@This is the (pause) service to Eastbourne

[Railcar]

This morning (29 Dec) the Eastbourne run had been given 12 carriages of Gatwick Express Electrostars.
This resulted in on-train announcements with a hiccup 'This is the (pause) service to Eastbourne', the pause being where the word 'Southern' is usually inserted on the 377s that do the run.
Presumably the 'box of words' that these red carriages have for automated announcements has 'Gatwick Express' rather than 'Southern?

I learnt something else the other day. It seems the hated 'see it, say it, sorted' announcements are triggered by GPS and cannot be cancelled by the guard or OBS. "They drive me crazy", said one.

 

[RailWonderer]

This morning (29 Dec) the Eastbourne run had been given 12 carriages of Gatwick Express Electrostars.
This resulted in on-train announcements with a hiccup 'This is the (pause) service to Eastbourne', the pause being where the word 'Southern' is usually inserted on the 377s that do the run.
Presumably the 'box of words' that these red carriages have for automated announcements has 'Gatwick Express' rather than 'Southern?

I learnt something else the other day. It seems the hated 'see it, say it, sorted' announcements are triggered by GPS and cannot be cancelled by the guard or OBS. "They drive me crazy", said one.

These were used on the GNs on the Cambridge fasts, which also have that pause in the PIS. When they removed the 'Southern' they've not put it back in the recording since moving the units.

 

[Silver Cobra]

This morning (29 Dec) the Eastbourne run had been given 12 carriages of Gatwick Express Electrostars.
This resulted in on-train announcements with a hiccup 'This is the (pause) service to Eastbourne', the pause being where the word 'Southern' is usually inserted on the 377s that do the run.
Presumably the 'box of words' that these red carriages have for automated announcements has 'Gatwick Express' rather than 'Southern?

It could also be something specific with GTR's 387s overall. The Great Northern ones also do the same thing (as I encountered today travelling on one on the 0618 Kings Cross to Peterborough service). I've not travelled on the GWR 387s to know if theirs do the same as well.

 

[Strat-tastic]

Insert one's own appropriate word

 

[Parallel]

It could also be something specific with GTR's 387s overall. The Great Northern ones also do the same thing (as I encountered today travelling on one on the 0618 Kings Cross to Peterborough service). I've not travelled on the GWR 387s to know if theirs do the same as well.

GWR's units use a different format and voice over artist - see the recording attached.

 

[Future]

I’ve noticed on GWR’s Castle Class sets, a few sets started saying ‘The next station is…’ and then saying ‘NO’ for some reason

 

[jack31439]

Gatex Electrostars do indeed have a different audio database than the Southern Electrostars. This includes when the Gatex stock says 'Welcome to Gatwick Airport' in multiple languages, for example. Issues with the system in the past have meant a database which includes everything is just too large for it to handle properly, hence it being split. There are a few different variations of PIS, as well as the upgrades for Aurora, but the output is almost always the same.

 

[Fuzzytop]

The gap has been on all GN 387s from the start. It results in an over-emphasis on the word 'service', as though the announcer is being ironic - you can almost imagine them using air-quotes. As someone who suffers these units regularly, I feel the sarcasm would be wholly justified!

 

[Peter0124]

This morning (29 Dec) the Eastbourne run had been given 12 carriages of Gatwick Express Electrostars.
This resulted in on-train announcements with a hiccup 'This is the (pause) service to Eastbourne', the pause being where the word 'Southern' is usually inserted on the 377s that do the run.
Presumably the 'box of words' that these red carriages have for automated announcements has 'Gatwick Express' rather than 'Southern?

I learnt something else the other day. It seems the hated 'see it, say it, sorted' announcements are triggered by GPS and cannot be cancelled by the guard or OBS. "They drive me crazy", said one.

When you say 'GPS' are you saying that the announcements play depending on the Location of the train? Quite cool if true

 

[Doctor Fegg]

I learnt something else the other day. It seems the hated 'see it, say it, sorted' announcements are triggered by GPS

The mind boggles. Do they play when GPS detects they're entering a particularly high crime area...?

