Northern CIS: uncared for?

[James H]

TTS announcements always make me think of the company: "you care so little about either us passengers or the content of this message that you can't even be bothered to have a real person say it"

 

[waterboo]

Try catching a class 170 on the Harrogate line, they’ve butchered the announcements on those!

Female voice : “This is the Northern service to…” abruptly cut off by the new male voice “YORK!”

Oh boy the 170's are bad! The female "this is a northern service to" also seems exceeding high pitched and at a fast tempo that it makes one jolt slightly when it is played.

I think switching to a male announcer was in part due to the poor speakers on the 170s which have a tendancy to crackle with high pitched voices - but the result is a garbled mess.

It will be a shame when they change the announcements for the class 333s on the Airedale and wharfedale services.

 

[Lost property]

I was amused to learn one Mr L.Gallagher, noted for his articulation and inflection, would be providing announcements for Metrolink....presumably the "yer at effing (select station of choice) where the eff do you effing think yer are ! " will have been edited out.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Wilmslow C.I.S. still says Restaurant car for First class passengers for Avanti services (to Manchester and Euston!)

That's what is in the data - Avanti put that on for services that have the full hot food service in First.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

I've noticed that too. The sheer venom with which he spits out the word "Barnsley" suggests he must have had a very unpleasant experience there.

Sounds like they've changed it yet, in Northern's inimitable way, made it even worse. On my 195 home last night, instead of an angry man bellowing "BAAARNSLEY" they've cut in a very short version which sounds like "Bunzlee" but seems totally out of context with the rest of the sentence.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Sounds like they've changed it yet, in Northern's inimitable way, made it even worse. On my 195 home last night, instead of an angry man bellowing "BAAARNSLEY" they've cut in a very short version which sounds like "Bunzlee" but seems totally out of context with the rest of the sentence.

When will TOCs realise that the only way to do this well is a professional voice artist, as they actually had before, and she was great?

(ATOS Anne is about the only decent one who isn't a professional voice artist - perhaps she should be!)

 

[johntea]

Wilmslow C.I.S. still says Restaurant car for First class passengers for Avanti services (to Manchester and Euston!)

Better than certain Northern services from Carlisle to Leeds being advertised as having a refreshment trolley service available!

Which is strictly true but in the sense that it is provided by the community rail partnership rather than Northern, and only between Settle and Appleby /Carlisle or vice versa until mid afternoon

So quite amusing when stood at Keighley at 10pm hearing the CIS advertising it!

They might have fixed it this was several years ago now but it did make me chuckle

 

[InkyScrolls]

Better than certain Northern services from Carlisle to Leeds being advertised as having a refreshment trolley service available!

Which is strictly true but in the sense that it is provided by the community rail partnership rather than Northern, and only between Settle and Appleby /Carlisle or vice versa until mid afternoon

So quite amusing when stood at Keighley at 10pm hearing the CIS advertising it!

They might have fixed it this was several years ago now but it did make me chuckle

It's not been fixed - so passengers awaiting the 2221 from Keighley to Leeds will no doubt be disappointed when it turns up without a trolley!

 

[northwichcat]

It's not been fixed - so passengers awaiting the 2221 from Keighley to Leeds will no doubt be disappointed when it turns up without a trolley!

They'll have to manage without a 330ml can of Stella and a plastic cup to pour it into.

 

[JD2168]

Sounds like they've changed it yet, in Northern's inimitable way, made it even worse. On my 195 home last night, instead of an angry man bellowing "BAAARNSLEY" they've cut in a very short version which sounds like "Bunzlee" but seems totally out of context with the rest of the sentence.

I heard it today on a Class 195 myself. It sounds very poor & not very helpful particularly to blind or partially sighted passengers who may be travelling by themselves. The changing from female to male voice during the announcement almost makes it seem worse & makes it stand out more promptly.

 

[Purple Train]

Avanti do a really good job of sorting out which bits are delivered by which announcer. I suspect Northern's might feel less disjointed if they haven't been chopped and changed so much!

That being said, it's hardly rocket science. Unless they're astonishingly lazy (which is a possibility that can never be discounted), it'll presumably all be fine after a couple of re-recordings - Laura Palmer recording stations and Pete Corley recording the safety announcements, at a guess (and, in my opinion, the safety announcements would suit Pete's voice much, much better!), which will presumably be easier to arrange than if they were professional voice-over artists - but would it really have been so difficult to get everything right the first time?

 

[northwichcat]

On RENFE services in Spain, the Spanish annoucements are followed by English ones. The English annoucements have been recorded by a British person but they haven't done the station annoucements. So you get something like:

Neutral British voice "We will shortly be arriving at"
Spanish voice "Malaga Maria Zambrano"
Neutral British voice making rest of annoucement.

It prevents the British person making incorrect annoucements with regards to Spanish place names and as the British voice has a neutral accent it's easy to understand for people who speak English as a second language e.g. German and Dutch tourists. The one downside is pause before the station name is a big long.

Northern using Peter's Yorkshire dialect doesn't have the benefit of non-Yorkshire stations being pronounced correctly and it's not an easy accent for non-native speakers to understand. So it's the worst of both worlds.

 

[Gathursty]

I regularly drive past Pemberton after the last services of the day and they still show trains to Manchester, Blackburn and Headbolt Lane after they have left.

