Class 458/0 announcements (maybe some history lessons on the juniper family too)

[D_Sims97]

yes another announcement thread post i know boring but this one questioned me
watch this video (link below)

The Class 458/0 Announcements as shown in this video are completely different to the one on the 458/5 my question(s) are/is who what how and why? are they seperate

and if anyone has any interesting information or history that would be much appreciated!

Thank You!

let me know below

 

[pennineuk]

I always thought the announcer was Paul Merton.

 

[XAM2175]

The Class 458/0 Announcements as shown in this video are completely different to the one on the 458/5 my question(s) are/is who what how and why? are they seperate

and if anyone has any interesting information or history that would be much appreciated!

This would be a good start:

British Rail Class 458 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[D_Sims97]

I always thought the announcer was Paul Merton.

hmm spose i could do some googling and see if it is or not

This would be a good start:

British Rail Class 458 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

ah ofc

 

[Bletchleyite]

yes another announcement thread post i know boring but this one questioned me
watch this video (link below)

The Class 458/0 Announcements as shown in this video are completely different to the one on the 458/5 my question(s) are/is who what how and why? are they seperate

and if anyone has any interesting information or history that would be much appreciated!

Thank You!

let me know below

I always found it amusing the way the intonations are totally wrong on those, such that he sounds surprised and shocked at arriving at each station. Mind you I would be surprised and shocked had I unknowingly arrived at Feltham (the most shocked sounding one), it is a dump.

I always thought the announcer was Paul Merton.

Does sound a bit like! I suspect just a Cockneyish member of staff that sounds similar, though. They were often done by random members of staff in the early days, e.g. the rude and clipped original TPE one (the total opposite of the current Northern one which has a very friendly Victoria Wood esque voice) or the Scouse lift at Liverpool Central.

 

[Parallel]

The incorrect inflection is fairly standard across most Alstom stock. They are also wrong on TfW 175s where you get trains running to ‘Manchester PiccADILLY’, Grand Central where trains run to ‘SUNDerland!’ and ScotRail 334s where trains run to ‘Helensburgh Central?!’. I don’t think attempts have ever been made to correct them.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The incorrect inflection is fairly standard across most Alstom stock. They are also wrong on TfW 175s where you get trains running to ‘Manchester PiccADILLY’, Grand Central where trains run to ‘SUNDerland!’ and ScotRail 334s where trains run to ‘Helensburgh Central?!’. I don’t think attempts have ever been made to correct them.

All Transport for Wales PISs (bar the painful MK4 one) have incorrect inflections. “This train is for BARRY Island” and “This train is for MERTHYR Tydfill” always irritate me, as there are no other Islands and Tydfills on that route, the emphasis should of course be on the second word.

 

[Bletchleyite]

All Transport for Wales PISs (bar the painful MK4 one) have incorrect inflections. “This train is for BARRY Island” and “This train is for MERTHYR Tydfill” always irritate me, as there are no other Islands and Tydfills on that route, the emphasis should of course be on the second word.

The TfW autoannouncer is horrid, her voice sounds like sandpaper and all the intonation is way off. I do like the little tune, though, which is almost (but not quite) the Welsh national anthem, a little bit reminiscent of the German* regional double deckers that play you the relevant Bundesland's anthem as an announcement tone and it changes as you go from Land to Land.

* DB's German announcer (who has apparently now been used to create a wholly synthesized text to speech engine) is probably the clearest announcer I have ever heard, with all the intonation absolutely bang on.

 

[computerSaysNo]

The incorrect inflection is fairly standard across most Alstom stock. They are also wrong on TfW 175s where you get trains running to ‘Manchester PiccADILLY’, Grand Central where trains run to ‘SUNDerland!’ and ScotRail 334s where trains run to ‘Helensburgh Central?!’. I don’t think attempts have ever been made to correct them.

I quite like the announcements on the 334s, it's like they're reading the script with semicolons instead of full stops (e.g. "This station is Haymarket; this train is for Milngavie; the next stop is Edinburgh Park." with the tone rising at the end of "Haymarket" and "Milngavie" and falling at the end of "Edinburgh Park"). I guess it just sort of makes the 334s stand out as unique.
I do dislike the way "Bathgate" is announced though, they cut the pause in front of the word and cut the pronunciation of the "B" short so it announces like "This station isbaThgate; [...]".

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The TfW autoannouncer is horrid, her voice sounds like sandpaper and all the intonation is way off. I do like the little tune, though, which is almost (but not quite) the Welsh national anthem, a little bit reminiscent of the German* regional double deckers that play you the relevant Bundesland's anthem as an announcement tone and it changes as you go from Land to Land.

It’s Ruth, plus a few interjections of Alison on 175s only, but she doesn’t sound anywhere near as good as she does on platforms. Although even on platforms the pronounciation of “BRISTOL Temple Meads” annoys me slightly.

