Will Manchester Piccadilly ever get another auto-announcer

[Tony2215]

Fed up with hearing her auto-miserable voice everytime I get off a train at this station and shes been there since 2003. While Birmingham New Street along with a load of other major stations has had a change of auto-announcer, will Man Picc ever rid their system of this awful voice??

 

[northwichcat]

Hopefully they'll redo the announcements when the next Northern/TPE franchises are awarded. There's already too many announcements which sound wrong due to having loud bits and quiet bids where the operator or destination has changed since the original announcements were recorded.

For example "Platform 5 for the CROSSCOUNTRYservice to Bristol Temple Meads"

 

[Bantamzen]

Pah, at least the Man Pic lady can pronounce the stations correctly, unlike the lady at Bradford FS and other stations along the Aire/Wharfe lines who insists on mispronouncing Fri-zinghall as Frizz-inghall. Ggggrrrr.

Oh and while we are on the subject, there's the Leeds station TPE tag team announcers for the TPE services towards Liverpool via Warrington Central. One lady announces all the stations apart from Liverpool South Parkway, which she leaves to another lady with a much deeper voice.....

 

[northwichcat]

Pah, at least the Man Pic lady can pronounce the stations correctly, unlike the lady at Bradford FS and other stations along the Aire/Wharfe lines who insists on mispronouncing Fri-zinghall as Frizz-inghall. Ggggrrrr.

Indeed she get's Lostock Gralam and Burscough Bridge correct.

Lostock Gralam gets pronounced wrongly by the person ATW got to do the recorded announcements at Chester - they also got Bache wrong which is really bad considering how close it is to Chester.

While Burscough, Ainscough and Myerscough are all frequently mispronounced Lancashire names.

 

[johntea]

Leeds is a complete mess at the moment. You have the normal auto announcer, then a pile of new safety and security auto announcements made by a slightly 'rougher' woman voice (No offence!) then you have the manual station announcers from time to time who just sound muffled!

"Virgin Trains East Coast" is probably just going to be a hash job of "Virgin Trains" and "East Coast" too!

 

[Emyr]

The new auto-announcements about the Airport bustitutions are particularly long and tedious.

 

[Thomas6187]

That Bus announcement has been done by a real person, i.e. by someone who works at Piccadilly, that is repeated every 15 minutes

 

[HowardGWR]

Some airports have made a big improvement in cutting down on PA. It has led to one or two missing flights because they expect PA to tell them when to go to the gate, but pax are learning the hard way.

At Schiphol you almost can be sure that the only PA is to tell some pax that their luggage is just about to be removed from the plane, if they don't get a move on. What I like about that PA is that the voice is quiet, soothing, but excellent diction and in any language required.

What I don't understand is that the Waterloo PA had to tell you that every train is a SOUTH WEST TRAINS train, when of course they (nearly) all are. I haven't been there for a while perhaps that's changed.

 

[TheWalrus]

Some airports have made a big improvement in cutting down on PA. It has led to one or two missing flights because they expect PA to tell them when to go to the gate, but pax are learning the hard way.

At Schiphol you almost can be sure that the only PA is to tell some pax that their luggage is just about to be removed from the plane, if they don't get a move on. What I like about that PA is that the voice is quiet, soothing, but excellent diction and in any language required.

What I don't understand is that the Waterloo PA had to tell you that every train is a SOUTH WEST TRAINS train, when of course they (nearly) all are. I haven't been there for a while perhaps that's changed.

Which ones out of Waterloo aren't?

 

[HowardGWR]

Which ones out of Waterloo aren't?

I just thought that there could be a steam special or some such. I always try to cover myself when writing to this august enthusiast forum. Of course originally, the Eurostar departed from Waterloo. I should not think many people needed telling who ran it though. I just don't see the benefit to pax of having the name of the TOC appended to PAs, especially at termini. Perhaps at an interchange, the PA could say 'that's the greenish-blue one' when announcing an Arriva Train Wales one, say, at Birmingham.

 

[Philip]

Indeed she get's Lostock Gralam and Burscough Bridge correct.

Lostock Gralam gets pronounced wrongly by the person ATW got to do the recorded announcements at Chester - they also got Bache wrong which is really bad considering how close it is to Chester.

While Burscough, Ainscough and Myerscough are all frequently mispronounced Lancashire names.

It's the other way round isn't it? The ATW announcer pronounces 'Gralam' correctly as in how it's spelt, the Piccadilly announcer says it like 'Graham'.

