Are SWR's on board announcements excessive?

[londonmidland]

SWR’s automated station announcements are so long winded and awfully slow, that the train often leaves before the announcement has finished playing.

Network Rail should just manage the CIS and P.A system here, in my opinion. They just use the standard Worldline script, which has much less jargon involved.

 

[Recessio]

SWR’s automated station announcements are so long winded and awfully slow, that the train often leaves before the announcement has finished playing.

Network Rail should just manage the CIS and P.A system here, in my opinion. They just use the standard Worldline script, which has much less jargon involved.

I remember how quickfire the 455 announcements used to be. "This is Wimbledon the next station is Earlsfield this train is for London Waterloo" in one quick sentence with no pause. Now it's pretty much the complete opposite!

 

[setdown]

I had a great guard last week who was doing what I wished all the others would do- they would lift up their PA handset at just the right time to cut off the start of the 61016/fare evasion/body worn camera announcements. He did it after every stop, and wouldn't say anything, just left us in silence. It made for a much nicer trip.

I guess some of the onboard staff really are getting fed up of them too.

 

[WillC]

Exactly why everyone wears headphones and tunes out. There is far too much unnecessary din, and the actual important stuff is lost - which for me is: where are we, where are we going, next and eventually. The end.

 

[swr444]

I had a great guard last week who was doing what I wished all the others would do- they would lift up their PA handset at just the right time to cut off the start of the 61016/fare evasion/body worn camera announcements. He did it after every stop, and wouldn't say anything, just left us in silence. It made for a much nicer trip.

I guess some of the onboard staff really are getting fed up of them too.

I do this most of the time, I wonder if it was me!

 

[Bikeman78]

I occasionally dip into this thread with increasing incredulity. I've recently spent a week travelling around the Netherlands and Belgium. Intercity trains have manual announcements. Stopping trains have brief auto announcements or nothing at all. All of them relate to destination, next stop, and sometimes connections. There are no yellow lines at most stations, and no dispatch staff. The guard is solely responsible for dispatching trains up to 12 x 26m vehicles long, including double deckers. There are no announcements about gaps, yellow lines, tickets, fare evasion, terrorism, or anything else that has been discussed on this thread. Nothing bad happens. The railways abroad treat people like adults and they have peaceful journeys.

 

[Sealink]

Good luck!

A noticeable reduction in announcements so far. Not one "See it, say it sorted"*, although I'm only 18 minutes into the journey

*or maybe I've blocked them out

 

[swr444]

A noticeable reduction in announcements so far. Not one "See it, say it sorted"*, although I'm only 18 minutes into the journey

*or maybe I've blocked them out

some units have a fault where the PIS doesnt say the last part, like during the calling pattern it misses out "and london waterloo" for example. So could be one of those units

 

[walkingsophie]

Just experienced this set of announcements at Clapham Junction today:
This is a customer announcement... This is a customer announcement............. This is a cu-....... This is a customer announcement. For the interest of passenger safety electron-....... This is a customer announcement. [stuff about new timetables]

 

[talldave]

Just experienced this set of announcements at Clapham Junction today:
This is a customer announcement... This is a customer announcement............. This is a cu-....... This is a customer announcement. For the interest of passenger safety electron-....... This is a customer announcement. [stuff about new timetables]

Notably, nothing about trains.

I'm surprised that Southern don't do something about this mindless SWR crap obliterating important TRAIN announcements on the Southern platforms at Clapham Junction.

 

[43096]

A noticeable reduction in announcements so far. Not one "See it, say it sorted"*, although I'm only 18 minutes into the journey

*or maybe I've blocked them out

Well, I was sat on a 701 for about 10mins before departure at Waterloo yesterday and we had the infernal nonsense four times in ten minutes. Then another on departure. Then the guard came on and did a manual announcement to repeat what digital doris had just said.

This has got to stop.

 

[Leogilbert007]

Same goes for all of the TFL posters about not staring, harassing, photographing others on the tube, or the no smoking signs and announcements everywhere, everyone knows it's wrong, but those that do it won't be put off by a couple of signs.

