Station Announcers & Announcements

[imagination]

At Reading for a couple of years before they started announcing the stopping services as going to the stop before their actual destination they had the fast trains announced as "high speed", with a strong emphasis on those two words. Unfortunately they also used this for other services. One particular favourite of mine was

"Platform 4 for the xx : xx First Great Western High Speed service to Penzance"

Always used to make me laugh imagining a local stopping service from Reading to Penzance...

 

[LE Greys]

At Reading for a couple of years before they started announcing the stopping services as going to the stop before their actual destination they had the fast trains announced as "high speed", with a strong emphasis on those two words. Unfortunately they also used this for other services. One particular favourite of mine was

"Platform 4 for the xx : xx First Great Western High Speed service to Penzance"

Always used to make me laugh imagining a local stopping service from Reading to Penzance...

You don't need to imagine much. At Paddington in 1941 (when war supplies got priority over passengers) there had not been any departure for about an hour, then someone got up and wrote on the board.
ALL STATIONS TO P E N Z
Remember that these were they days when you had getting on for fifty little halts and so on by the line plus all the regular stations, totalling nearly 200.
He promptly wiped it off and wrote
O X F O R D

 

[EM2]

Best one I've heard was at Leicester on Easter Sunday, when an XC to BHM (I think) was about an hour late.
'The next train to arrive on platform two will be the horologically-challenged 12:32 Cross-Country service to Birmingham New Street'

 

[Aictos]

Roaming microphones when they work are so much fun,

 

[Solent&Wessex]

I remember a few years ago when I was briefly living in Birmingham in 2002 - 2003, the automated PA broke down and there was someone manually announcing all trains all evening. They were obviously reading from some working timetable or suchlike, as all stations were being announced in full, sometimes via their old fashioned names. I remember the train I was catching to Leeds was announced as calling at Tamworth High Level, Derby Midland, Sheffield Midland, Leeds City, Newcastle Central etc.

 

[scotsman]

Roaming microphones when they work are so much fun,

District Line at Westminster: This train is now ready to depart - please mind the doors. All but one door shuts, driver doesn't notice "open up.....OPEN UP!!!!"

 

[Aictos]

I remember a few years ago when I was briefly living in Birmingham in 2002 - 2003, the automated PA broke down and there was someone manually announcing all trains all evening. They were obviously reading from some working timetable or suchlike, as all stations were being announced in full, sometimes via their old fashioned names. I remember the train I was catching to Leeds was announced as calling at Tamworth High Level, Derby Midland, Sheffield Midland, Leeds City, Newcastle Central etc.

That reminds me with regards to Moorgate, has it just been Moorgate or London Moorgate?

As I prefer to use London Moorgate, really I ought to use Moorgate East as that's the official name for the NCL platforms.

 

[thefab444]

Are pre-recorded or human live announcements better?

Pre-recorded announcements should be used wherever possible, as they are far clearer than manual announcements. Only in emergencies should manual announcements be used, where time constraints may mean that setting up a recorded announcement is not viable.

I know some of you like it, but I can't believe large stations like Newcastle, Preston, York and Derby still don't have any form of automated announcement system.

 

[Robinson]

Doing my recent 14 day ALR I encountered a fair few of these announcement systems. Those who have read my ALR thread have already seen my post expressing my distaste for Southern's very annoying "Would customers please note this train will divide en route at Horsham. Coaches 1 to 4 will continue to Portsmouth Harbour; coaches 5 to 8 will continue to Bognor Regis. Please make sure you are travelling in the correct part of the train." (pause) "This is coach number 2 of 8." Before AND after every station, and even after Horsham she continued giving us "This is coach number 2 of 4."
I remember when I was a really young kid they had the announcement some people have mentioned at Queen Street low level "Glasgow Queen Street; this is Glasgow Queen Street. The train now standing at platform 8 (can't remember exact wording) is for Milngavie, calling at all stations." Brought a few memories back when I heard this system used at Plymouth, then also at Swindon.

 

[HSTfan!!!]