 

[MCR247]

When you say 'GPS' are you saying that the announcements play depending on the Location of the train? Quite cool if true

The mind boggles. Do they play when GPS detects they're entering a particularly high crime area...?

Attaching them into existing announcement slots is generally the easiest way to do things. See it say it sorted has spread to the tube now and on say the Bakerloo it is attached to announcements at Regents Park. So you get ‘the next stop is Regent’s Park. [insert 61016 annoucement]’. So if you happen to travel on it one stop to Regent’s Park every day as your commute it’ll seem like it’s always playing. I imagine TOCs did something similar

 

[ricoblade]

Interesting on one the 15:37 Sheffield to Lincoln this afternoon "calling at...[normal volume] Kiveton Park, Shireoaks, [really loud] WORKSOP, [normal volume] Retford..." before and after every stop. It's not like Worksop has been inserted as every service stops there!

 

[MCR247]

Interesting on one the 15:37 Sheffield to Lincoln this afternoon "calling at...[normal volume] Kiveton Park, Shireoaks, [really loud] WORKSOP, [normal volume] Retford..." before and after every stop. It's not like Worksop has been inserted as every service stops there!

I feel like I’ve seen a dicusssion around that on here before and the explanation was something along the lines that Northern found the announcements too loud, so they reduced the volume in all the sound files. Something happened where some stations (maybe even ones beginning with W or something) needed to have the files re-imported, but these were at the original volume. I’ll see if I can find the original post/thread for the more accurate original explanation.

 

[busestrains]

When the 387s were first introduced they always said "Gatwick Express" even when they were used on Southern services. In fact there were a couple of peak hour services booked for 387s that did not even call at Gatwick Airport and skipped out the station. So this caused a lot of confusion as the announcements said "Gatwick Express" even when it was used on a Southern service. They have since fixed this and removed the "Gatwick Express" part which is why you get a pause before the word "service" in the announcement. Unfortunately the word "Southern" is not loaded on to the announcement system on these trains. They use the same exact announcements as the 377/6 and 377/7 so GTR could easily get the "Southern" file from those and transfer it on to the 387s system. But they do not seem interested in sorting this issue.

 

[PGAT]

A 387 here says the "Southern service" and that was 2 years ago. Maybe they chose to emit it for whatever reason.

 

[busestrains]

A 387 here says the "Southern service" and that was 2 years ago. Maybe they chose to emit it for whatever reason.

Very interesting find. I use these trains a lot and have never heard them say "Southern" before. I wonder if it is only a couple of units that have had "Southern" added.

 

[Parallel]

A 387 here says the "Southern service" and that was 2 years ago. Maybe they chose to emit it for whatever reason.

Can 387s work in multiple with 377s? If so, the PIS may have been set from the 377?

 

[PGAT]

Can 387s work in multiple with 377s? If so, the PIS may have been set from the 377?

Julie Berry doesn't talk like that on the 377s, it was certainly from a 387

 

[busestrains]

Can 387s work in multiple with 377s? If so, the PIS may have been set from the 377?

The 377s and 387s never work coupled up together in passenger service. I think there is some difference in the computers or something that prevents it. But they have worked together on ECS moves on a few rare occasions.

Julie Berry doesn't talk like that on the 377s, it was certainly from a 387

She does on the 377/6 377/7 trains. The 377/6 377/7 have the same exact slower sounding Julie Berry announcements as the 387 trains. It is the 377/1 377/2 377/3 377/4 377/5 that have different announcements.

 

[PGAT]

She does on the 377/6 377/7 trains. The 377/6 377/7 have the same exact slower sounding Julie Berry announcements as the 387 trains. It is the 377/1 377/2 377/3 377/4 377/5 that have different announcements.

She does talk slower on the 377/6 and 377/7 trains but she sounds the stations differently.