Are SWR's on board announcements excessive?

[stadler]

Is this the new automated ones? I suspect they're very badly implemented text to speech rather than traditional recorded ones. Feels like they were very much a case of "F*** it, that'll do"!

No they are real traditional recorded ones and Elinor Hamilton voices them. But they have been done very badly and sound awful. The old ones that Celia Drummond voiced sounded a million times better. Even the old Class 707 announcements (which were actually a Text To Speech voice) sounded far better. I have no idea why they replaced Celia Drummond with Elinor Hamilton as the new announcements are such dreadful quality. There was nothing wrong with the old announcements.

 

[Craig1122]

A related bugbear: The 701's have a very long "change here" announcement at Clapham Junction which includes the places you've just come from.

By contrast approaching Willesden Junction going West London Overground have set them up to only announce the change for the route you're not already on.

You'd think given the multi year delay SWR might have thought about getting the PIS right.

 

[Peter Wilde]

Yes, always been too many, too repetitive and annoying. Has been getting worse. SWR lines mainly serve commuters; and repeat leisure customers, who also don’t need announcements. For everybody on board the only need for verbal announcements is (1) a few essential messages about safety, (2) the train destination, plus name of the one station it is next to call at, and (3) any genuine one-off announcements by a human (e.g. “we are sorry for this short delay, caused by a dragonfly on the line at New Malden”. For all other information - train calling points and destination, etc - the passengers should read the on-board screens and/or get the info from their phones.

Particularly stupid in the current set-up is the habit of announcing the train's route just after it has left the relevant junction station, when it is too late for anyone to hop off if on the wrong service.

You could not make all this up! Where has common sense (and marketing nous) disappeared to?

 

[Bikeman78]

Some of them are so obvious as well. Still unsure why we are reminded to mind the gap between the train and platform.

My son has been ridiculing that announcement pretty much since he could talk. There is no gap he would say, looking rather confused. It's notable that guards make an announcement at places like Raynes Park which really do have a big gap.

 

[Deepgreen]

What's even more annoying is the guards will then manually make most of the same announcements anyway. If it was one or the other then that would be fine I think. But sometimes it feels on the ten minutes stretch from Guildford to Worplesdon to Woking, there's barely two minutes of silence total between all of the manual and automated announcements.

YES! The recorded announcements are bad enough, but at least they are correct and measured. I hear so many guards making stumbling, awkward annoucements that try to copy the recorded ones, and even cut off the recorded ones mid-way to blast out their versions! It's very annoying, and actually steadily reduces the attention that people pay to announcements in general. Totally counter-productive. Information should be concise and relevant.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Aug 2025 ==

Yes, always been too many, too repetitive and annoying. Has been getting worse. SWR lines mainly serve commuters; and repeat leisure customers, who also don’t need announcements. For everybody on board the only need for verbal announcements is (1) a few essential messages about safety, (2) the train destination, plus name of the one station it is next to call at, and (3) any genuine one-off announcements by a human (e.g. “we are sorry for this short delay, caused by a dragonfly on the line at New Malden”. For all other information - train calling points and destination, etc - the passengers should read the on-board screens and/or get the info from their phones.

Particularly stupid in the current set-up is the habit of announcing the train's route just after it has left the relevant junction station, when it is too late for anyone to hop off if on the wrong service.

You could not make all this up! Where has common sense (and marketing nous) disappeared to?

Long gone. The trouble is that TOCs (and public bodies in general) now feel that by making announcements about every conceivable issue, they protect themselves from complaints/legal action from those who don't have the commonsense to get through life. The 'wet floor' cones scenario encapsulates this problem - those who are too stupid to see that the floor is wet promote the placement of cones that actually add an unnecessary hazard!

 

[pompeyfan]

I think it should be noted that guards on SWR services are expected (and managed) to do principal announcements at key locations and are taught the script when in guards school. The script is about 45 seconds long depending on calling patterns and stations with short platforms. Many are pretty good with being concise and condensing the script, however you do occasionally get the cringy ones who like to add their own flair to it.

