Standardised Announcements

[T101KLD]

Hi all

I'm born and raised London and have of course extensively used the TfL network. One thing I've always enjoyed was the variation of announcements on LU. However, since moving to Stockholm I've really come to wonder why there are so many different voices. Stockholms Lokaltrafik has 2 type, one on the older stock and the new voice and is the same on buses, trams etc.

Is there a reason why London has never adopted this before? Of course the various voices are a nice quirk, but seems vastly more practical to have one person

 

[Tube Fan]

Hi all

I'm born and raised London and have of course extensively used the TfL network. One thing I've always enjoyed was the variation of announcements on LU. However, since moving to Stockholm I've really come to wonder why there are so many different voices. Stockholms Lokaltrafik has 2 type, one on the older stock and the new voice and is the same on buses, trams etc.

Is there a reason why London has never adopted this before? Of course the various voices are a nice quirk, but seems vastly more practical to have one person

Hallo!
As far as I'm aware that's because the different types of stock were fitted with announcements at different times. For example, the 1972- and 1992 stock were fitted with announcements voiced by Emma Clarke, who wasn't asked to provide announcements for later stock types because she once said something like "I really don't like/hate TFL services" in a talk show and TFL therefore looked for a new voice artist.
So came Celia Drummond on the 1995- and 1996 stock, Julie Berry on the 1973 stock and Sara Parnel on all other LU vehicles.
But now all newly recorded announcements are voiced by Sara Parnel on the Underground and Emma Hignett on IBus, River bus and London Overground as well as Crossrail/Elisabeth line/purple train.
I hope that helps.

 

[DanNCL]

During the late 1990s and early 2000s the Underground network was effectively two seperate systems from an operational view both operated by private companies. The Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines were operated by "Tube Lines", with Celia Drummond providing announcements for the Jubilee and Northern lines (the former along with the original announcer on the 1996 stock), and Julie Berry on the Piccadilly. The rest of the network was operated by "Metronet", with Emma Clarke providing announcements on the C, D, 1967, 1972 and 1992 stocks (A stock was never equipped with an auto announcer). Following the collapse of the two private-public partnerships, TFL brought the full network fully in house.

The reason Emma Clarke was no longer used is likely because of the spoof announcements she released several years ago (which can be found at https://soundcloud.com/emmabclarke/sets/spoof-london-underground if anyone wants to listen to them). Sarah Parnell was used on the 2009 and S Stocks, as well as for additional audio clips as and where needed on the 1992 stock. Julie Berry has continued to provide additional audio clips for the 1973 stock as and when needed, and Celia Drummond continued to provide audio clips for the 1995 and 1996 stock, although as she passed away earlier this year the additional audio clips on the 1995 stock for the Battersea extension have been provided by someone else (not sure who).

The only stock left with all announcements by Emma Clarke is the 72 stock on the Bakerloo, but as they're believed to be getting a new passenger information system fitted soon, those announcements may be replaced soon.

Emma Hignett provides announcements on the 345s, 378s and 710s (as well as the 172s when they were used in London), London Buses, Ferries, and one single audio clip on the DLR (interchange information for Stratford). Julie Berry provides the announcements on the TFL Rail 315s, and also provided announcements on the now withdrawn Overground 315s and 317s. The main announcements on the DLR are believed to be text-to-speech.

 

[Tube Fan]

During the late 1990s and early 2000s the Underground network was effectively two seperate systems from an operational view both operated by private companies. The Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines were operated by "Tube Lines", with Celia Drummond providing announcements for the Jubilee and Northern lines (the former along with the original announcer on the 1996 stock), and Julie Berry on the Piccadilly. The rest of the network was operated by "Metronet", with Emma Clarke providing announcements on the C, D, 1967, 1972 and 1992 stocks (A stock was never equipped with an auto announcer). Following the collapse of the two private-public partnerships, TFL brought the full network fully in house.

