Manual announcements at residential stations

[TCat]

I live next to an open platform station which serves as main transport for a large events venue. The station is generally quiet with low footfall except at event times where obviously the footfall and the noise increase. I'm struggling to make sense of what is and is not announced by staff during busy times though. I'd expect the manual announcement system to be used for limited crowd control but instead it seems to be used for 'anything and everything'- including information duplicating automated announcements (often delivered straight over the top of those automatic announcements at much higher volumes). Is this type of thing normal?

 

[Dr Hoo]

I live next to an open platform station which serves as main transport for a large events venue. The station is generally quiet with low footfall except at event times where obviously the footfall and the noise increase. I'm struggling to make sense of what is and is not announced by staff during busy times though. I'd expect the manual announcement system to be used for limited crowd control but instead it seems to be used for 'anything and everything'- including information duplicating automated announcements (often delivered straight over the top of those automatic announcements at much higher volumes). Is this type of thing normal?

Duplicate ‘live’ announcements either after or during automated announcements telling essentially the same thing seem to be very common on some trains and stations (I.e not ‘one- off’ staff errors because they thought that the automated system wasn’t working or similar).
Stockport and Doncaster stations are regular examples.

 

[Peter0124]

Duplicate ‘live’ announcements either after or during automated announcements telling essentially the same thing seem to be very common on some trains and stations (I.e not ‘one- off’ staff errors because they thought that the automated system wasn’t working or similar).

I don't understand why some interrupt an automated announcement half-way through to manually announce essentially the same thing. Either get rid of the Automated system or leave it alone to do it's job!

 

[swt_passenger]

Duplicate ‘live’ announcements either after or during automated announcements telling essentially the same thing seem to be very common on some trains and stations (I.e not ‘one- off’ staff errors because they thought that the automated system wasn’t working or similar).
Stockport and Doncaster stations are regular examples.

I suspect the automatic systems also default to repeating any announcement that is broken into by something else. So any ill-timed manual intervention forces a duplicate…

 

[kacper]

They seem to do this at Northumberland Park and Meridian Water. In fact they only seem to have proper staffing only on event days

 

[jammmmmsssssss]

I've seen this many times at Cambridge and Ely

 

[Recessio]

I wonder if customers suddenly listen in if a manual announcement is made, whereas they often tune out the automated ones? Manual announcements are in my experience normally made due to disruption or platform alterations, so I'll always pause for a second and listen in.

 

[Taunton]

For a contrast, Slough has installed constant auto announcements which override each other, saying the same thing. In the spirit of equality, half the voices are male and half female. They are all round the footbridge, telling you to take care and hold the handrail. In crossing the bridge you get this from four or more voice artists, overlapping one another.

 

[james_the_xv]

Rugby is another example, seem to be very trigger happy with manual announcements.