I’m pretty sure the mainline services only auto announce the calling patterns on departure from origin station.

 

[DarloRich]

As always: the answer will be too many announcements.

Personally, it is if no bother or interest to me.

 

[Parallel]

SWR are by far the worst TOC for excessive automated waffle, and it seems to getting worse. If they want to play their various safety announcements, why not break them up a bit throughout the journey? Rather than having a long reel multiple times in a journey.

‘We are now approaching Hounslow. Please dispose of litter in the bins provided on this train.’ Whilst excessive, is still relatively concise.

 

[Matt Taylor]

I've not been a fan of the new announcement types and their frequency. I often find it difficult to get a word in! By that point I question if anyone is still listening by the time I do make an announcement of my own.

I had fed it back, yet to hear a response though.

The number 9991 is your friend!

 

[Deepgreen]

The number 9991 is your friend!

?

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

?

It's the code to default the PIS to display "South Western Railway" and not play any automated announcements.

 

[Deepgreen]

I think it should be noted that guards on SWR services are expected (and managed) to do principal announcements at key locations and are taught the script when in guards school. The script is about 45 seconds long depending on calling patterns and stations with short platforms. Many are pretty good with being concise and condensing the script, however you do occasionally get the cringy ones who like to add their own flair to it.

I’m pretty sure the mainline services only auto announce the calling patterns on departure from origin station.

The question for me is, therefore; why? Is it assumed by 'management' that the recorded annoucements will fail, are incorrect/inadequate or will be ignored? All of these would be a concern. Surely guards can hear if the recorded annoucements are not playing, and then step in with manual ones? I can't think of any other reason for guards to be required to make duplicate announcements, and I for one find it extremely irritating when it is done (realising that it isn't necessarily the gaurd's fault if under instructions).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Aug 2025 ==

It's the code to default the PIS to display "South Western Railway" and not play any automated announcements.

Ah - thanks. Next time I pass an unattended and unlocked p.a. point I know what to do..!

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Ah - thanks. Next time I pass an unattended and unlocked p.a. point I know what to do..!

The codes are only able to be inputted from the PIS panels in the cabs...!

 

[Deepgreen]

The codes are only able to be inputted from the PIS panels in the cabs...!

I know - I was only joking...

 

[pompeyfan]

The question for me is, therefore; why? Is it assumed by 'management' that the recorded annoucements will fail, are incorrect/inadequate or will be ignored? All of these would be a concern. Surely guards can hear if the recorded annoucements are not playing, and then step in with manual ones? I can't think of any other reason for guards to be required to make duplicate announcements, and I for one find it extremely irritating when it is done (realising that it isn't necessarily the gaurd's fault if under instructions).

It stems from SWT days when Stagecoach really pushed having guards on board. The argument should be why the increase in auto announcements when the guards were already announcing similar things. Personally I think the announcements about short platforms and where the guards are currently found are important.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

I know - I was only joking...

My apologies, it didn't translate too well to me over text.

 

[ScottGallagher]

Not SWR but Avanti, at least on mine it was quite a barrage of announcements this week including (i kid you not) advising when walking through the carriages please hold onto the grab points on the seats. Even the guard did a manual 'see it say it sorted'.

Maybe Avanti will warrant its own thread in time.

 

[Flange Squeal]

The number 9991 is your friend!

Possibly not a friend of deaf people though, for whom the resultant lack of visual information on the passenger information system screens (such as advance warning of the next station) might not be particularly helpful?

 

[NigelLewis]

I find it annoying when the on-board staff make announcements after/before the automatic ones. It becomes an assault on the ears and is quite unnecessary.

 

[diffarc]

I find it annoying when the on-board staff make announcements after/before the automatic ones. It becomes an assault on the ears and is quite unnecessary.

I also wonder if this could cause confusion amongst those who don't travel often, or who are visiting the UK.

They might think the staff announcement is needed as the automated one is wrong.

