ATOS Anne Announcments

[tfw756rider]

I, also, would be very interested in this. Might be surreal to hear her voice in 1999!

I want to hear Ruth in 1996, or "manual Ruth" in say 1995

 

[MerlinRail 804]

This can't be commercial-worthwhile surely. What damage (financially or commercially) would they suffer by having their pre-recorded announcements in the public domain?

Surely they’re really already in the public domain?

Go to a train station, you’re likely to hear an ATOS announcement. Many train videos across the internet will contain these announcements, either deliberately or in the background, so surely by their logic, ATOS should really be going after, and throwing legal action at, pretty much every single train enthusiast with an online presence.

Of course that’s completely stupid, but I don’t really understand them complaining about it being in the public domain when it is that easy to reproduce in some way.

In fact, find a speaker that’s within reach to put a mic up to, then do a bit of sound editing to remove background noise, and anyone could really recreate the raw files.

 

[JamesT]

Surely they’re really already in the public domain? Go to a train station, you’re likely to hear an ATOS announcement. Many train videos across the internet will contain these announcements, either deliberately or in the background, so surely by their logic, ATOS should really be going after, and throwing legal action at, pretty much every single train enthusiast with an online presence. Of course that’s completely stupid, but I don’t really understand them complaining about it being in the public domain when it is that easy to reproduce in some way.
In fact, find a speaker that’s within reach to put a mic up to, then do a bit of sound editing to remove background noise, and anyone could really recreate the raw files.

No, that’s not how copyright works. A copyrighted work being played in public doesn’t free it from copyright.
There’s also some confusion around enforcement. Trademarks can be lost due to non-enforcement, copyright cannot.
However, failing to go after infringement can make it harder to claim damages when the copyright owner does go after someone.
I can entirely understand them going after raw audio files more strictly than public recordings. They’re presumably being paid by all the TOCs using them? If it was perceived they didn’t care about the files being distributed for free, wouldn’t the current users decide to save their money and stop buying the service from Atos?

 

[styles]

If it was perceived they didn’t care about the files being distributed for free, wouldn’t the current users decide to save their money and stop buying the service from Atos?

I doubt it, because I think very few (if any) operators have calling patterns which are complete subsets of other operators. So even if they nicked the recordings as they stand, they'd still be missing other station recordings.

There is perhaps an argument that AI could be applied to existing recordings but I've seen zero evidence of this a really happening so far.

 

[AlterEgo]

I doubt it, because I think very few (if any) operators have calling patterns which are complete subsets of other operators. So even if they nicked the recordings as they stand, they'd still be missing other station recordings.

There is perhaps an argument that AI could be applied to existing recordings but I've seen zero evidence of this a really happening so far.

Phil Sayer has had his voice recreated with AI and is being played on the network.

Did Phil Sayer record ‘See it, say it, sorted’, or is it AI?

At Waterloo, Hampton Court and a few other SWR stations I’ve been hearing what sounds like a pseudo-Phil voice announcing ‘if you see anything suspicious…’ and I was wondering if, despite the switch to ATOS a few years back with Elinor and Rodger replacing Celia at stations, they’ve added an AI...

www.railforums.co.uk

Realtime Trains | 1S41 0727 Plymouth to Edinburgh | 08/04/2026

Real-time train running information for 1S41 0727 departure from Plymouth to Edinburgh on 08/04/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[dosxuk]

Surely they’re really already in the public domain? Go to a train station, you’re likely to hear an ATOS announcement. Many train videos across the internet will contain these announcements, either deliberately or in the background, so surely by their logic, ATOS should really be going after, and throwing legal action at, pretty much every single train enthusiast with an online presence. Of course that’s completely stupid, but I don’t really understand them complaining about it being in the public domain when it is that easy to reproduce in some way.
In fact, find a speaker that’s within reach to put a mic up to, then do a bit of sound editing to remove background noise, and anyone could really recreate the raw files.

