Class 387 Southern announcements

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Can someone please explain why Southern are seemingly unable to load their usual announcements onto 387s?

(Welcome aboard this… serviceTO. BRIGHTON.)

There is of course the weird retention of “Welcome aboard this… service… TO!” which in itself is bizarre seeing as they’ve played the standard “Welcome aboard the Southern service to” announcement on 387s before (video below), but even when they’ve used the latter, the rest of the announcement is still different, as you’ll see below:

(Welcome aboard the Southern service to, is used as per normal, but then the rest of the announcement is still odd, including how “London Victoria” is said)

The recordings are completely different, the station name recordings, “Calling at,” “and,” “This is” and “The next station is” all sound completely different, sort of slower and more patronising as per on 700s.

I think it’s weird that they can’t just play the standard Southern announcements as they always managed to do on all 377 subclasses, 455s, 456s, 171s and 442s for years. You’d think one code generates the same recordings on all Electrostars?

 

[cactustwirly]

Probably because the 387s are running a different PIS system.

The software on the 377/6s is different as they have to be compatible with the earlier 377s. 387s use different software

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Probably because the 387s are running a different PIS system.

The software on the 377/6s is different as they have to be compatible with the earlier 377s. 387s use different software

I assume there’ll be some sort of update so that the two classes can work together in future then. If not, the receipt of the 387/1s that sees off a good chunk of the 377/1 fleet will lose Southern a great deal of flexibility.

 

[bramling]

I assume there’ll be some sort of update so that the two classes can work together in future then. If not, the receipt of the 387/1s that sees off a good chunk of the 377/1 fleet will lose Southern a great deal of flexibility.

We’re already about to see a similar issue on the GN side where the 387s will apparently have to be kept separated from the 379 fleet. It isn’t the end of the world by any means, but agree it’s far from ideal.

 

[stadler]

Can someone please explain why Southern are seemingly unable to load their usual announcements onto 387s?

(Welcome aboard this… serviceTO. BRIGHTON.)

There is of course the weird retention of “Welcome aboard this… service… TO!” which in itself is bizarre seeing as they’ve played the standard “Welcome aboard the Southern service to” announcement on 387s before (video below), but even when they’ve used the latter, the rest of the announcement is still different, as you’ll see below:

(Welcome aboard the Southern service to, is used as per normal, but then the rest of the announcement is still odd, including how “London Victoria” is said)

The recordings are completely different, the station name recordings, “Calling at,” “and,” “This is” and “The next station is” all sound completely different, sort of slower and more patronising as per on 700s.

I think it’s weird that they can’t just play the standard Southern announcements as they always managed to do on all 377 subclasses, 455s, 456s, 171s and 442s for years. You’d think one code generates the same recordings on all Electrostars?

I was told by a GTR staff member i know that he believed they preferred "service to" (without the TOC mentioned) on the 387s to avoid brand confusion as they get used on both GX and SN services and you can get GX liveried trains on SN services. So i think that may be partly why too. If they wanted to they could easily add "Southern service to" as it has been done previously.

I assume there’ll be some sort of update so that the two classes can work together in future then. If not, the receipt of the 387/1s that sees off a good chunk of the 377/1 fleet will lose Southern a great deal of flexibility.

There is a lot more work other than the announcements and PIS system to make the 377s and 387s work together. They can couple for ECS moves (and this regularly happens) but passengers workings would probably need complete software changes. At the moment many basic features such as the CCTV DOO cameras and ASDO fail to work if the 377s and 387s are coupled together. Unfortunately all of the Electrostar classes use different software. Even the 375s and 377s (which are very similar to each other) can not be coupled in passenger service.

 

[Doomotron]

If they wanted to they could easily add "Southern service to" as it has been done previously.

In an ideal world, the TOC name would change depending on the code put into the computer. So a Southern route would have "Welcome aboard the Southern service too...", and obviously the equivalent for GN and Gatwick Express.

 

[Lknowles78]

Great Northern have always had the operator name removed