This is probably a conversation that has been sparked before, but I cannot stand station staff manually announcing things on the wireless microphone that are already covered by automatic announcements, and during a recent trip to Manchester it was everywhere.
Manchester Piccadilly and Stockport are two that spring to mind, where both Network Rail and AWC staff respectively are literally interrupting the automatic announcements for services arriving to say the exact same thing.
For MAN this was at the ever-popular Platform 13/14 section where staff constantly remind people not to get trains to Sheffield to go to the Airport, which I guess is good for tourists who may not be familiar, but at Stockport I didn’t need to hear some random AWC member of staff interrupt the automatic announcement to tell me the station calls to Carlisle when they were going to be told to me anyway.
I don’t use the railways particularly often, but I have also been to WBQ where AWC staff where also seemingly interrupting automatic announcements just to hear the sound of their own voice say the same thing. I can see how it would put people off. Is it just AWC and Network Rail stations that have this? Sheffield where I live doesn’t have it and I’m honestly thankful for that.
Does anyone know if there is any protocol at all around using the microphones? If someone is blatantly near the edge of the platform when a train is arriving or trying to dispatch I can understand it being used, but the usage of them is so excessive and actually annoys me sometimes as some staff literally scream down it for no apparent reason
(See: any EMR train arriving into platform 13 breaks squealing, and the member of staff adding to the noise by screaming “CALLING AT STOCKPORT, DORE & TOTLEY, SHEFFIELD” etc. on top)
What do you think? Sorry if it seems like I’m ranting a bit but it was practically non-stop, basically every 10 seconds or so between members of staff and “safety announcements”.
Manchester Piccadilly and Stockport are two that spring to mind, where both Network Rail and AWC staff respectively are literally interrupting the automatic announcements for services arriving to say the exact same thing.
For MAN this was at the ever-popular Platform 13/14 section where staff constantly remind people not to get trains to Sheffield to go to the Airport, which I guess is good for tourists who may not be familiar, but at Stockport I didn’t need to hear some random AWC member of staff interrupt the automatic announcement to tell me the station calls to Carlisle when they were going to be told to me anyway.
I don’t use the railways particularly often, but I have also been to WBQ where AWC staff where also seemingly interrupting automatic announcements just to hear the sound of their own voice say the same thing. I can see how it would put people off. Is it just AWC and Network Rail stations that have this? Sheffield where I live doesn’t have it and I’m honestly thankful for that.
Does anyone know if there is any protocol at all around using the microphones? If someone is blatantly near the edge of the platform when a train is arriving or trying to dispatch I can understand it being used, but the usage of them is so excessive and actually annoys me sometimes as some staff literally scream down it for no apparent reason
(See: any EMR train arriving into platform 13 breaks squealing, and the member of staff adding to the noise by screaming “CALLING AT STOCKPORT, DORE & TOTLEY, SHEFFIELD” etc. on top)
What do you think? Sorry if it seems like I’m ranting a bit but it was practically non-stop, basically every 10 seconds or so between members of staff and “safety announcements”.