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Onboard announcements on buses set to become standard?

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Steddenm

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Blackpool Transport have the announcements on their services.

At the beginning of the journey it says "Welcome aboard this service x to xxx (via Blackpool Town Centre)".

At stops it just goes "bing bang bong, xxxx", eg "Tower".

At some stops it tells you to change for other services and on some routes that don't use the main bus stops in the town centre (eg service 3) it tells you the stop is for Blackpool town centre.
 
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Ken H

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I'm a local, the accent on the Aireline is not typical of its passengers. For many non-locals it may not be very comprehensible.
Ay up. This is Shipleh. Gerroff 'here fer Baildun un Bratfud. Don't go and be fergerring yer stuff.
 
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johnnychips

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Slightly OT, the Supertram stop announcements are done in a local friendly voice. But since Covid, the ‘wear your mask, keep social distance’ announcements are done by a Harry Enfield’s Mr Cholmondley-Warner soundalike to make sure we lower-class plebs take it seriously :D
 

507020

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Ay up. This is Shipleh. Gerroff 'here fer Baildun un Bratfud. Don't go and be fergerring yer stuff.
I can’t think of anything better than going on a trip to Yorkshire and hearing authentic Yorkshire dialect on a Transdev Blazefield bus!
Slightly OT, the Supertram stop announcements are done in a local friendly voice. But since Covid, the ‘wear your mask, keep social distance’ announcements are done by a Harry Enfield’s Mr Cholmondley-Warner soundalike to make sure we lower-class plebs take it seriously :D
This is at complete odds with the announcements on Northern rail, which are done in an attempt at a generic “northern” accent for the whole of the north, with the exception of the Covid announcements “For the protection of everyone, you must wear a face covering on board trains and at stations, unless you are exempt” which are done by an even more generic “English” accent which sounds more but not overwhelmingly southern. However, I am a particular fan of the wording “For the protection of everyone” as it is extremely effective in not marginalising anyone for any reason.

Do you have access to a recording of the Supertram covid announcements by any chance?
 

GusB

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We have a separate section of the forum for discussion of trams. Please ask any relevant questions there.
 

miklcct

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I can't believe what I read that some people on the forum don't think that onboard announcements should become standard. These kind of stuff should have become standard 20 years ago!

And now modern systems can control the destination display, farebox, real time bus information and stop announcements automatically without driver intervention en-route.
 
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61653 HTAFC

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I can’t think of anything better than going on a trip to Yorkshire and hearing authentic Yorkshire dialect on a Transdev Blazefield bus!
The most disappointing thing about the new Team Pennine buses was that the on board announcements are very much "received pronunciation" despite all the publicity for the new operation being very big on local pride.

That aside, the announcements are very good though. I was a bit worried they'd be too invasive, as they often can be on trains, but they really aren't. They're loud enough to hear but soft enough to ignore if you don't need them. The railway could learn a fair bit from Transdev if only it was willing to.
 

Bletchleyite

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The most disappointing thing about the new Team Pennine buses was that the on board announcements are very much "received pronunciation" despite all the publicity for the new operation being very big on local pride.

That aside, the announcements are very good though. I was a bit worried they'd be too invasive, as they often can be on trains, but they really aren't. They're loud enough to hear but soft enough to ignore if you don't need them. The railway could learn a fair bit from Transdev if only it was willing to.

I suspect PRM TSI[1] dictates this sort of thing for trains. PSVAR[2] as applies to buses is an entirely different set of rules.

[1] Persons of Reduced Mobility Technical Standards for Interoperability - a European standard for accessibility on railways which the UK is signed up to
[2] Public Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations - a set of UK rules defining the same thing for public service vehicles i.e. buses and coaches
 
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Hophead

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DfT has today announced a "National strategy to boost accessibility for disabled passengers". So far as buses are concerned it says:

The government will bring forward new regulations to force bus companies to provide audible and visual announcements onboard services. To help smaller companies achieve this, government grants will be boosted to £3.5 million. New research into the designs of bus stops and stations will ensure they are accessible for all.

And, er, that's it.

I realise that deliveries are currently limited, but do any of the major groups actually order buses without AV announcements these days?
 

johnnychips

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I don’t think there are any at all in South Yorkshire.

I was impressed by the Trent ‘Swift’ service from Derby to Uttoxeter, as it didn’t keep saying ‘the next stop is’ but varied it by things like ‘we will soon be at’ and two others so you didn’t get bored.
 

Bletchleyite

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I don’t think there are any at all in South Yorkshire.

I was impressed by the Trent ‘Swift’ service from Derby to Uttoxeter, as it didn’t keep saying ‘the next stop is’ but varied it by things like ‘we will soon be at’ and two others so you didn’t get bored.

I prefer a chime, it doesn't grate in the same way as the same words over and over again. This is the norm in mainland Europe. You can then have nice features like a different chime for major interchanges and the likes.
 

lxfe_mxtterz

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I was impressed by the Trent ‘Swift’ service from Derby to Uttoxeter, as it didn’t keep saying ‘the next stop is’ but varied it by things like ‘we will soon be at’ and two others so you didn’t get bored.
White Bus Services used to do that - "The next stop is (stop)", "(stop) is the next stop"...

Not sure if they still do it on some buses, but last time I used them, they were replaced by barely audible, almost robotic sounding announcements with none of the prior variation. A real shame, as the previous announcements had a nice, cheery and natural voice.

In addition to this, I also noted how the interior displays had changed. Before, it was just the standard white-on-black dot matrix long screen embedded into the body of the bus. Now, they appear to be TV-style screens mounted just behind the doors which, although look very fancy and nice, aren't as readable as the previous ones. Sometimes less is more.
 
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