Exactly. No idea of the numbers or stats but ☆if☆ TfL and TOCs are spending a meaningful amount of money on these campaigns, that money should instead be used to staff and increase BTP presence at known sexual offence/ASB hotspots. The current problem, IMO, is that it feels victimless to commit a crime when there's a poster simply telling you "don't do X please, or we may take 6 months to come after you" versus in full view of either a staff member or a police officer.

 

[Parallel]

SWR would do well to condense some of their scripts.

I was at Weybridge station recently and three announcements about disruption on the network played back to back with almost the same script. I get there will be some stations in this situation where information from one disruption only will be used, but there should be a smarter way of communicating this to passengers - there was so much repeat information, I wasn’t really paying attention by the middle of the second one.

The same goes for their engineering announcements too. They are so long winded and read out so slowly, you stop listening by the end.

So at Weybridge, they had 3 announcements about disruption, 2 announcements about separate bits of engineering, an announcement about the new timetable with ‘journey planners having been updated’, British Transport Police, penalty fares and no smoking, as well as 2 service announcements per train with their usual wordy scripts (when they could actually play in between all the waffle) all in about 20 minutes. The speakers barely shut up!

Fortunately the PIS systems on the 458s haven’t been abused as much as the other stock (though it does still think the trains are formed of 10 coaches and announces short platforms as such) so you really only get the stop information and the occasional ‘see it, say it, sorted’, though this stock is being withdrawn by SWR over the coming months.

 

[WillC]

I occasionally dip into this thread with increasing incredulity. I've recently spent a week travelling around the Netherlands and Belgium. Intercity trains have manual announcements. Stopping trains have brief auto announcements or nothing at all. All of them relate to destination, next stop, and sometimes connections. There are no yellow lines at most stations, and no dispatch staff. The guard is solely responsible for dispatching trains up to 12 x 26m vehicles long, including double deckers. There are no announcements about gaps, yellow lines, tickets, fare evasion, terrorism, or anything else that has been discussed on this thread. Nothing bad happens. The railways abroad treat people like adults and they have peaceful journeys.

Absolutely this. I think the UK's policy of treating adults like children is endemic now. And it has the expected outcome: adults behave like kids. I heard an (I think) Aussie talking on the TV the other day along these lines. He couldn't understand why there was a sign by a river warning about the river - if you can see the sign, you can see the..

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 May 2026 ==

Duuno if it was an oddball but no repetitive/tedious announcements on the WAT-SOU services I used earlier this week. Maybe the guard was 'working' the PA to cut them off?

 

[nctd2306]

I've just had a new one: when the doors had already shut and the train had already started moving, an auto announcement came on and simply said "Please Stand away from the train". (This is onboard a 701)

Not heard that one before but if I'd adhered, I'd never get home

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

I've just had a new one: when the doors had already shut and the train had already started moving, an auto announcement came on and simply said "Please Stand away from the train". (This is onboard a 701)

Not heard that one before but if I'd adhered, I'd never get home

That is one of the announcements which can be played manually using the TMS by either the guard or driver.

I've personally never understood the purpose of it, as once the doors are shut, surely anybody who is on the platform (and fouling the dispatch corridor) wouldn't be able to hear the announcement?

 

[boiledbeans2]

I heard an (I think) Aussie talking on the TV the other day along these lines. He couldn't understand why there was a sign by a river warning about the river - if you can see the sign, you can see the..

I was at a salad bar, and there were signs marking out which items were vegan. E.g. A "Vegan" sign next to tomatoes.

 

[Bikeman78]

Absolutely this. I think the UK's policy of treating adults like children is endemic now. And it has the expected outcome: adults behave like kids.

I treat my kids ( 9 and 11) more like adults than many places treat actual adults. I forget how bad it has got until I go abroad. It will only get worse. I really despair.

 

[Highview]

Yesterday the mindnumbing 701 PA warned me about icy platforms - in 25 degree heat!