The reason Emma Clarke was no longer used is likely because of the spoof announcements she released several years ago (which can be found at https://soundcloud.com/emmabclarke/sets/spoof-london-underground if anyone wants to listen to them). Sarah Parnell was used on the 2009 and S Stocks, as well as for additional audio clips as and where needed on the 1992 stock. Julie Berry has continued to provide additional audio clips for the 1973 stock as and when needed, and Celia Drummond continued to provide audio clips for the 1995 and 1996 stock, although as she passed away earlier this year the additional audio clips on the 1995 stock for the Battersea extension have been provided by someone else (not sure who).

The only stock left with all announcements by Emma Clarke is the 72 stock on the Bakerloo, but as they're believed to be getting a new passenger information system fitted soon, those announcements may be replaced soon.

Emma Hignett provides announcements on the 345s, 378s and 710s (as well as the 172s when they were used in London), London Buses, Ferries, and one single audio clip on the DLR (interchange information for Stratford). Julie Berry provides the announcements on the TFL Rail 315s, and also provided announcements on the now withdrawn Overground 315s and 317s. The main announcements on the DLR are believed to be text-to-speech.

You're right. Although even for the 1972 stock there are some announcements voiced by Sarah Parnel. For example the announcement if a train terminates at Queens park. Then Sarah asks the passengers to leave the train and to take all their belongs with them repetedly and also speaks when the train is reversing through the sidings.

 

[T101KLD]

During the late 1990s and early 2000s the Underground network was effectively two seperate systems from an operational view both operated by private companies. The Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines were operated by "Tube Lines", with Celia Drummond providing announcements for the Jubilee and Northern lines (the former along with the original announcer on the 1996 stock), and Julie Berry on the Piccadilly. The rest of the network was operated by "Metronet", with Emma Clarke providing announcements on the C, D, 1967, 1972 and 1992 stocks (A stock was never equipped with an auto announcer). Following the collapse of the two private-public partnerships, TFL brought the full network fully in house.

The reason Emma Clarke was no longer used is likely because of the spoof announcements she released several years ago (which can be found at https://soundcloud.com/emmabclarke/sets/spoof-london-underground if anyone wants to listen to them). Sarah Parnell was used on the 2009 and S Stocks, as well as for additional audio clips as and where needed on the 1992 stock. Julie Berry has continued to provide additional audio clips for the 1973 stock as and when needed, and Celia Drummond continued to provide audio clips for the 1995 and 1996 stock, although as she passed away earlier this year the additional audio clips on the 1995 stock for the Battersea extension have been provided by someone else (not sure who).

The only stock left with all announcements by Emma Clarke is the 72 stock on the Bakerloo, but as they're believed to be getting a new passenger information system fitted soon, those announcements may be replaced soon.

Emma Hignett provides announcements on the 345s, 378s and 710s (as well as the 172s when they were used in London), London Buses, Ferries, and one single audio clip on the DLR (interchange information for Stratford). Julie Berry provides the announcements on the TFL Rail 315s, and also provided announcements on the now withdrawn Overground 315s and 317s. The main announcements on the DLR are believed to be text-to-speech.

That's really interesting, thank you for sharing! So it seems like it's foundations are in a bit of a fragmented system. It really does add a charm to the network, but I wonder if Emma Hignett or Julie Berry will be the future of the LU network. Especially factoring in the new stock on order and the Battersea extension

 

[rebmcr]

The main announcements on the DLR are believed to be text-to-speech.

What causes this belief? The pronounciation of "Airport" on the Woolwich services has a particularly noticable working-class Kent twang.

 

[Tube Fan]

What causes this belief? The pronounciation of "Airport" on the Woolwich services has a particularly noticable working-class Kent twang.

TFL have stated in answer to many foi requests that the DLR announcements are "spoken" by a tts-system.

 

[DanNCL]

You're right. Although even for the 1972 stock there are some announcements voiced by Sarah Parnel. For example the announcement if a train terminates at Queens park. Then Sarah asks the passengers to leave the train and to take all their belongs with them repetedly and also speaks when the train is reversing through the sidings.