Would you use the same argument to say why you should be allowed to post your own recordings of popular music songs or movies and make them freely downloadable?

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Atos is one of those meaningless names created by a marketing agency. Think of it like Avanti or C2C or Lumo or companies like that. Atos was originally founded as a merger of Axime and Sligos in the late 1990s and then joined by the purchase of Origin a few years later. It is thought that the name may have been partly created by trying to merge the "A" from Axime and "os" from Sligos and then adding a "t" to make it sound better and be an easier name to say. But the official line from Atos seems to be that it does not stand for anything.

Atos no longer have any involvement in the CIS and automated announcements. Atos sold their Worldline division over six years ago. Worldline control the automated announcements and they are a completely separate unrelated company to Atos now.

It is worth pointing out that the automated announcements were not even created by Atos or Worldline and are simply a result of companies purchasing other companies. It was the state owned BRBS (British Rail Business Systems) when these announcement voices first launched. The history is rather complex.

• Some Point In Early 1988 - BRBS launches as the wholly owned IT services division of BR

• Some Point In Early 1996 - BRBS launches its new CIS and Truro station was the first installation

• February 1997 - Sema purchases BRBS (bringing the automated announcements under Sema which is a private company)

• February 2001 - Schlumberger purchases Sema (and as a result Sema becomes a division of Schlumberger known as "SchlumbergerSema")

• February 2004 - Atos (known as "Atos Origin" at the time) purchases the Sema division from Schlumberger (at this point Worldline was simply a division of Atos rather than a separate company and the Sema purchase was put in to the "Atos Worldline" division)

• May 2019 - Atos sells off its Worldline division (and as a result Worldline becomes an independent company with no relation to Atos any more)

Atos/Sema/Schlumberger/Worldline are all French based and French founded companies.


That is not going to work. Worldline could not care less if you tell them that you are using them for personal and non commercial purposes. They do not want anyone having access to their files full stop.

Worldline will not even let anyone have access to old obsolete files. Worldline have prevented TFW from releasing the old Ruth Michell station files despite the fact that they are now old obsolete files that have been withdrawn and will never be used again. Worldline have zero interest in helping anyone preserve a part of railway history.

Worldline are a massive multi billion pound global company. Their revenue last year was almost five billion pounds. A company that big is not going to care about enthusiasts.

KeTech (who own the Celia and Phil files) are a far more decent company. They allowed the Celia and Phil files (along with the Scotrail and Irish Rail files) to be released (meaning we thankfully have those now) and have clearly realised that there is no harm in enthusiasts having copies. It is a shame that larger companies can not have the same common sense.


I personally always find that Anne has a very average voice. It is not the worst (i can think of far worse announcers on our network) but not the best either. She just has a very ordinary voice. Ruth Michell is my favourite of the Worldline voices.


It is also worth pointing out that even the SE 375s and SE 377s have differences to each other especially with the short platform scripts. The SE 375s only tell you what carriages will not open. The SE 377s only tell you what carriages will open.

For a random example lets take Hollingbourne where only the front six coaches of an eight coach train fit and this is what the announcements say:

SE 375:
"The next station is Hollingbourne. Would customers please note that you can not alight from the rear two coaches as this station has a short platform. Please ensure you are travelling in the correct part of the train."

SE 377:
"The next station is Hollingbourne. Would customers please note that you can only alight from the front six coaches as this station has a short platform. Please ensure you are travelling in the correct part of the train."

It is odd how such similar trains with the same PIS system and at the same TOC even have differences to each other.

Says it all about the flawed ideological thinking of our politicans: we absolutely cannot have British Rail, but we can break it up and sell it to the French. Loathsome.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Apr 2026 ==

You might be thinking of Leeds and Manchester Piccadilly which were both 2002 installations. Anne was definitely already used prior to 2002 at three other stations.

