Most TM PA announcments,by neccessity, are functional and not really mean to be entertaining but the TM made a point of advising "that the route down to Bath followed the course of the Kennet and Avon Canal and now that we have the light we can enjoy the views"...
Just to say it made a nice change...but I do seem to remember a similar announcement on the journey home one evening last summer (and I think it was the same TM). Nice touch ...even though it was probably dark by the time the service got past kintbury. Conversly am I the only person who finds the "new" Phil V2 station announcements despressing? Reminds me very much of Marvin from Hitchhikers guide - "Life, don't talk to me about life" off course we all know the answer is "42" Dave Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: Louis94 on March 07, 2012, 11:16:19 Conversly am I the only person who finds the "new" Phil V2 station announcements despressing? Reminds me very much of Marvin from Hitchhikers guide - "Life, don't talk to me about life" Is he back at Reading now then? I know he was to begin with but then disappeared! Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: BerkshireBugsy on March 07, 2012, 11:25:39 Conversly am I the only person who finds the "new" Phil V2 station announcements despressing? Reminds me very much of Marvin from Hitchhikers guide - "Life, don't talk to me about life" Is he back at Reading now then? I know he was to begin with but then disappeared! Sorry for the confusion - I as talking about the announcments at Thatcham station. I am probably wrong but the announcments on P2 in the morning seem to be female but in the evenings on P2 they are Phil V2. I thought the idea was that they were consistent for a given platform. I may be wrong about the gender of the morning announcment as it is very early :) Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: inspector_blakey on March 07, 2012, 15:47:08 Conversly am I the only person who finds the "new" Phil V2 station announcements despressing? Reminds me very much of Marvin from Hitchhikers guide - "Life, don't talk to me about life" The absolute worst place for depressing announcements I know of is Heathrow Terminal 5 (quite possible throughout the other terminals as well, but I haven't used any of them for ages). The announcements throughout the terminal and on the little shuttle thingy that gets you to and from the B/C sub-terminals sound like they're a synthesized voice, but from a computer that was heavily drugged on some kind of sedative. The intonation is utterly flat and some of the pronounciations are weird. I find them horrid to listen to and genuinely slightly creepy. Oh yeah, and in their wisdom BA always seem to have staff with very pronounced European accents making the manual announcements too... Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: inspector_blakey on March 07, 2012, 15:52:50 Incidentally, was the train manager male or female? A few years back I was on a Reading - Bristol train diverted via the B&H and the female train manager (one of FGW's finest, won't name names but I sincerely hope she still works for them even though I haven't seen here in a while) made occasional discreet announcments to point out items of interest along the way like the Westbury white horse.
Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: BerkshireBugsy on March 07, 2012, 15:54:33 Incidentally, was the train manager male or female? A few years back I was on a Reading - Bristol train diverted via the B&H and the female train manager (one of FGW's finest, won't name names but I sincerely hope she still works for them even though I haven't seen here in a while) made occasional discreet announcments to point out items of interest along the way like the Westbury white horse. This sounded like a young male. I do have to say that some "express cafe" staff who make the "xxx is now open" sound so bored Im not sure I would want to make the effort to buy anything from them.. Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: JayMac on March 07, 2012, 23:05:14 Conversly am I the only person who finds the "new" Phil V2 station announcements despressing? Reminds me very much of Marvin from Hitchhikers guide - "Life, don't talk to me about life" You should've heard the PA at Westbury today. Something seriously wrong with system. Either the female supplying the voice was gargling with pebbles or she had been assimilated by Daleks. ;D Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: BerkshireBugsy on March 08, 2012, 06:52:07 Conversly am I the only person who finds the "new" Phil V2 station announcements despressing? Reminds me very much of Marvin from Hitchhikers guide - "Life, don't talk to me about life" You should've heard the PA at Westbury today. Something seriously wrong with system. Either the female supplying the voice was gargling with pebbles or she had been assimilated by Daleks. ;D So at Westbury do you get announcments like "the xx:xx service from YYY wil ex-terminate here"? I'll get my coat... Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: EBrown on March 08, 2012, 07:19:27 So at Westbury do you get announcments like "the xx:xx service from YYY wil ex-terminate here"? :)I'll get my coat... Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: inspector_blakey on March 08, 2012, 14:51:23 You should've heard the PA at Westbury today. Something seriously wrong with system. Either the female supplying the voice was gargling with pebbles or she had been assimilated by Daleks. ;D Yanking this yet further off topic, it's many, many years since I've watched any Star Trek (or Dr Who for that matter) but I do have a vague recollection that it was the Borg who assimilated things and not the Daleks :P Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: chineseJohn on March 08, 2012, 15:19:21 On the way home last night from Reading to Thatcham on the above service there was an announcment by the TM with a slight twist to it. Most TM PA announcments,by neccessity, are functional and not really mean to be entertaining but the TM made a point of advising "that the route down to Bath followed the course of the Kennet and Avon Canal and now that we have the light we can enjoy the views"... Just to say it made a nice change...but I do seem to remember a similar announcement on the journey home one evening last summer (and I think it was the same TM). Nice touch ...even though it was probably dark by the time the service got past kintbury. I enjoyed the announcement - it;s nice to have something different Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: BerkshireBugsy on March 08, 2012, 16:47:22 On the way home last night from Reading to Thatcham on the above service there was an announcment by the TM with a slight twist to it. Most TM PA announcments,by neccessity, are functional and not really mean to be entertaining but the TM made a point of advising "that the route down to Bath followed the course of the Kennet and Avon Canal and now that we have the light we can enjoy the views"... Just to say it made a nice change...but I do seem to remember a similar announcement on the journey home one evening last summer (and I think it was the same TM). Nice touch ...even though it was probably dark by the time the service got past kintbury. I enjoyed the announcement - it;s nice to have something different I liked it - I think it was a nice sign spring is on its way Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: Btline on March 08, 2012, 17:46:15 Perhaps the announcments are done on direction and not platform. Celia towards London, Phil away from London? Good to know that Phil's making a come-back. Stop the spread of Ruth!
Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: Louis94 on March 08, 2012, 19:44:18 Perhaps the announcments are done on direction and not platform. Celia towards London, Phil away from London? Good to know that Phil's making a come-back. Stop the spread of Ruth! What are you on about?! For a start Phil and Celia are being removed, and secondly Ruth isnt spreading, infact she is now only at ATW stations... Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: bobm on March 08, 2012, 20:11:29 Perhaps the announcments are done on direction and not platform. Celia towards London, Phil away from London? Good to know that Phil's making a come-back. Stop the spread of Ruth! It's the other way round at Swindon. Phil on the up platforms and Celia on the down. Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: Btline on March 08, 2012, 22:22:56 Sorry, I meant Anne, not Ruth.
Still weird if both Phil and Celia are on the same platform at the same time! Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: BerkshireBugsy on March 09, 2012, 08:56:33 Perhaps the announcments are done on direction and not platform. Celia towards London, Phil away from London? Good to know that Phil's making a come-back. Stop the spread of Ruth! What are you on about?! For a start Phil and Celia are being removed, and secondly Ruth isnt spreading, infact she is now only at ATW stations... At Thatcham the male announce sounds like a "slowed down version" of Phil but it is so depressing I don't listen to it! Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: Louis94 on March 09, 2012, 10:01:23 Sorry, I meant Anne, not Ruth. Still weird if both Phil and Celia are on the same platform at the same time! BerkshireBugsy is not refering to Phil and Celia i'm afraid :( But the new announcers which if you ask me both (Anne and Rodger) are as bad as each other... Title: Re: An unusual PA announcment on the 1736 Reading to Bristol Via Newbury Post by: Super Guard on March 10, 2012, 09:35:42 Perhaps the announcments are done on direction and not platform. Celia towards London, Phil away from London? Good to know that Phil's making a come-back. Stop the spread of Ruth! What are you on about?! For a start Phil and Celia are being removed, and secondly Ruth isnt spreading, infact she is now only at ATW stations... I think he mistook "Phil V2" as being Phil and not matey who works at Reading who does the recorded engineering announcements. This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. Views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that content provided contravenes our posting rules ( see http://railcustomer.info/1761 ). The forum is hosted by Well House Consultants - http://www.wellho.net |