Voice announcements on SEQ network

[achiruel]

Sydney announcements are way more efficient and effective then "Brissy's".......most of the "aaahhh this train...will aahhh stop uhhmmm at......" QR nonsense you can't often hear anyway....

I've heard plenty of nonsense on Sydney Trains too. My examples come from the Newcastle/Central Coast line a that's the only one I've used much:

"Oadmeda" (Broadmeadow)
"Ugra" (Tuggerah)
"Doracrick" (Dora Creek)
"Tronto" (Toronto) as in "change here for bus to Tronto"
"Rimba" (Ourimbah)

Maybe they need to teach the NSW announcers to (a) turn their microphone on before speaking and (b) speak each syllable of the word.

[James]

^ Doesn't help that it is standard practice for Australians to wipe out half a word when speaking the English language, e.g. 'Too-wong' becoming 'Twong', 'Corinda' becoming 'Crinda'.

[achiruel]

^ Doesn't help that it is standard practice for Australians to wipe out half a word when speaking the English language, e.g. 'Too-wong' becoming 'Twong', 'Corinda' becoming 'Crinda'.

This is why automated announcements are so much better. Done by professional voice recording people with good diction.

[locojoe67]

^ Doesn't help that it is standard practice for Australians to wipe out half a word when speaking the English language, e.g. 'Too-wong' becoming 'Twong', 'Corinda' becoming 'Crinda'.

This is why automated announcements are so much better. Done by professional voice recording people with good diction.

This afternoon's automated announcements topped 80dB.

That's getting kind of excessive.

[ozbob]

^ Worth noting the unit numbers and reporting to QR.

[locojoe67]

Will do that next time. It was an emu set.

[verbatim9]

In reference to the guards interrupting announcements. Yesterday when I was on the train the Auto triggered announcements worked fine. Very easy to understand "clear and concise". Then you hear a guard interrupt the announcement full blast over the PA This is a ××××× Train express to ××××××  platform on the left. The sad thing is he didn't realise what train he was on. He had to correct himself after.
The guard announcements a very annoying and confusing. They blast them through the PA as well.  They are totally not needed! The doors beep on older trains to indicate platforms. The newer trains have arrows indicating the correct doors as well as beeps.

Talking about over kill! I have travelled to many places around the world and no other operator does this unless there is an emergency, delay or disruption. This is when the QR guards should say something, but in these cases they remain silent LOL!

[SurfRail]

I am past tolerant of this sort of thing.  If the train has a working VAS, they should shut up.  We do not need somebody interrupting a perfectly legible announcement with information that (frequently) is either harder to make out, much louder than the VAS, or (increasingly it seems) wrong.  Make an announcement when something goes skewwhiff, and not otherwise.  You aren't paid to be chatty, you are paid to carry out safe working and assist passengers (because we don't have the guts to get drivers to do that like they do elsewhere).

We do not need to know the buttons are in the middle of the door.  We do not need to be reminded to get ready to disembark when we want to disembark.  We do not need to be told to mind the gap.  We do not need to be constantly assaulted with unnecessary verbiage.

[Cazza]

Talking about over kill! I have travelled to many places around the world and no other operator does this unless there is an emergency, delay or disruption. This is when the QR guards should say something, but in these cases they remain silent LOL!

The guards in Sydney do make quite a few announcements regarding stations and other info.

Check out these auto announcements too!

[Aircooled]

...We do not need to know the buttons are in the middle of the door.

Are you talking about the NGRs? I reckon everyone got so used to the buttons being on the side, which is where the designers in their wisdom chose to put the emergency button now. Hence the voiceover, "the button's on the door!" Lol.

What I don't get is why the so called "quiet carriage" still has these horrid intrusive voiceovers at all? Sorta defeats the purpose? At least change it to something soothing and female.. Why do we have to get Moses delivering the commandments?

[HappyTrainGuy]

...We do not need to know the buttons are in the middle of the door.