Interesting, didn't know that. I've only ever heard Emma Clarke announcements on the 72 stock, but then I've never been on a train reversing in the sidings at Queens Park!

That's really interesting, thank you for sharing! So it seems like it's foundations are in a bit of a fragmented system. It really does add a charm to the network, but I wonder if Emma Hignett or Julie Berry will be the future of the LU network. Especially factoring in the new stock on order and the Battersea extension

I wouldn't be surprised if as trains are replaced over the coming years all new installations are voiced by Sarah Parnell and Emma Hignett, eventually ending up with those as the only voices of the TFL network.

The current pattern of patching up systems where the previous voiceover artist is no longer available for whatever reason could lead to an interesting situation on the 1996 stock when Crossrail eventually opens, with three different voices feauturing in the same announcement at Bond Street - Celia for "This station is Bond Street", a new voiceover for "Change here for Central and Elizabeth lines", and the original voiceover (Anita?) for "This train terminates at <station name>").

 

[rebmcr]

TFL have stated in answer to many foi requests that the DLR announcements are "spoken" by a tts-system.

Something smells fishy with that response. If it was whe whole truth, why have a recording for Stratford (as mentioned upthread)?

 

[richardcoughla]

Interesting thread here! Dose anyone know who dose the Emergency announcements at stations on LUL?

 

[DanNCL]

Interesting thread here! Dose anyone know who dose the Emergency announcements at stations on LUL?

Most recorded station announcements are done by Elinor Hamilton, wife of the late Phil Sayer.

 

[Scotrail314209]

That's really interesting, thank you for sharing! So it seems like it's foundations are in a bit of a fragmented system. It really does add a charm to the network, but I wonder if Emma Hignett or Julie Berry will be the future of the LU network. Especially factoring in the new stock on order and the Battersea extension

I'd put my money on Emma Hignett. TfL seem to be particularly fond of her voice given they are on Crossrail trains and will no doubt be the voice of the new stations.

 

[DanNCL]

I'd put my money on Emma Hignett. TfL seem to be particularly fond of her voice given they are on Crossrail trains and will no doubt be the voice of the new stations.

The new stations have ATOS Anne.

 

[Scotrail314209]

The new stations have ATOS Anne.

A bit bizarre, but it does make sense considering all the other stations are fitted with the Anne system.

I'd much rather they retrofitted with Emma Hignett as it would make it much less bland.

 

[seagull]

Is there a taboo against male voices nowadays? I do wonder as on my newest TomTom software, all the computer-generated voices are female as well, no male option.
Maybe the thought is that "mind the gap" is all a bloke can manage to say before being stricken down with man-flu.

 

[Fragezeichnen]

I don't know if it's the reason but my general experience is that in a station environments, with the noise, echo, and cheap underpowered speakers, a higher-pitched female voice cuts through better.

Either that or they are considered more 'friendly'. Automated voice assistants like Amazon Alexa are female-only too - although that lead to activists complaining it reinforced the historic role of women as domestic servants

 

[ThisIsSurbiton]

During the late 1990s and early 2000s the Underground network was effectively two seperate systems from an operational view both operated by private companies. The Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines were operated by "Tube Lines", with Celia Drummond providing announcements for the Jubilee and Northern lines (the former along with the original announcer on the 1996 stock), and Julie Berry on the Piccadilly. The rest of the network was operated by "Metronet", with Emma Clarke providing announcements on the C, D, 1967, 1972 and 1992 stocks (A stock was never equipped with an auto announcer). Following the collapse of the two private-public partnerships, TFL brought the full network fully in house.

And who did the Jubilee announcement for trains terminating in unusual places (I think it was). Michael Meech? An old LBC name, anyway. The "Ladies and gentlemen" station system was about the bet I've ever heard for quality, was that Metronet?

The new stations have ATOS Anne.

Oh dear, not because of the voice, but the way the words are put together. Has that improved recently? Or perhaps I've just got used to it! Something for GBR to look at, perhaps.

 

[guildford]

I think all of the UK has always been like this. Both our mainline railways and London Underground have always had many different voices. London Underground are slowly moving towards a more standard system with less voices though.

