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Castleford station announcements
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61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
I noticed a new robot voice at Batley yesterday but to me it sounded like a child, warning me to take care and use handrails on stairs. Definitely a South Yorkshire accent though!
pdq
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Yes, Batley also has a child's one asking people to be 'nice' (I think) and let people off the trains first.
ASharpe
Member
There is an announcement at Eaglescliffe done in a child's voice - probably a safety announcement, I didn't pay much attention.
I had thought it was just an odd Chester-le-track thing, but apparently not.
I had thought it was just an odd Chester-le-track thing, but apparently not.
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
I am minded by your posting comments of the situation in the film "Brief Encounter" and a woman from the southern reaches of England travelling up to Carnforth to exchange her library books...
CaptainHaddock
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Do Castleford announcements still say "the next train arriving at platform 1....."? It's not like it's likely to arrive on any other platform, is it?
61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
It might possibly arrive on the other platform, though if it does it'll be neither use nor ornament!
Automated announcements at Denby Dale still refer to 'platform one', despite the line being singled in the early 1980s if not before then. I suppose one could claim the bus bay as 'Platform 2', though no documentation does so.
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southern442
Established Member
Could there possibly be any recordings of the new announcements? I might be able to find out the identity of the mystery voice.
ASharpe
Member
That's how most people say it anyway.
Its not a new system as such, its just the voice has been swapped to female voice on the system, Celia Drummond. I think she has taken over (from Phil Sayer) because recently Anne has been installed at many stations at the western side of the Northern network so I think the introduction of Celia is to keep the consistent female voice on the station PA at Northern stations.
Not most people I know. Plenty of EC guards do.
We had that the "new" announcements this morning at Steeton. Along with the ticket machine being broken again and the list of departures starting at 0550, despite it being around 0615 and none of them being late.
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You mean the departure board at Steeton is capable of displaying something other than "Welcome to Steeton & Silsden" ?
mafeu
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It sounds so 80s! I'm betting Northern will slap a poster up soon stating how the system is saving passengers money.
It is funny how each time the announcement systems are changed, despite advances in technology, they seem to get worse, more obviously computer generated with disjointed badly pronounced sentences.
Yet the system we had in the 90s and 00s, still possibly used at Birmingham New Street was much clearer and overall better done
Don't get me started on the announcements at Huddersfield!
Yet the system we had in the 90s and 00s, still possibly used at Birmingham New Street was much clearer and overall better done
Don't get me started on the announcements at Huddersfield!
61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
I agree. TPE managed stations seem worse for this than Northern do, Dewsbury is equally bad. At least at HUD they corrected the pronunciation of Slaithwaite within a couple of weeks of their introduction at the start of the franchise. (for those that don't know, it's "Slawit", by the way).
WYUA
New Member
"Tod-Moooor-don" and "Caaastleton" are my least favourite ones though far.
Northern vowels for Northern people / Northern rail please!
Northern vowels for Northern people / Northern rail please!
These new voices have also made their way up the Wharfedale line too (at least as far as Baildon). And whilst some people do mispronounce Forster Sq as Foster, it most certainly is Forster!
As for the rather creepy child's voice used in some safety announcements, it is very similar to the one used on some Thomson flights where the plane has in seat LCD screens, which they use for the pre-flight safety briefing for passengers. I heard it for the first time last week reminding passengers to allow others off the train when it arrives before trying to board. Ironically this was the day when the RHTT had some problems up at Guiseley and had caused the delay of services coming down from Ilkley, so it wasn't best received us those of use getting cold on the platform!
Edit:
Oh and I've noticed that they've started to use the xylophone chimes at the beginning of some announcements, even those just confirming the services on a particular platform. Now maybe it's just me, but those chimes usually mean an important announcement like a platform change or a delay to a service. But when I heard it yesterday at BDQ, it was just confirming that the next train to arrive at platform 2 was the Ilkley train, although we already knew that because we had been sat on it for almost 5 minutes as it was already in.
I've also noticed that the on platform CIS at BDQ now display terminating services as the first service detail for the platform until at least the train is in. It threw me a bit because it clearly states not to board this service, which in my mind meant that there was a problem and that there was either an unplanned change of unit or a possible delay up the line.
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