Are you talking about the NGRs? I reckon everyone got so used to the buttons being on the side, which is where the designers in their wisdom chose to put the emergency button now. Hence the voiceover, "the button's on the door!" Lol.

What I don't get is why the so called "quiet carriage" still has these horrid intrusive voiceovers at all? Sorta defeats the purpose? At least change it to something soothing and female.. Why do we have to get Moses delivering the commandments?

Quiet carriage is a suggestion.

Door button placement is there because people still press the emergency button out of habit.

[verbatim9]

Talking about over kill! I have travelled to many places around the world and no other operator does this unless there is an emergency, delay or disruption. This is when the QR guards should say something, but in these cases they remain silent LOL!

The guards in Sydney do make quite a few announcements regarding stations and other info.

Check out these auto announcements too!

...We do not need to know the buttons are in the middle of the door.

Are you talking about the NGRs? I reckon everyone got so used to the buttons being on the side, which is where the designers in their wisdom chose to put the emergency button now. Hence the voiceover, "the button's on the door!" Lol.

What I don't get is why the so called "quiet carriage" still has these horrid intrusive voiceovers at all? Sorta defeats the purpose? At least change it to something soothing and female.. Why do we have to get Moses delivering the commandments?

...We do not need to know the buttons are in the middle of the door.

Are you talking about the NGRs? I reckon everyone got so used to the buttons being on the side, which is where the designers in their wisdom chose to put the emergency button now. Hence the voiceover, "the button's on the door!" Lol.

What I don't get is why the so called "quiet carriage" still has these horrid intrusive voiceovers at all? Sorta defeats the purpose? At least change it to something soothing and female.. Why do we have to get Moses delivering the commandments?

Quiet carriage is a suggestion.

Door button placement is there because people still press the emergency button out of habit.

The NSW auto triggered announcements are fine. The Qld ones are very long winded with the added bonus of long winded guard announcements. As per the male and female voices. A study was done prior to Vic Metro Trains changing from Male to Female voice. Apparently passengers prefer a female voice to a male voice when it comes to public transport announcements.

A review is needed regarding public address systems on the TransLink bus and QR train network. A move to auto triggered announcements only, at all stations and onboard should be the goal.

[not_available]

They've added an announcement allong the lines of "ramp at Strathpine is closed, if you need that sort of thing go somewhere else or call this number". Don't know how long its been in use though

[verbatim9]

^^Be good to see a review and change in Manual and Automated Announcements in 2019. Phase out manual announcements onboard and at all stations including inner city stations. Replace them with a new voice and simplified automated announcements. Community Feedback in other states find a female voice is better for next stop announcements. Also QR as well as the Tram announcements a very long and drawn out. It's not really necessary.  Next stop ....... Now arriving at......is sufficient. When at the station it only needs to announce the station or stop name  e.g. Central Station.  The odd automated security announcement is good.
Be also good to have next stop announcements and PIDs on high frequency bus services in conjunction with the Next Generation Ticketing roll out.

There are many good examples on YouTube worldwide on best practice regarding Public address and automated announcements.

[achiruel]

^^Be good to see a review and change in Manual and Automated Announcements in 2019. Phase out manual announcements onboard and at all stations including inner city stations. Replace them with a new voice and simplified automated announcements. Community Feedback in other states find a female voice is better for next stop announcements. Also QR as well as the Tram announcements a very long and drawn out. It's not really necessary.  Next stop ....... Now arriving at......is sufficient. When at the station it only needs to announce the station or stop name  e.g. Central Station.  The odd automated security announcement is good.
Be also good to have next stop announcements and PIDs on high frequency bus services in conjunction with the Next Generation Ticketing roll out.

There are many good examples on YouTube worldwide on best practice regarding Public address and automated announcements.

Not so sure about having it on all HF buses. Can you imagine the 199—it'd barely have time to announce the next stop before it arrived in some cases

[STB]

I am past tolerant of this sort of thing.  If the train has a working VAS, they should shut up.  We do not need somebody interrupting a perfectly legible announcement with information that (frequently) is either harder to make out, much louder than the VAS, or (increasingly it seems) wrong.  Make an announcement when something goes skewwhiff, and not otherwise.  You aren't paid to be chatty, you are paid to carry out safe working and assist passengers (because we don't have the guts to get drivers to do that like they do elsewhere).