Up until about a year ago all of the next train platform announcements at the Bakerloo Line and Central Line stations were voiced by Pauline Cavilla (who used to voice the station announcements on the Southeastern network from the late 1990s to 2012) while the rest of the stations were Elinor Hamilton instead. However all remaining Pauline Cavilla announcements have now been replaced by Elinor Hamilton so there is just one standard voice announcing all the next train platform announcements across all London Underground lines stations.

I always really liked the announcements Pauline Cavilla did on both Southeastern and the London Underground platforms. They sounded very polite and well spoken.

"Ladies and gentlemen. The next train will arrive in one minute. It will be a Central Line train calling at all stations to West Ruislip. Ladies and gentlemen. Please stand behind the yellow line as the train approaches, use the full length of the platform, and let customers alight from the train first."

It is a shame all this political correctness nonsense now prohibits such announcements.

In regards to the DLR announcements i believe that the onboard announcements are an actual real person but the platform announcements are TTS. I think this is the confusion that TFL have been having when they claimed the announcements were TTS. The platform ones are all very clearly TTS but the onboard ones are a real person but i do not know what her name is.

On the Jubilee Line 1996 stock trains there used to be a third voice (Micheal Meech) who would do all the special announcements such as "All change please. This train will now terminate here. All change please." and others like that. But he was then replaced by additional Celia Drummond announcements around 2016 or so. Another interesting thing is the Anita (who still does some of the Jubilee Line 1996 stock announcements) also voices the English language announcements on the Nuremberg U Bahn in Germany too.

I have heard some rumours that the Northern Line 1995 stock and Jubilee Line 1996 stock may get some new announcements soon. I would guess it would probably be Sarah Parnell who would do them. But i suppose we will have to wait and see. It will be a shame to see the Celia Drummond announcements go as she was one of the best announcers.

In regards to the London Overground station platform announcements it is a shame to see Emma Hignett being replaced by Anne Jermy as i have always thought Emma Hignett was a great announcer. But i suppose it is probably due to the fact that the Amey/Datel system is much more expensive than the Atos/Worldline system they are switching to. At least Emma Hignett still does the onboard announcements.

I think that in the future there will probably just be four announcers - Anne Jermy at LO/XR stations / Elinor Hamilton at LU stations / Emma Hignett on LO/XR trains / Sarah Parnell on LU trains - so it will be more standardised in the future.

 

[XAM2175]

"Ladies and gentlemen. The next train will arrive in one minute. It will be a Central Line train calling at all stations to West Ruislip. Ladies and gentlemen. Please stand behind the yellow line as the train approaches, use the full length of the platform, and let customers alight from the train first."

It is a shame all this political correctness nonsense now prohibits such announcements.

Other than the first three words, which have only fallen out of favour relatively recently, what else is "prohibited" by the PC "nonsense"?

 

[365 Networker]

And who did the Jubilee announcement for trains terminating in unusual places (I think it was). Michael Meech? An old LBC name, anyway.

Here's some recordings that are included with the BVE Western Region Jubilee Line:-

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[guildford]

Great recordings there. I remember hearing Micheal Meech on the Jubilee Line trains. I think he could only be heard on trains that terminated at anywhere other than Stanmore or Stratford (so places like North Greenwich or Willesden Green etc). It is a shame the replaced him in around 2016 as i thought he had a good voice. His voice certainly stood out and made you listen to these special announcements.

Anyone know if Micheal Meech is still alive? I am not sure how old that he would be these days? I seem to remember hearing him in the 1970s on the BBC Radio London and possibly on BBC World Service as well if i am remembering correctly?

May i ask what the BVE Western Region means? Is this the company that provides the Jubilee Line 1996 stock announcements? Or am i thinking of something else?

 

[nw1]

This may have come up before I think, but can anyone remind me who used to do announcements at Guildford and Woking around 1983/84? That was a female voice with the same sound, so presumably the same at both stations. First automated annoucements I ever heard.