The class 175 announcer used during the FNW and TPE/ATW days pronounced things well from what I remember. You can still hear her in part of the announcements used now, but they have a different woman to say the stations.

 

[northwichcat]

It's the other way round isn't it? The ATW announcer pronounces 'Gralam' correctly as in how it's spelt, the Piccadilly announcer says it like 'Graham'.

No. Gray-lam is the correct pronunciation. At Chester it's announced as Gra-lam. The chairman of MCRUA raised it with a local Arriva Trains Wales manager who told him the announcements were all recorded in Cardiff so they probably had no idea.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Some airports have made a big improvement in cutting down on PA. It has led to one or two missing flights because they expect PA to tell them when to go to the gate, but pax are learning the hard way.

At Schiphol you almost can be sure that the only PA is to tell some pax that their luggage is just about to be removed from the plane, if they don't get a move on. What I like about that PA is that the voice is quiet, soothing, but excellent diction and in any language required.

That's AviaVox, developed for Schiphol but it's used in the UK as well - Luton and Heathrow to name two. It's very easily recognised by the "bong" and the fact that the English announcer has a Dutch accent!

Neil

 

[Philip]

No. Gray-lam is the correct pronunciation. At Chester it's announced as Gra-lam. The chairman of MCRUA raised it with a local Arriva Trains Wales manager who told him the announcements were all recorded in Cardiff so they probably had no idea.

I have to say does the chairman have nothing better to do than raise points about how stations are pronounced? If it's a Welsh name pronounced in English then at least politically there may be a point but no one is going to get confused over a slight mis-pronunciation of Lostock Gralam. I bet the ATW manager uttered a few colourful words after the conversation with the chairman!

 

[northwichcat]

I have to say does the chairman have nothing better to do than raise points about how stations are pronounced? If it's a Welsh name pronounced in English then at least politically there may be a point but no one is going to get confused over a slight mis-pronunciation of Lostock Gralam.

If operators can make a fuss about how their names are pronounced at stations e.g. Northern saying they aren't Northern Trains and TPE saying they are First TPE not TPE, then why is a place name pronounced incorrectly not an issue unless it's in Wales?

 

[Philip]

If operators can make a fuss about how their names are pronounced at stations e.g. Northern saying they aren't Northern Trains and TPE saying they are First TPE not TPE, then why is a place name pronounced incorrectly not an issue unless it's in Wales?

Because they are companies with corporate branding and marketing to consider. First TPE want the First name to be advertised and Northern are called Northern Rail not Northern Trains. In the case of the pronunciation of a place it doesn't mean anything and we're not exactly talking a completely different pronunciation in the case of Lostock Gralam.

 

[RM-Taylor]

Oh and while we are on the subject, there's the Leeds station TPE tag team announcers for the TPE services towards Liverpool via Warrington Central. One lady announces all the stations apart from Liverpool South Parkway, which she leaves to another lady with a much deeper voice.....

That's the same across the whole network with automated announcements as the station was opened after the current station announcements had been recorded.

I think they're re-done every 10 years or so, so we should be due an update this year.

 

[Parallel]

I think they're re-done every 10 years or so, so we should be due an update this year.

You can hear it's been a while with ATW's announcer (Ruth) at their stations. I think Ruth is generally quite a good announcer, but you can really hear where they've bodged in 'London Midland' and 'Crosscountry' and she doesn't say Keynsham correctly. I've noticed in recent years, she's re-recorded Penychain so it no longer says "Penny chain".

Like I said though, she is a good announcer and a nice change to Anne.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

Speaking of auto announcements, the one on Grand Central's 180's still has Mirfield missing and upon arriving at Pontefract it annouces for connections for Knottingley as Nottinghamly for some odd reason. I'd be happy to re-record them (as I have a loud and clear enough voice for radio) but also it would remove the disjointed-ness of them.

 

[HowardGWR]

That's AviaVox, developed for Schiphol but it's used in the UK as well - Luton and Heathrow to name two. It's very easily recognised by the "bong" and the fact that the English announcer has a Dutch accent!

Neil

That's very interesting Neil. You have however reminded me that she says "shipoll", annoyingly, in English and '"skiphall" (in Dutch, etc, of course). I assume she does this as otherwise the English would not understand where she was talking about. Americans should be OK though, with the correct pronunciation, given how they pronounce 'schedule'.

