Station and on board train announcements - merged topic, ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[paul7575]

Most people take chances, i'd try and board with the alarm sounding, slightly suprising that the doors managed to gain interlock with a hand in there though.

Explained why in the report isn't it?  They note the gap required to prevent closed detection, and that the typical adult woman's figures are significantly smaller than that gap.

Probably tested on a load of big blokes by BR^▸ (British Rail(ways))...

Paul

[woody]

Does the growing dialogue of on-train announcements these days annoy you.Then you will find the following Mail online article very amusing.I certainly did,enjoy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2172178/Your-train-delay-delayed-future-delays.html

[XPT]

I've noticed a number of these annoucements pronouncing station names wrongly.

Keynsham - one of the female announcers pronounces this as Key-nsham, rather than Kay-nsham.

Trowbridge - One of the  new female announcers is pronouncing the row part of the name in the same way that you would pronounce cow, rather than  the correct pronounciation.

Salisbury - The same female as above is pronouncing this as Sal-sbury, rather than the correct pronounciation of Sole-sbury.

Can anyone else name any other stations which are pronounced incorrectly on the prerecorded announcements?

Why are these annoucements recorded with the incorrect pronounciations of some of the stations?

Also something else worth mentioning.  When at Gloucester today, the annoucement for the 1351 (HST^▸ (High Speed Train)) service to Cheltenham Spa was announced as ".....The 1351 Cheltenham Spa Express service, calling at Cheltenham Spa ONLY.".  Why is this announced as an express service calling at Cheltenham ONLY when there are no intermediate stations between Gloucester and Cheltenham anyway??  Any service between the two stations is pretty much the same duration, whether it be a Class 153, 158, 170, Voyager, or HST!  So don't really know where the "express service" comes into it!

[Louis94]

Can anyone else name any other stations which are pronounced incorrectly on the prerecorded announcements?

Why are these annoucements recorded with the incorrect pronounciations of some of the stations?

Also something else worth mentioning.  When at Gloucester today, the annoucement for the 1351 (HST^▸ (High Speed Train)) service to Cheltenham Spa was announced as ".....The 1351 Cheltenham Spa Express service, calling at Cheltenham Spa ONLY.".  Why is this announced as an express service calling at Cheltenham ONLY when there are no intermediate stations between Gloucester and Cheltenham anyway??  Any service between the two stations is pretty much the same duration, whether it be a Class 153, 158, 170, Voyager, or HST!  So don't really know where the "express service" comes into it!

Firstly the new PA^▸ (Public Address) system is cheap, awful rubbish, so please don't expect it to be anything like what it replaced at big stations like Bristol TM^‡(resolve), Bath, etc. FGW^▸ (First Great Western) went for value instead of quality when getting the new system.

Secondly the way it says 'Cheltenham Spa Express' is referring to the train name, and is NOT in any way a description of the service.

[XPT]

Yes these new PA^▸ (Public Address) systems across FGW^▸ (First Great Western) region, are the voices actually computer generated?

As for the Cheltenham Spa Express announcement, can't say I've ever heard announcements before which actually refer to the train name.  Is this commonplace?

[bobm]

It is at Swindon. The only problem is you get a burst of what sounds like static after each name.  I've heard both the Merchant Venturer and the Torbay Express announced at Swindon.

[Brucey]

Unfortunately other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) have also installed this system in recent years.  I find the voice to be very unclear and the messages do not flow as the pauses are in all the wrong places.

One that is particularly bad is Northallerton, which is pronounced so badly it could be mistaken for Northampton.

Strangely, the only messages that seem clear are "Tickets marked x trains only are not valid on this train".

[BerkshireBugsy]

The onboard announcments on the North Downs line seem to regard "North Camp" as "North C" but on the whole the announcments are generally clear.

I may be dreaming but it seems the announcments at Reigate for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) services are still done by Phil. The new recordings on some of the other stations I use have a new voice with new spacing which has been discussed before on these forums. I really find these announcments depressing....life, don't talk to me about life!

42

Dave

[Brucey]

I may be dreaming but it seems the announcments at Reigate for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) services are still done by Phil.

Reigate station is managed by Southern.  As far as I am aware, for the time being anyway, they are retaining the existing system.

[BerkshireBugsy]

I may be dreaming but it seems the announcments at Reigate for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) services are still done by Phil.

Reigate station is managed by Southern.  As far as I am aware, for the time being anyway, they are retaining the existing system.

I did wonder if it was anything to do with being a non-FGW station. Thanks for that Brucey!

[Southern Stag]

It is at Swindon. The only problem is you get a burst of what sounds like static after each name.  I've heard both the Merchant Venturer and the Torbay Express announced at Swindon.

The names are announced at all FGW^▸ (First Great Western) stations. There are a couple of the newer names that aren't announced though. All the names done by the female voice have that static sound, but none of the names done by the male voice do.

Mispronounced places I can think of are Lostwithiel by the female voice. She now says Lost-with-e-el rather than Lost-with-e-l. She did use to say Lost-withel, which was even worse. The male voice also says Chelt-en-ham with a clear en and ham rather than Chelt-nam.

[BerkshireBugsy]

..and let's not forget St. Germans...which is now pronounced differently that it used to be.

[Cruithne3753]

I've heard "Kaynsham" at Worcester Foregate Street.

There's also a couple of  nuances in automated announcements I've heard:-

"...calling at Bristol Temple Meads, Parson Street, Nailsea and Backwell, YATTON! Weston Super Mare, Highbridge and Burnham, Bridgwater and... ...Taunton.

There's an emphasis on Yatton, as if to say "Oooh! Look! Yatton! That's worth knowing!"

Also, a slight pause before Taunton as if it's having trouble remembering:-

"Town in Somerset... You know, the cider place... what is it again? (slaps head and snaps fingers a few times)  "That's it, Taunton!"

[TonyK]

I recall seeing a TV programme about the announcements. The guy, whose name eludes me, recorded every station name three times, with three different inflections, to cover the first station in a list, one in the middle, and the last in a list, along with all the other things that need to be said. I assume a computer program clips the relevant bits together, then plays them? The wrong "YATTON" must be in the one Cruithne3753 heard. I heard similar in Alicante airport, where the announcement in English had a shouted "LONDON".
We had a similar system years ago in an office I worked in, linked to a queuing system. The technology was a bit beyond the computer  it was connected to. So occasionally, you would hear "Ticket number One hundred" and see someone stand up. Moments later, it would say "and forty", causing our man to sit down, and someone else stand, before, after a pause for comic effect that Eric Morecambe would have been proud of, saying "Seven! Room number..", then crashing.

[Temple Meads]

There are numerous problems with the new systems, although they do seem to have improved recently (or am I just used to them now?), the first mistake that springs to mind, is the pronunciation of "Plymouth" as "Plymuff"... 

I just don't think that "Anne's" voice (the new female voice) is really suited to railway announcements...