 

[kristiang85]

I'm with those who say it's definitely too many. I'm starting to hear them in my sleep But overall it just becomes meaningless noise to most, which renders it somewhat pointless?

 

[Siimo]

I had a wonderful journey back in May all the way from Leeds to Southampton without hearing a single irritating announcement. Having experienced the delights of LNER 1st class on a 225 I was braced for an onslaught of nagging and aural clutter when I stepped on the 444...but it never materialised. I think a possible reason was that the service skipped Woking or one of the other usual calling points and so there wasn't a pre-recorded announcement sequence available for the service, so the guard simply announced the stations and both the visual display and the robot voices were absent. (As I cycled across London I didn't have to endure the Tube either!)

 

[sh24]

Maybe it's a Stagecoach legacy thing. I had an EMR guard fill all but 90 seconds of the Nottingham-Beeston sector with a long, long repetitive and highly detailed announcement.

 

[DavidKK]

Not only are there too many announcements but they are often too loud. I have recently monitored an announcement reaching 97dB, my lawnmower is quieter! Don’t seem have problem with other operators such as Thameslink or LNER.

 

[fgwrich]

Having just spent a week up here, I’d like to now nominate ScotRail for excessive endless announcements too, particularly on the 385s which seem to be an endless barrage now.

ScotRail also suffering from the same issue mentioned either in this thread or the unprofessional ones, whereby the next stop is announced by the PA / Mathers / AI voice then almost repeated seconds later by the guard or vice versa.

 

[TheManBehind]

The question for me is, therefore; why? Is it assumed by 'management' that the recorded annoucements will fail, are incorrect/inadequate or will be ignored? All of these would be a concern. Surely guards can hear if the recorded annoucements are not playing, and then step in with manual ones? I can't think of any other reason for guards to be required to make duplicate announcements, and I for one find it extremely irritating when it is done (realising that it isn't necessarily the gaurd's fault if under instructions).

It was more about making sure there was a human voice - although we were explicitly told not to repeat anything Doris had already said!

 

[MartinC]

The codes are only able to be inputted from the PIS panels in the cabs...!

Yesterday I was travelling on a 10 coach 444 from Waterloo. The automated display gave completely wrong information about location on the train which was going to split at Bournemouth. So the guard had to make manual announcements which were then followed by automated announcements contradicting what he had just said and suggesting that all 10 coaches were going to Poole. Was the driver unable to turn off the automated ? Previously I have travelled on a train, which, because of disruption was non-stop to Waterloo but the automated announcements still called the stops.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Yesterday I was travelling on a 10 coach 444 from Waterloo. The automated display gave completely wrong information about location on the train which was going to split at Bournemouth. So the guard had to make manual announcements which were then followed by automated announcements contradicting what he had just said and suggesting that all 10 coaches were going to Poole. Was the driver unable to turn off the automated ? Previously I have travelled on a train, which, because of disruption was non-stop to Waterloo but the automated announcements still called the stops.

Setting up the PIS is the responsibility of the guard on the Desiros, so it sounds to me like the guard just neglected to (or perhaps didn't know how to) turn off the automated announcements, which can be done through a handful of specific high-numbered codes which revert the PIS to "Not In Use", "South Western Railway" and I think few others.

As an aside, there are also "destination only codes" which revert the PIS to displaying the final destination only but without any of the automated waffle, thus leaving it down to the guard to make the appropriate manual announcements.

 

[fgwrich]

Priority Seating now seems to be the latest repetitive announcement on the desiros, having heard it at least 6 times between Southampton and Basingstoke yesterday.

 

[py_megapixel]

Possibly the most useless and widely ignored announcement I have seen is on some buses locally, which have started announcing immediately after the bell rings, "Bus stopping. Please remain in your seat until the bus has come to a complete stop."

The company can't seriously want everyone to do that - the buses, in common with most in this country, have only one door right at the front, and if they had to wait at every stop for people to get up from their seats and walk the length of the bus it would make their already pretty hopeless timekeeping significantly worse...