I hope Nexus get their act together and send shovel man packing for a second and final time. Nexus comms I know you will read this and I hope, just this once you listen to the passenger voice, for pete's sake give the passengers what they want, its not just us lot here, its the wider Metro community who hate (not dislike) that prick. (excuse the foul language)
I've saw kids throw stones at refurbished MetroCars (Wansbeck Road) and its just a disgrace. I also count holding the doors open as vandalism as it wears down the motors and we all know that a fair few people do that
It was nice to be on 4003 today, Just to hear the good old bullhorn and her heating was on full blast! Shame not all of the heating systems are on yet.
You may want to change the word pr**k to something else, the mods here won't be happy if they see it
Holding doors is pointless. Yesterday the warning beeps sounded and I decided not to board (the doors hadn't even started closing) because the tone was sounding. I stood close to the door to let him know I would like to have boarded, and immediately the driver re-released the doors and let me board and there was another train 3 minutes behind (not to my destination though), I put my hand up to say thank you and he gave a small toot on the horn in response. And I've found that tends to be what happens when you just miss the train (minus the toot). You could delay the train more by holding the doors and it's simply not worth it.
I've noticed the refurbs don't really seem to have their heating on, whereas the unrefurbs seem to have it on full blast, think 4003 has it perfect tbh. It's nice and toasty but not so hot that you'll have to start removing layers.
A lot of passengers disliked the PA announcements when the female voice was introduced and how people would like a more "Human" voice and correct mispronunciation of station names like South Gosforth and Four Lane Ends. Got to say, when I first heard them, I did like them but now I'm less keen, I think as reported on here, its how it seems to be patched together but that is exactly the same as the female voice and that was another criticism.
The problem we have is people dont like change, the female announcements are not perfect but neither this male voice however got to say, if someone decides to leave the train and wait for another simply because a male PA announcer is getting on your nerves, then I do find that quite an over the top reaction
I think the main causes for concern with the women was because we were going from no announcements/announcements done manually to automatic ones. For the most part people didn't mind them, just with the exception of stations being pronounced too correctly/incorrectly for the local dialect.
I don't think he would be bad, if it was done properly, but because it's just all a huge mash up and he was very little flow because of it is what really let's it down. And the fact that he still says station names wrong is really irritating. Central Station is not called 'Central'. Plain and simple. All signage says 'Central Station' and the station is called 'Central Station', you don't change that. Automatic Announcements are for the most part there for the benefit of tourists, people who have a disability, and those who just want reassurance that they're on the right train, in the right direction.
I just don't see the need for the current female to be removed/changed other than to waste money, she does a sterling job and they've pretty much finally got them fully up and running with little faults than they used to.
I should point out, that I haven't left a train because he was announcing but I did have to change to a South Shields train and did change a few stops earlier (Monument, instead of Heworth) mainly because Heworth was colder, but he also played a role since changing at Heworth would have meant if the Metro was delayed (like normal
) then I could have jumped on the bus.
Also, 4027 appears to have done a runner. Haven't seen it in the depot, or on the system and there's been no mention of it going to Donny.
But yes nice of Northern to try and hide a corporate clause, Not the first time they don't know their ticketing. I've got a free ticket sitting in my drawer because they wouldn't let me on a train at MetroCentre with my under 16 CAT as it was 'invalid'