Anne Announcement Differences

[Nicholas B]

May sound petty, but I can’t help but ‘feel’ that Anne is not Anne in her generic announcements.

For example ‘24 hour CCTV recording is in operation at this station, for the purpose of security and safety management’, sounds like a different person compared to her train calling announcements.

I’m 99% sure it is the same person, but 1% of me thinks it’s a different person - even though 100% I know it’s the same person because everyone says so… if that makes sense.

Any other people think like this?

 

[Ibex]

It is the same person, the first batch of recordings are from the late 90s and she still records anything that's needed now.

Voices naturally change a little over a near 30 year period is all!

 

[flitwickbeds]

It is the same person, the first batch of recordings are from the late 90s and she still records anything that's needed now.

Voices naturally change a little over a near 30 year period is all!

Not to mention different studios, microphones, recording devices, and a different sound engineer's ear if any editing was done eg adding some EQ...

 

[Nicholas B]

It is the same person, the first batch of recordings are from the late 90s and she still records anything that's needed now.

Voices naturally change a little over a near 30 year period is all!

Yes, I know that. But the mentioned announcement types were recorded within a very short period of time I'm guessing, as for example, the 24 hour CCTV and normal calling announcements have been at Manchester Piccadilly from 2002. So it would be a very contrasting change of voice from the late 1990's to early 2000's. I know the ones recorded now are Anne. What I'm meaning is that the '24 hour' announcement, for example, sounds like she is much much older than the normal train calling recordings in which she sounds much younger considering both types were recorded in very close proximity.

 

[XCTurbostar]

It’s hard to notice these changes but I would also throw in that the later recordings will have been with more modern microphones so the clarity will be improved.

This is particularly noticeable with ‘South Western Railway’ or ‘Avanti West Coast’ which were new files.

I know you didn’t mention it but there are differences across the network too such as the way SWR use the wording ‘The train at Platform X’ rather than just ‘Platform X’.

 

[onlinespotting]

She says ‘the next train to arrive at,’ and ‘the next train to depart from’ differently at Leeds (and I believe London Charing Cross) to other stations

 

[Nicholas B]

I think the latter two replies don’t understand my main point. Go on YouTube and have a listen to said announcements and see the differences I’m referring to. The recordings I am referring to were recorded around the same time as they have been around since c. 2002.

 

[cactustwirly]

EMR have the most original announcements, totally different to SWR where the phrasing has changed

 

[Parallel]

I think the latter two replies don’t understand my main point. Go on YouTube and have a listen to said announcements and see the differences I’m referring to. The recordings I am referring to were recorded around the same time as they have been around since c. 2002.

It was probably just recorded in a different session to most of the other early stuff. We also don’t know how old most of the original recordings are. They may have pre-dated the the CCTV announcement, a bit like how Ruth’s CCTV announcement was recorded later than her original 1994 recordings.

It definitely sounds like Anne to me (how she says ‘operation’ is the giveaway), but it does sound more like older, posher Anne, than earlier more shouty Anne.

 

[londonmidland]

EMR have the most original announcements, totally different to SWR where the phrasing has changed

SWR's version, in my opinion, sounds awful. Verbally slow and spoken to as if you are a child. I'm glad EMR have retained the original recordings and format. It flows so much better.

 

[jamieh27]

Voices do change over time, Celia Drummonds voice has changed so much since she started doing announcements in the early 1990s and also Ruths voice from 1990s to recent where her voice has got very deep. I am sure its the same Anne that has done the recordings as she has done one recording which is a good example is SWR's "For your safety please stand back from the platform edge...".

 

[tfw756rider]

Each entire "generic" announcement is one long recording, whereas the train service announcements are constructed from much shorter recordings ("fragments") stitched together when programming the announcement. Might that have something to do with it?

 

[jamieh27]

Each entire "generic" announcement is one long recording, whereas the train service announcements are constructed from much shorter recordings ("fragments") stitched together when programming the announcement. Might that have something to do with it?

Possibly, I know some announcement recordings are done by fragments and stitched together instead of one whole sentance. "The train now approaching", "does not stop here", "please stand well clear of the edge of".

 

[tfw756rider]

Possibly, I know some announcement recordings are done by fragments and stitched together instead of one whole sentance. "The train now approaching", "does not stop here", "please stand well clear of the edge of".

"The next train to arrive at platform will be the service to calling at and"

 

[jamieh27]

Another one that can be fragmented is from what I saw on the script that Ruth had was the calling points but they were naming stations in alphabetical order.

 

[Retorus]

I think the latter two replies don’t understand my main point. Go on YouTube and have a listen to said announcements and see the differences I’m referring to. The recordings I am referring to were recorded around the same time as they have been around since c. 2002.

It’s simply because of different recording sessions, there’s no conspiracy here.

 

[cduncan]

I was at West Drayton last week and it was odd to hear a mix of the original and new recordings mashed together in the case of "This train is formed of 9 carriages" instead of "This train has 9 coaches". The short platforms are the same as the ones used for SWR. Not sure if any other station uses this style?

 

[Fred43123]

I was at West Drayton last week and it was odd to hear a mix of the original and new recordings mashed together in the case of "This train is formed of 9 carriages" instead of "This train has 9 coaches". The short platforms are the same as the ones used for SWR. Not sure if any other station uses this style?

Sounds like all Liz Line stations have that format now as Stratford and Romford do.

 

[Nicholas B]

It’s simply because of different recording sessions, there’s no conspiracy here.

I wasn’t suggesting there was

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Celia and Phill had little announcement differences too. I remember roughly when the “this train is the service from X” notice was introduced. Around 2006 I think? What was the reason for adding in this line? I think I only heard it on Southern. Never on SWT.

 

[jamieh27]

Celia and Phill had little announcement differences too. I remember roughly when the “this train is the service from X” notice was introduced. Around 2006 I think? What was the reason for adding in this line? I think I only heard it on Southern. Never on SWT.

I think some SWT did use it Southampton Central did and also when using "New Celia". I actually thought they used it longer than 2006. Phil and Celia started doing announcements since the early 1990s in the 2010s their voices started to differ a bit and also Celia when her voice was different from 2016 onwards.

 

[Purple Train]

Apologies for the moderate bump, but on the Elizabeth Line this morning, my train was announced with normal calling points up to Paddington, followed by "and all stations to Abbey Wood". Is this format used anywhere else on the network and since when has it been around?

There have been other changes in the last month or two, including "coaches" to "carriages" as pointed out upthread, and a rather convoluted rewording of short platform announcements, but this is by far the most noticeable.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Apologies for the moderate bump, but on the Elizabeth Line this morning, my train was announced with normal calling points up to Paddington, followed by "and all stations to Abbey Wood". Is this format used anywhere else on the network and since when has it been around?

ScotRail use something like that on board on the Oban/Fort Bill splitters, however it's bodged in by creating a station called "and stations to Oban and Fort William" and using it as a destination in TrainFX, as sometimes it results in a grammatically odd announcement.