We do not need to know the buttons are in the middle of the door.  We do not need to be reminded to get ready to disembark when we want to disembark.  We do not need to be told to mind the gap.  We do not need to be constantly assaulted with unnecessary verbiage.

I get where you are coming from, but just to be devil's advocate, I tend to find the manual announcements are made especially for those who are vision impaired, especially in terms of explaining which side of the platform the train is on - especially those who may be newly vision impaired and/or new to the public transport system.  For that, I actually think it's a critical thing to prevent embarrassments and feeling lost or even accidents occurring - so personally I'm a little more tolerant of those announcements and can see how those are manually done rather than automatic given platform changes, especially last minute changes can happen for various reaons.

It was pointed out in the recent NGR report that the relocation of buttons etc from the rest of the fleet creates issues for those who are blind or have a level of vision impairment, as they will be trained and will be used to finding the button in certain spots, so I don't mind that the announcement is there.

In saying that, I certainly think a female voice is better for general announcements while a male voice is better for emergency announcements, male voices in general give some sort of authority from our brain's point of view (whether that' s cultural or biological, I don't know), plus having more female auto announcements on the system at least makes the railways seem less like a male only/male majority organization.

Anyway, just my thoughts...

[brissypete]

I paid more notice to the style of announcements on Melbourne PT on my recent trip and my observations are:

Train - simple with the only announcements being Now arriving at (with connection info where needed). Much more peaceful than QR with next is which is often followed by or even interrupted by now arriving at plus guard often repeating this and advising platform side.

Tram - Similar to QR and gets annoying, just next stop and connections would be better.  No platform announcements except the island platforms where doors open on right.

So would be great if QR announcements are simplified, get rid of the prepare to disembark and mind the gap (except maybe at stations with a significant gap like South Bank or Park Rd). Excess announcements are more likely to be ignored.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

[STB]

^^Be good to see a review and change in Manual and Automated Announcements in 2019. Phase out manual announcements onboard and at all stations including inner city stations. Replace them with a new voice and simplified automated announcements. Community Feedback in other states find a female voice is better for next stop announcements. Also QR as well as the Tram announcements a very long and drawn out. It's not really necessary.  Next stop ....... Now arriving at......is sufficient. When at the station it only needs to announce the station or stop name  e.g. Central Station.  The odd automated security announcement is good.
Be also good to have next stop announcements and PIDs on high frequency bus services in conjunction with the Next Generation Ticketing roll out.

There are many good examples on YouTube worldwide on best practice regarding Public address and automated announcements.

Not so sure about having it on all HF buses. Can you imagine the 199—it'd barely have time to announce the next stop before it arrived in some cases

You could do it on the busway (metro only services once that starts up), difficult to do it on local bus routes though, you've got the driver to provide assistance if required though.

[HappyTrainGuy]

I paid more notice to the style of announcements on Melbourne PT on my recent trip and my observations are:

Train - simple with the only announcements being Now arriving at (with connection info where needed). Much more peaceful than QR with next is which is often followed by or even interrupted by now arriving at plus guard often repeating this and advising platform side.

Tram - Similar to QR and gets annoying, just next stop and connections would be better.  No platform announcements except the island platforms where doors open on right.

So would be great if QR announcements are simplified, get rid of the prepare to disembark and mind the gap (except maybe at stations with a significant gap like South Bank or Park Rd). Excess announcements are more likely to be ignored.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

And yet people still press the emergency intercom on the ngr sets.

[verbatim9]

I paid more notice to the style of announcements on Melbourne PT on my recent trip and my observations are:

Train - simple with the only announcements being Now arriving at (with connection info where needed). Much more peaceful than QR with next is which is often followed by or even interrupted by now arriving at plus guard often repeating this and advising platform side.