 

[Sonic1234]

Same goes for all of the TFL posters about not staring, harassing, photographing others on the tube,

What they're trying to do is get the general public to police it - rather than staff or the actual police.

And of course they cover their backs with "only intervene if it is safe". It's never safe.

 

[davews]

Travelled Martins Heron to Reading and back today, 701021 both ways. No BTP etc announcements at all while we were moving, just the station announcements. But arriving at Reading and then sat in the train waiting to leave later it was a continual cycle of them there. It looks like the guard has the option of disabling them at times? Strangely no 'contactless is not valid on this train' ones which I thought would be quite important at Reading.

 

[w11_supremecy]

Travelled Martins Heron to Reading and back today, 701021 both ways. No BTP etc announcements at all while we were moving, just the station announcements. But arriving at Reading and then sat in the train waiting to leave later it was a continual cycle of them there. It looks like the guard has the option of disabling them at times? Strangely no 'contactless is not valid on this train' ones which I thought would be quite important at Reading.

I don’t believe the BTP announcements don’t play at all on any of the stations between Martins Heron and Reading. At every terminus once the PIS has been configured for the upcoming journey it will constantly play it. At Clapham Junction, Wimbledon, Richmond, Twickenham and Strawberry Hill they definitely do play all the time, however I personally just mute the announcement myself by pressing the PA button once it’s has announced the relevant information - ‘This is ___. This is the service to ___. The next station is ____’. I know some others that do the same as me. I’m sick and tired of having to hear it nearly every day, let alone the passengers…

 

[ThisIsSurbiton]

I personally just mute the announcement myself by pressing the PA button once it’s has announced the relevant information - ‘This is ___. This is the service to ___. The next station is ____’. I know some others that do the same as me. I’m sick and tired of having to hear it nearly every day, let alone the passengers…

Thanks for your efforts... I mean it! If you ever fancy a change, the main line side needs you

 

[w11_supremecy]

Thanks for your efforts... I mean it! If you ever fancy a change, the main line side needs you

The Desiros are arguably worse… at least on the 701s I can always predict the right second (and the exact stations) the BTP announcements play, so that I can just mute the announcement by pressing the PA button. Happy days. The Desiros are just random with it.

 

[lewisf]

I don’t know if I’ve just been lucky but the announcements on both the 701s and 450s seem massively toned down this week

No longer getting more than a minute of continuous announcements at Wimbledon anymore

 

[DelW]

I don’t know if I’ve just been lucky but the announcements on both the 701s and 450s seem massively toned down this week

No longer getting more than a minute of continuous announcements at Wimbledon anymore

There wasn't much opportunity for all the security guff when I was travelling yesterday, the PAs were an almost continuous stream of delays, longer delays, and cancellations. There were some announcements about delay repay too, which virtually everyone on an SWR train yesterday will be entitled to, so that department is probably swamped today.

 

[talldave]

Another week starts, and the aural assault of prosecution threats continues. Does anyone have SWR's MD's email address?

 

[Phil R]

A new one for the collection for me this morning, the "This is the British Transport Police" one played over the station loudspeakers. Not noticed it before as my dwell time usually isn't long, but today had over half an hour to absorb it amongst the other captive audience members because of the backing up if services caused by the Wimbledon signalling problems that mucked up the morning peak.

 

[swr444]

A new one for the collection for me this morning, the "This is the British Transport Police" one played over the station loudspeakers. Not noticed it before as my dwell time usually isn't long, but today had over half an hour to absorb it amongst the other captive audience members because of the backing up if services caused by the Wimbledon signalling problems that mucked up the morning peak.

That one’s been around for a while.

 

[waterboo]

Unconfirmed, but PIS to change over the next few weeks on 15x 450 444 fleet, as an update is being pushed. Removal.of.abusive.behaviour, simplification of revenue protection to "you must ensure you have a valid ticket" and only plays at origin station; aswell as a few other tweaks which is a step change to driving down the aural assault. It seems SWR are listening.