 

[swr444]

I always found it amusing the way the intonations are totally wrong on those, such that he sounds surprised and shocked at arriving at each station. Mind you I would be surprised and shocked had I unknowingly arrived at Feltham (the most shocked sounding one), it is a dump.

They do it with Celia too on the newer announcements, it's always funny to hear London waterLOO

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I reckon the Juniper family doesn’t have capacity for two sets of recordings for both end of sentence and middle of sentence stations, so they decided to just load the latter. Southern, c2c and Southeastern (exc. 395) do the reverse and only play end of sentence recordings.

 

[Bletchleyite]

No, it has both, e.g.:

"De* door buttons have been activated. This is Felthammm! (intonated up). The next station is Staines. (intonated down)"

You can hear both on the recording above.

*deliberate, it sounds like that

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

No, it has both, e.g.:

"De* door buttons have been activated. This is Felthammm! (intonated up). The next station is Staines. (intonated down)"

You can hear both on the recording above.

*deliberate, it sounds like that

Yes you’re right thinking about it. I believe there’s no full stop after “This is XXX,” to save characters - same on GWR TrainFX. Perhaps this automatically triggers the PIS to think its a middle of sentence?

 

[computerSaysNo]

I wondered if the system altered the recording digitally to give the different intonations, otherwise they would need to duplicate pretty much all the recordings just to provide the slight change in tone.

 

[greaterwest]

I wondered if the system altered the recording digitally to give the different intonations, otherwise they would need to duplicate pretty much all the recordings just to provide the slight change in tone.

There are definitely two completely different recordings of every station, for both station and on-train information systems (three recordings for the ATOS Worldline station CIS).

The Alstom PIS is very strange and I think the inflection issue described here is quirk of the system and not the TOC or announcer.

The TFW 175 PIS (the only other one I've seen which consistently works) seems to share this quirk in my experience:
"This is Abergavenny,
This train is for Manchester Piccadilly,
The next stop will be Hereford!
Thank you."

 

[Parallel]

Recordings from the current announcements from the Class 458s and Class 175s attached if anyone has not heard them (or the inflection quirk).

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yes you’re right thinking about it. I believe there’s no full stop after “This is XXX,” to save characters - same on GWR TrainFX. Perhaps this automatically triggers the PIS to think its a middle of sentence?

Could be that. But the intonation is so wrong on the "mid sentence" ones that they sound wrong anyway, they should be fairly "flat" but are intoned up and slightly shouting.

Thank you."

The tone of that bit is incredibly patronising, it carries the tone of "Thank you, at least you've done the dishes now, I've been asking you to do them for hours".

TBH the Ruth announcements are all horrible. They should find a friendly sounding Welsh woman and re-record the lot. The feel of the Victoria Wood-style soft Northern accent on the 195s is just so much better, a Welsh equivalent is needed.

Really, the railway should pay a lot more attention to its "audio brand" as a whole rather than just "doing whatever".

 

[XAM2175]

Really, the railway should pay a lot more attention to its "audio brand" as a whole rather than just "doing whatever".

Oh yes, need to hire these people ASAP:

* DB's German announcer (who has apparently now been used to create a wholly synthesized text to speech engine) is probably the clearest announcer I have ever heard, with all the intonation absolutely bang on.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

TBH the Ruth announcements are all horrible. They should find a friendly sounding Welsh woman and re-record the lot. The feel of the Victoria Wood-style soft Northern accent on the 195s is just so much better, a Welsh equivalent is needed.

Really, the railway should pay a lot more attention to its "audio brand" as a whole rather than just "doing whatever".

Have you heard how disgustingly grating the new female voice is on the Mark 4s?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Have you heard how disgustingly grating the new female voice is on the Mark 4s?

Not tried them yet I'm afraid.

 

[Bikeman78]

I quite like the announcements on the 334s, it's like they're reading the script with semicolons instead of full stops (e.g. "This station is Haymarket; this train is for Milngavie; the next stop is Edinburgh Park." with the tone rising at the end of "Haymarket" and "Milngavie" and falling at the end of "Edinburgh Park"). I guess it just sort of makes the 334s stand out as unique.
I do dislike the way "Bathgate" is announced though, they cut the pause in front of the word and cut the pronunciation of the "B" short so it announces like "This station isbaThgate; [...]".

I think that's the standard script for most trains in Scotland. It amuses me that the 318s and 320s pronounce Lanark as Blanark. Do other trains do that too? Reminds me of the 365s that went to Blondon King's Cross.

 

[D_Sims97]

Recordings from the current announcements from the Class 458s and Class 175s attached if anyone has not heard them (or the inflection quirk).

i hate the pause on the 458/5 and especially when it does that loud noise when announcing certain things

thank you to everyone who replied i really enjoyed reading your opinions and debate on the announcements!

 

[busestrains]

yes another announcement thread post i know boring but this one questioned me
watch this video (link below)

The Class 458/0 Announcements as shown in this video are completely different to the one on the 458/5 my question(s) are/is who what how and why? are they seperate

and if anyone has any interesting information or history that would be much appreciated!