At Guildford it was a mixture of this voice "the VERY fast train to Portsmouth Harbour" plus the male actual station announcer from time to time doing announcements if things were late or disrupted. Strangely the announcer used to call the "VERY fast train" [it was the '81', calling at that time Haslemere, Havant, PSS, PH] the "semi-fast train". Arguably it was neither. I'd say a VERY fast would need to be fast to at least Havant, and a semi-fast would need to call at both Godalming and Petersfield. It was just a fast train, pure and simple.

Reading in this era still seemed to be manual announcements, presumably because of the very wide variety of destinations and variations each hour.

Or how about Woking in 1991? Different voice by then, again female, who used to pronounce "Farncombe" in a very posh way: "FAAAARNcoooombe" in the tone typical of Monty Python send-ups of posh accents.

 

[365 Networker]

May i ask what the BVE Western Region means?

They create free route add ons for the openBVE simulator. They have done the Jubilee, Central, Waterloo & City and also the North London Line.

Home - BVE Western Region

Welcome to BVE Western Region - the home of the Central, Jubilee, North London and Waterloo & City lines for BVE. Download our routes here.

bvewesternregion.co.uk

 

[guildford]

The automated announcements at both Guildford and Woking were voiced by Celia Drummond and Phil Sayer from the late 1990s until around 2018 or so. Before the late 1990s i am not 100% sure on who it was but i do remember the voices you are referring to. I believe the male voice at these stations in the 1980s and 1990s was John Elgar but i can not find any information on who the female voice was.

 

[southern442]

With regards to new announcements and stations on the Northern and Jubilee lines, my first guess is that it will still be Celia. Of course she passed this year, however she seemed to be actively recording until very recently. With this in mind, the Elizabeth Line and NLE are not new developments, so it is likely that they will have already have been recorded by her.

With that said, I was on a Northern Line train on Friday, and the announcement for Bank station seemed to be a different voice, that I have not heard anywhere before. It could be a bodge similar to on the Central Line in this case.

 

[capitalconnect]

With regards to new announcements and stations on the Northern and Jubilee lines, my first guess is that it will still be Celia. Of course she passed this year, however she seemed to be actively recording until very recently. With this in mind, the Elizabeth Line and NLE are not new developments, so it is likely that they will have already have been recorded by her.

With that said, I was on a Northern Line train on Friday, and the announcement for Bank station seemed to be a different voice, that I have not heard anywhere before. It could be a bodge similar to on the Central Line in this case.

I do not think Celia Drummond has recorded Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms as somebody made an FOI on WDTK a few months ago asking for these recordings and TFL said that these two stations had not yet been recorded.

I suppose one other option is to use parts of other Celia Drummond announcement recordings to make the new announcements. We know that Celia Drummond already has recordings for the words "Battersea" and "Power" and "Station" and "Nine" so these should be easy to obtain. Then they could get "Elms" from her "Elmstead Woods" or "Elmswell" recordings. So doing this could be an option.

With the Bakerloo Line and Central Line it is much easier to do a bodge job at updating the announcements as Emma Clarke and Sarah Parnell sound very similar to each other so it sounds fine and most people will not notice. However there are not many other voiceovers who sound similar to Celia Drummond though. So for example mixing in Sarah Parnell with Celia Drummond would just sound strange. You would definitely be able to tell it was a bodge job.

Interesting to hear there was a new voice for announcing Bank station. I certainly did not realise that. Do you have any recording of it? I wonder why they got a new voice just to say this station?

 

[DanNCL]

Its not Celia unless they’ve done as suggested above could have happened and taken parts of old recordings from her to make new ones, or created a text-to-speech version of her voice. I understand that recordings for Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station have now been done, although I don’t know who has done them.

 

[southern442]

Interesting to hear there was a new voice for announcing Bank station. I certainly did not realise that. Do you have any recording of it? I wonder why they got a new voice just to say this station?

Sadly not. I have not been able to find any looking online, all recent videos still have the Celia announcements. But it was certainly a new voice. It could be that this voice may take over announcements completely or just fill in some gaps.