 

[bramling]

I've noticed that with Northern, both onboard their trains, as well as at their stations, their CIS (customer information systems) is increasingly unreliable and poor sounding.

Onboard their trains, Northern are rolling out new voices for their automated announcements across their entire fleet, replacing the original voices, which I believe was introduced by Arriva(?) The new voices sound unprofessional, slow, as well as having some rather questionable pronunciations - "tu'" instead of 'to', for example. I've noticed various passengers make facial expressions in reaction to the announcements, as well as comments about how daft they now sound.

At the stations, the CIS is simply a mess. At various stations, the screens are either switched off or unable to display departures, with a URL and/or phone number displayed for live departures. The announcements at stations is no better, either. They either don't work, are far too quiet, or just cut out/are glitchy sounding. Wilmslow, for example, has had an issue with its P.A system for a number of years now, despite multiple messages sent to Northern explaining what is wrong with it.

In short, there are multiple faults with the system.

With Celia Drummond, the automated station announcer, having passed away quite a few years ago, any new sayings or words which need recording are botched in by another voice, making it all sound rather messy. There are random pauses and/or wild fluctuations in speed mid-sentence too.

I personally haven't noticed it this bad with any other TOCs. Why is it so bad for Northern?

That new voice sounds awful. And what’s this about “please report it to our team”? What on earth is Northern’s team? Why can they not just say to a member of staff?

 

[47434]

I like the new NT announcements.

 

[yorksrob]

Had a similar experience to the OP at my Northern run station.

All the information screens showing the train as cancelled. Lots of confused looking passengers.

What I think caused it was that the train started short at Retford rather than Lincoln, however still not much help to passengers.

Fortunately Traksy showed the train as approaching the station. My advice - check on Traksy.

 

[artemic]

Around this time last year I posted about the CIS that Northern had installed at Prestbury station in ~2019 that still was not working at the time.
Within a few weeks it had suddenly sprung to life (after being turned on, covered up, revealed and switched off in various iterations) and was displaying both the correct time & departures for the first time in three years!
The same system is in place at Adlington (Cheshire) and is equally prone to failure, disconnection or breakage, although it did at least work sometimes.

There is definitely a lack of care in how these are installed though... both at Prestbury are visible only on one side - on the southbound platform having been installed against a station building, and the one on the northbound is obscured by the footbridge supports. Both are also far enough from the platform edge that they are only visible from a small section of the platform in the middle. (Do they have to be this far inwards?)
When the Manchester-bound one was replaced at Davenport station it was installed such that the majority of text is higher up than the original, and is obscured by the roof of the shelter under which the majority of passengers wait.

 

[northwichcat]

both at Prestbury are visible only on one side on the southbound platform having been installed against a station building, and the one on the northbound is obscured by the footbridge supports

At least it has two sides. Other than the one on the Manchester bound platform at Northwich, the ones at Mid-Cheshire stations between Hale and Chester only have a single side with two lines of text and some stations don't have any CIS at all. I'm surprised Prestbury got a superior CIS type to Knutsford. I can understand the Greater Manchester stations getting better because of TfGM but not a in Cheshire getting a better type than another station with higher usage. Maybe the plan was to install single sided ones and then they managed to get doubled sized ones?

 

[XCTurbostar]

Is this a 170 coming back?

Realtime Trains | 5E12 0932 Wolverton Centre Sidings to Heaton T&R.S.M.D. | 28/10/2023

Real-time train running information for 5E12 0932 departure from Wolverton Centre Sidings to Heaton T&R.S.M.D. on 28/10/2023. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[johntea]

The CIS at Castleford has been out of order for almost a week now, just seems stuck in a reboot cycle followed by 'Sorry I'm out of order!'

Also out of order this morning at Harrogate

 

[Starmill]

It's not been fixed - so passengers awaiting the 2221 from Keighley to Leeds will no doubt be disappointed when it turns up without a trolley!

To be fair, that's the system working correctly. Northern put "trolley service" on all of the Leeds - Carlisle services all the way, rather than just between Settle and Carlisle.

 

[Route115?]

Some things get fixed quicker than others. (Could be spare parts, I don't know.) The Down platform display at West Ruislip was out of service for weeks or months. Its working now though.

 

[Parallel]

Does anyone know if they’ve fixed the issue at Meadowhall or is Celia Drummond still very fuzzy there?

 

[Sebrh11]

Good news! Peter Corley can now say "to"! Recording courtesy of a fellow announcements enthusiast.

 

[TUC]

TTS announcements always make me think of the company: "you care so little about either us passengers or the content of this message that you can't even be bothered to have a real person say it"

I think the same when I hear a conductor doing very effective announcements and feel 'if you can do this amidst everything else you're doing, why can't your colleagues?'

 

[JD2168]

Something I have noticed on the Sheffield to Leeds limited stop service when the announcements of the next station are made it is just a Male voice with no Female voice. It makes it sound less terrible than before with both male & female voices.

 

[Sebrh11]

Something I have noticed on the Sheffield to Leeds limited stop service when the announcements of the next station are made it is just a Male voice with no Female voice. It makes it sound less terrible than before with both male & female voices.

Atleast it's not a mess like with Laura Palmer saying "this is the northern service to" because Peter said 'tuh"