The years i have gotten are from a mixture of my memory from hearing Anne back then and from speaking to railway staff who were involved and from making FOI requests. I had made an FOI request to Network Rail a few years back and they confirmed exactly what i had remembered that these announcements were installed at Luton Airport Parkway in 1999 upon opening and installed in 2001 at both Gatwick Airport and London Bridge stations.

I am certain that Anne was installed the following years at these stations:

1999 - Luton Airport Parkway
2001 - Gatwick Airport
2001 - London Bridge
2002 - Leeds
2002 - Manchester Piccadilly
2003 - London Euston
2003 - London Kings Cross

There was also another very early and very short lived Anne installation at many Southeastern stations within the London suburban area (eg, Bromley South, Herne Hill, Orpington, etc) from 2002 to 2004 before their Thales system was installed. Of course she has now returned to these stations since 2012 when Southeastern scrapped their Thales system.

At this point, you may as well write a book or your own website about British railway announcement history! Any luck in finding out the original VERA voice? I reached out to the transport museum a while back but received no response.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Apr 2026 ==

Says it all about the flawed ideological thinking of our politicans: we absolutely cannot have British Rail, but we can break it up and sell it to the French. Loathsome.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Apr 2026 ==



At this point, you may as well write a book or your own website about British railway announcement history! Any luck in finding out the original VERA voice? I reached out to the transport museum a while back but received no response.

Incidentally, I first heard Anne quite late in 2007 at Kings Cross. I was always a Phill/Celia person.

 

[MerlinRail 804]

No, that’s not how copyright works. A copyrighted work being played in public doesn’t free it from copyright.
There’s also some confusion around enforcement. Trademarks can be lost due to non-enforcement, copyright cannot.
However, failing to go after infringement can make it harder to claim damages when the copyright owner does go after someone.
I can entirely understand them going after raw audio files more strictly than public recordings. They’re presumably being paid by all the TOCs using them? If it was perceived they didn’t care about the files being distributed for free, wouldn’t the current users decide to save their money and stop buying the service from Atos?

Ah yes ok that makes sense.

Would you use the same argument to say why you should be allowed to post your own recordings of popular music songs or movies and make them freely downloadable?

Probably not to be honest

 

[styles]

Phil Sayer has had his voice recreated with AI and is being played on the network.

Did Phil Sayer record ‘See it, say it, sorted’, or is it AI?

At Waterloo, Hampton Court and a few other SWR stations I’ve been hearing what sounds like a pseudo-Phil voice announcing ‘if you see anything suspicious…’ and I was wondering if, despite the switch to ATOS a few years back with Elinor and Rodger replacing Celia at stations, they’ve added an AI...

www.railforums.co.uk

Realtime Trains | 1S41 0727 Plymouth to Edinburgh | 08/04/2026

Real-time train running information for 1S41 0727 departure from Plymouth to Edinburgh on 08/04/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

I assume this was done with permission though? Or a contract was signed permitting such usage?

I probably could've been a wee bit clearer in saying I don't believe people's recordings have been used to AI generate new announcements without their permission.

I read the blog post from Phil and I can't see anything disputing this, but maybe I missed it?

 

[stadler]

I assume this was done with permission though? Or a contract was signed permitting such usage?

I probably could've been a wee bit clearer in saying I don't believe people's recordings have been used to AI generate new announcements without their permission.

I read the blog post from Phil and I can't see anything disputing this, but maybe I missed it?

Phil Sayer passed away almost ten years ago so he definitely never consented. It is his wife (Elinor Hamilton) who wrote the blog post and who gave consent for his recordings to be used to create an AI voice. I still think it is a bit of a morally questionable situation as Phil Sayer passed away long before this AI technology was even a thing.

 

[styles]

Phil Sayer passed away almost ten years ago so he definitely never consented. It is his wife (Elinor Hamilton) who wrote the blog post and who gave consent for his recordings to be used to create an AI voice. I still think it is a bit of a morally questionable situation as Phil Sayer passed away long before this AI technology was even a thing.

Oh yes I've re-read the blog post now, and it makes more sense.

Certainly a unique set of circumstances.