Roaming microphones when they work are so much fun,

ours is rubbish, hard work to use as well when you can hear your own voice booming over the speakers lol

 

[southerner2174]

You might hate and dislike the announcement on Southern regarding splitting trains but until you have worked one you have no idea how dumb passengers are in regards to being in the correct part. So it does have some use, however despite the announcements it does take a full ticket check before the train splits to actually make the passenger (sheep) understand exactly where they need to sit and working a 12 car train is hard work to get from one end to the other making a full check, additional announcements and disatching from the correct part every 5-10 minutes, as annoying as the announcements are they are part of the requirements of the franchise, remember not everyone is as well educated as you in travelling on trains especially those travelling to and from airports

 

[Class 33]

I heard a bizzarre announcement at Newport the other week.

"Platform x for the xx : xx service to Portsmouth Harbour. Calling at Portsmouth Harbour only."

Can you imagine that. A scheduled passenger service running from Newport all the way to Portsmouth Harbour non-stop! Couldn't believe what I was hearing! I assume it must have been an error as the only trains to pull in after that announcement(before the train I was waiting for that is) were for Cheltenham Spa and London Paddington.



Note: x = can't remember the platform number or exact time.

 

[HSTfan!!!]

I heard a bizzarre announcement at Newport the other week.

"Platform x(/I] for the xx : xx service to Portsmouth Harbour. Calling at Portsmouth Harbour only."

Can you imagine that. A scheduled passenger service running from Newport all the way to Portsmouth Harbour non-stop! Couldn't believe what I was hearing! I assume it must have been an error as the only trains to pull in after that announcement(before the train I was waiting for that is) were for Cheltenham Spa and London Paddington.



Note: x = can't remember the platform number or exact time.

when was this? definitely a mistake

 

[Class 33]

when was this? definitely a mistake

This would have been not long after 3pm on Thursday 5th August.

 

[Robinson]

You might hate and dislike the announcement on Southern regarding splitting trains but until you have worked one you have no idea how dumb passengers are in regards to being in the correct part. So it does have some use, however despite the announcements it does take a full ticket check before the train splits to actually make the passenger (sheep) understand exactly where they need to sit and working a 12 car train is hard work to get from one end to the other making a full check, additional announcements and disatching from the correct part every 5-10 minutes, as annoying as the announcements are they are part of the requirements of the franchise, remember not everyone is as well educated as you in travelling on trains especially those travelling to and from airports

Surely not needed before AND after every station though? Would one or the other not suffice?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

At preston, whenever the Pendos are in reverse formation (First Class at the north end etc), the first time anyone gets to know is when it rolls past them on the platform. They must know, or could be told in advance, yet the train will always depart 3-4 mins late because of everyone walking down the platform with luggage hock:

 

[t0ffeeman]

Moorgate is just "Moorgate" as its LUL run. LOROL are starting to call Euston "Euston" now rather than London Euston and also renamed Kenny O, Kensington (Olympia) in TFL speak.

 

[Keele13]

There's a guy at Stoke who has a good local accent, so he pronounces Pendolino as 'pandolino' which makes me laugh. They very rarely announce the Northern Rail service to Manchester, so the train often arrives and departs without any public acknowledgement of it. I like to think the announcer has some sort of personal vendetta against Northern and refuses to mention it.

 

[Solent&Wessex]

There's a guy at Stoke who has a good local accent, so he pronounces Pendolino as 'pandolino' which makes me laugh. They very rarely announce the Northern Rail service to Manchester, so the train often arrives and departs without any public acknowledgement of it. I like to think the announcer has some sort of personal vendetta against Northern and refuses to mention it.

York was a bit like that under Nat Ex as regards the Grand Central services. All the GC trains used to arrive and depart without any recognition of their existance. Under East Coast they are announced now, but it is hurried, and you get the impression the announcer would rather have their toe nails pulled off than announce the GC services.

 

[Any Permitted]

"Slough. This is Slough"

Oh dear.

 

[LE Greys]

"Slough. This is Slough"

Oh dear.

I remember one system pronouncing it "Sluff".

 

[class313]

My favorite one was at Gloucester on Thursday when the Cathedrals express Railtour was there 'The next train to depart platform 4 will be the 17:05 service to calling at only'.