I've noticed the unique voice at King's Cross St Pancras (used for general station announcements, not on the platforms) that I haven't as yet heard anywhere else on the network. Is it text-to-speech or did the voice actress just sound incredibly robotic?
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Station Announcements
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busestrains
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It is indeed a Text To Speech voice. It is not a real human voice over artist. It has been there for years (i think over ten years now) and is the only London Underground station to use this voice.
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
Parnell clearly thinks Emma Clarke speaks in a dull, lazy way, as her stand-in imitations for the Central and Bakerloo lines certainly sound this way, unlike her very well done Subsurface and Victoria announcements. Same for the Jubilee line - she doesn’t sound like Celia at allc but I’m going to assume Parnell was just told she needed to replace an old announcer again and assumed it was the same one.
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It’s horrendous.
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You can tell! Thank goodness it’s not spread.
busestrains
On Moderation
I agree Sarah Parnell sounds a lot better on the S Stock and 2009 Stock trains. They should have just got her to do the same style as that for her new 1972/1992/1996 Stocks announcements. It would have sounded a lot better for sure.
It is interesting how Sarah Parnell ended up doing these new 1996 Stock announcements. The 1973/1995/1996 Stocks CIS is managed by Ketech but the 1972/1992/2009/S Stocks CIS is managed by Global Radio Services Limited instead. So it is two separate companies. I suppose they can use other voice over artists from other systems. There is nothing stopping them. But i thought they would have chosen someone else rather than a voice who is used by a rival supplier.
Yes i am certainly not really a fan of any Text To Speech announcements. I much prefer a proper voice over artist. Although i have heard worse Text To Speech voices. The KXSP one is not the worst one i have heard. That TTS Aviavox lady at Heathrow Airport and now many other airports has to the worse. That TTS Aviavox lady always sounds so miserable and dull. There was also that one Northern Rail used before Acapela Rachael who also sounded terrible. Acapela Rachael is pretty poor too.
I believe the TTS voice at KXSP is called "Serena". From looking online it seems to just be a cheap standard TTS voice that can be bought from multiple companies. It is interesting that TFL only use it at one station though. The only other TTS voice on TFL is the TTS lady used to announce trains at DLR stations.
TFL need to bring back Pauline Cavilla (the old BCV/SSL next train announcer who recently reappeared at Bayswater and Notting Hill Gate stations) and Henrietta Bass (the old BCV/SSL customer service update announcer who recently reappeared at Vauxhall station) as these voices were both brilliant. Metronet knew how to put together great station announcements.
I do like Elinor Hamilton (the announcer that is now used at almost all stations) but her announcements are not as good and sometimes sound a bit disjointed and badly put together. Tubelines did not do as good a job at their station announcements. Some of the scripts and wording have been poorly done as well with some mistakes.
321over360
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Emma Clarke is the one whose voice does the bulk of the Central Line announcements isn't it? Cos out of the 2 voices used on the Central Line, the older announcements are much better than the add on ones which just sound robotic like the updates ie at Stratford which aren't nice at all
Yeah, she's also on the Bakerloo and voiced the old 1967 stock Victoria line trains as well as C and D stock etc - as @su31 said she was pretty prolific across the network. I do like her announcements.
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
Sarah Parnell voiced the entirety of C Stock announcements in their last few years.
Oh really I didn't realise! That's interesting.
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
Sarah Parnell's announcements are very clear, pleasant and cheerful sounding. She is a very good voice artist. It is only when she fills in for other voice artists that she sounds a bit odd - she clearly believes Emma Clarke to sound rather slow/drawn-out, low-pitched and miserable, and so she affects that for the Central, Bakerloo and Jubilee* lines, clearly thinking they'll fit in more.
Similarly, hardly anyone could tell that the new announcements on the Northern line were done by Elinor Hamilton, because Hamilton was clearly trying to sound like Celia Drummond (again, not the best impression - if I can convince 2 mil. people that it's MY voice you hear on the Northern line, being a Canadian bloke with a man's broken voice, Hamilton can do better
), and normally Hamilton sounds totally different when heard on the platforms - although that isn't her natural voice. Elinor Hamilton speaks with a Northern accent as like my mother she comes from Bolton 
If Parnell voices the new tube stock due in 2025-ish, I guarantee it'll be with the friendly, suitable voice heard on Victoria and subsurface lines.
*Yes, I know the announcements replace Celia Drummond here not Emma Clarke, but I hardly think Sarah Parnell will have been filled in on details such as that. She'll have probably been told to do another fill in and therefore just done the same odd Clarke impression that she always has done.
321over360
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Hers are the best announcements going, when they replaced her announcement on the C stock they lost their charm as they were the best ones, no other announcer since has done them as well as she did, they've all become more robotic in their nature rather than sounding like an actual human, I only say cos when I go to Stratford the start of the announcement is human sounding ie the "this is Stratford please mind the gap between the train and the platform" but the "change here for elizabeth and jubilee lines........" sounds like a robot and just ruins the announcements as let's face it, LO and EL didn't need to be included as it took about 2 years into Tfl Rail for them to bother changing it when it was already covered by NR services, but tfl love to waste money on pointless rubbish like updating tube announcements
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