Thank You!

let me know below

I remember those announcements well!

"The door buttons are now activated."!

I think it was a SWT employee that voiced the 458/0 announcements. It reminds me of the FGE 360/1 and the HC 360/2 which were both voiced by employees also before switching to Julie Berry announcements.

I have no idea what the name is of this 458/0 voiceover employee though.

Another interesting thing a lot of people probably do not remember is that the SWT 170/444/450 trains were all originally voiced by Phil Sayer on them. Then after only about a year or two they switched to Celia Drummond instead.

The TfW autoannouncer is horrid, her voice sounds like sandpaper and all the intonation is way off. I do like the little tune, though, which is almost (but not quite) the Welsh national anthem, a little bit reminiscent of the German* regional double deckers that play you the relevant Bundesland's anthem as an announcement tone and it changes as you go from Land to Land.

* DB's German announcer (who has apparently now been used to create a wholly synthesized text to speech engine) is probably the clearest announcer I have ever heard, with all the intonation absolutely bang on.

I actually really like the ATW/TFW onboard Ruth Mitchell announcements! She says "thank you" so much! They sound so polite when i travel around the Valley Lines area!

"We are now at Llwynypia. Thank you."

"This train is for Treherbert. Thank you."

"The next stop is Ystrad Rhondda. Thank you."

"We are now at Ystrad Rhondda. Thank you."

"This train is for Treherbert. Thank you."

"The next stop is Ton Pentre. Thank you."

The 175s do not seem to say "thank you" as much as on the 150/153/158/769 trains so they have a slightly different script.

I like her station announcements too. She and Eryl Jones are probably the only two decent Worldline announcers.

It is a shame that jingle is only used on the 175 trains. It is such a good jingle. It is really a shame that their new 197/230/231/398/756/MK4 trains do not use it. I set it as my notification tone on my phone a while ago.

TFW should use that jingle everywhere on trains and at stations and it might become well known like the SNCF one.

Could be that. But the intonation is so wrong on the "mid sentence" ones that they sound wrong anyway, they should be fairly "flat" but are intoned up and slightly shouting.



The tone of that bit is incredibly patronising, it carries the tone of "Thank you, at least you've done the dishes now, I've been asking you to do them for hours".

TBH the Ruth announcements are all horrible. They should find a friendly sounding Welsh woman and re-record the lot. The feel of the Victoria Wood-style soft Northern accent on the 195s is just so much better, a Welsh equivalent is needed.

Really, the railway should pay a lot more attention to its "audio brand" as a whole rather than just "doing whatever".

I have to disagree. I do not find it that patronising. I like the "thank you" part of the announcements. It makes them sound very polite. I think including words like "please" and "thank you" is very important.

For another example when FGW/GWR changed their onboard announcements from Faye Dicker to Janine Cooper Marshall some of the wording sounds a lot more aggressive.

Faye Dicker said: "Please do not attempt to board or alight from the train when the doors are closing."

Janine Cooper Marshall says: "Do not try to board or leave the train when the doors are closing."

I think the latter sounds a lot less friendly so i think words such as "please" and "thank you" are important in announcements.

Have you heard how disgustingly grating the new female voice is on the Mark 4s?

I am not a fan of the new 197/230/231/398/756/MK4 announcements. I prefer the Ruth Mitchell ones. I do not like the wording of them either. Eryl Jones is the Welsh voice (the same as the stations) and i think the English voice is someone called "Elin" but not sure exactly who this is. Looking online it could be Elin Haf Davies perhaps as she is the only voiceover i can find with that first name.

They got Eryl Jones to do the Welsh version so not sure why they chose a new voiceover instead of keeping Ruth Mitchell for the English version as she has been used for a while so quite a familiar voice to keep.

They could have even just used someone like Julie Berry who is well known and used on many trains if they needed a new voice.

 

[43096]

I have to disagree. I do not find it that patronising. I like the "thank you" part of the announcements. It makes them sound very polite. I think including words like "please" and "thank you" is very important.

Oh it is patronising. It is also more unnecessary PA piffle - noise pollution, if you like. It doesn't need a "thank you" after every announcement, and particularly not a patronising one.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Oh it is patronising. It is also more unnecessary PA piffle - noise pollution, if you like. It doesn't need a "thank you" after every announcement, and particularly not a patronising one.

It isn't the fact that she says "thank you" that I dislike, it is the way it is badly intoned. She just doesn't have the voice for this application at all, I am sure, like the Northern voice, a really warm, friendly Welsh voice can be found to replace her. It is also a really shoddy quality recording.

 

[dorsetdesiro]

Slightly OT,

Any update on the refurb'd 458s for Portsmouth?

 

[busestrains]

Slightly OT,

Any update on the refurb'd 458s for Portsmouth?

With the 701s still not in service and not likely to enter service any time soon i doubt that much will be happening with refurbishing the 458s as they will need them in service.

 

[Lampshade]

I remember these announcements very well, my favourite trains pre-refurb!