On this AviaVox, why would it be unsuitable for stations, as it is, IMO, far superior?

 

[tomoufc]

The funniest thing the auto-announcer does at Piccadilly is announce a train to (phonetically) Lan-dud-no, calling at Lan-did-no Junction.

The other irritant is the announcement about wet weather causing slippery surfaces, which happens every five minutes when there's the slightest hint of rain - in other words pretty much constantly.

 

[paulravuslante]

That's AviaVox, developed for Schiphol but it's used in the UK as well - Luton and Heathrow to name two. It's very easily recognised by the "bong" and the fact that the English announcer has a Dutch accent!

Neil

Ah I always wondered why that Dutch lady was everywhere! Thanks

 

[leytongabriel]

Seems we are fighting a losing battle with Tfl over Ho'bn coming out as Hol -born.

 

[Robin1966]

Its all juddery at Bristol, sort of "Platform -- 5 -- for the -- 16:56 -- service to -- Exeter St Davids"..... snore.....

 

[paulravuslante]

Seems we are fighting a losing battle with Tfl over Ho'bn coming out as Hol -born.

I noticed that Marylebone is pronounced differently on the buses and the Tube so perhaps they are being impartial with that one lol.

A good point though, when different people pronounce the same place in different ways (as per Shrewsbury), then there's always going to be someone unhappy with the way it's recorded on these systems.

 

[Philip]

Speaking of auto announcements, the one on Grand Central's 180's still has Mirfield missing and upon arriving at Pontefract it annouces for connections for Knottingley as Nottinghamly for some odd reason. I'd be happy to re-record them (as I have a loud and clear enough voice for radio) but also it would remove the disjointed-ness of them.

Is it the same announcer who is used on the FGW 180s? The FGW 180 woman is the same one who recorded the original 175 announcements.

 

[BurtonM]

Because they are companies with corporate branding and marketing to consider. First TPE want the First name to be advertised and Northern are called Northern Rail not Northern Trains. In the case of the pronunciation of a place it doesn't mean anything and we're not exactly talking a completely different pronunciation in the case of Lostock Gralam.

Corporate branding, eh?
My local station at home is TPE-run Stalybridge.
The PIS identifies TPE services as TPE but Northern services are just 'service'.
Also they insist on using their own male voice that was done in-house by someone with very little apparent experience of voice acting, it's horribly disjointed and unpleasant to listen to.
I've brought it up in emails I've written to them before and it always goes ignored.
And at Huddersfield, it replaced Phil Sayer...

Also, Liverpool South Parkway is a bit of a red herring. The station is that recent that most PIS systems pre-date it and have needed updates to accomodate.

Another annoyance: if you're standing on P13/14 at Manchester Piccadilly, the wet weather and other nanny state announcements are out of sync - you hear it from above your head, then immediately hear it again echoing out of the main trainshed.

 

[ag51ruk]

That's very interesting Neil. You have however reminded me that she says "shipoll", annoyingly, in English and '"skiphall" (in Dutch, etc, of course). I assume she does this as otherwise the English would not understand where she was talking about. Americans should be OK though, with the correct pronunciation, given how they pronounce 'schedule'.

On this AviaVox, why would it be unsuitable for stations, as it is, IMO, far superior?

AviaVox is not a real person, it's an artificial voice - so it will pronouncd words in the way it's programmed. I also thought the English voice had a Dutch accent, buf it is supposed to be neutral apparently.

 

[Parallel]

The funniest thing the auto-announcer does at Piccadilly is announce a train to (phonetically) Lan-dud-no, calling at Lan-did-no Junction.

The Shrewsbury announcer went through a stage of saying "Llandudnorr", even after saying "Llandudno Junction" correctly. No idea if it has since been corrected.

Anne at Birmingham New Street says "Carzwz" and then "Machynlleth?" like she's not too sure.

 

[Gareth]

That's AviaVox, developed for Schiphol but it's used in the UK as well - Luton and Heathrow to name two. It's very easily recognised by the "bong" and the fact that the English announcer has a Dutch accent!

Neil

The worst thing about Schiphol is the "Mind your step" announcements at the ends of the travelators. It sounds weird, with a sharp drop in intonation as the spoken, in a way a real person wouldn't say it (difficult to describe it in writing). That wouldn't bother me if it wasn't that it repeats every few seconds or so. Torture when stuck in a queue near where one is going off.