Tram - Similar to QR and gets annoying, just next stop and connections would be better.  No platform announcements except the island platforms where doors open on right.

So would be great if QR announcements are simplified, get rid of the prepare to disembark and mind the gap (except maybe at stations with a significant gap like South Bank or Park Rd). Excess announcements are more likely to be ignored.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

And yet people still press the emergency intercom on the ngr sets.

^^Melbourne metro  onboard automated train announcements are good short and effective.

I have only noticed that once over the last year re: pressing the emergency  button and it was kids trying to get attention. On all new LRT and  heavy rail set the buttons are now located in the centre from what I have noticed travelling about outside Qld.

[doggo]

TBH...

Onboard Automated Announcements on Buses are not that difficult.

With the Data Systems that are currently used in SEQ it will just need an export that has a Stop Sequence for each route and then a Geo Fence for each stop for the announcement which will be a Siri style reading of the stop name which may/can be slightly altered from the official stop name.   Bingo...   

[HappyTrainGuy]

I paid more notice to the style of announcements on Melbourne PT on my recent trip and my observations are:

Train - simple with the only announcements being Now arriving at (with connection info where needed). Much more peaceful than QR with next is which is often followed by or even interrupted by now arriving at plus guard often repeating this and advising platform side.

Tram - Similar to QR and gets annoying, just next stop and connections would be better.  No platform announcements except the island platforms where doors open on right.

So would be great if QR announcements are simplified, get rid of the prepare to disembark and mind the gap (except maybe at stations with a significant gap like South Bank or Park Rd). Excess announcements are more likely to be ignored.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

And yet people still press the emergency intercom on the ngr sets.

^^Melbourne metro  onboard automated train announcements are good short and effective.

I have only noticed that once over the last year re: pressing the emergency  button and it was kids trying to get attention. On all new LRT and  heavy rail set the buttons are now located in the centre from what I have noticed travelling about outside Qld.

Seen it 4 times and heard the buzzer go off in the cab on at least 10-11 occasions by my count. Normally followed up by the guard announcing as a reminder the door exit buttons are located in the middle of the door. From what I've seen they've just casually pressed it before realising that its an NGR or in a late panic have lunged at the button when the doors wouldn't open. From what I have heard its still mostly people in a rush pressing the buttons when they can't find the door button before the train departs the station.

[Stillwater]

The addition of the words "in the forward direction" or "in the direction of travel" from guards throws me ... "The next stop is Roma Street, platform on the right-hand side in the direction of travel."  Can't that be assumed?  Usually at the end of the line, passengers are invited to "de-train".  Alight maybe?

[Fares_Fair]

The addition of the words "in the forward direction" from guards throws me ... "The next stop is Roma Street, platform on the right-hand side in the forward direction."  Can't that be assumed?

I've heard it say "... in the direction of travel"
If you are sitting in a seat facing in the contra-direction it can be confusing as to what side to egress from (if not paying attention).

I'm heading down to Brisbane on Friday morning.

[verbatim9]

The addition of the words "in the forward direction" from guards throws me ... "The next stop is Roma Street, platform on the right-hand side in the forward direction."  Can't that be assumed?

I've heard it say "... in the direction of travel"
If you are sitting in a seat facing in the contra-direction it can be confusing as to what side to egress from (if not paying attention).

I'm heading down to Brisbane on Friday morning.

The whole thing is stupid you don't need to announce the door/platform sidings. The doors beep anyway to indicate which side to open. It's been like that for years no issues and other jurisdictions do the same just having the doors beep and the button flashing. It's dead obvious!

[James]

The whole thing is stupid you don't need to announce the door/platform sidings. The doors beep anyway to indicate which side to open. It's been like that for years no issues and other jurisdictions do the same just having the doors beep and the button flashing. It's dead obvious!

Agree. The amount of words used to say something very simple is ridiculous. For most of the stations, you could simply have a default 'Doors on the left'. Instead, we choose to have a guard announce "<name> station, the doors are on the right hand side in direction of travel". As long as it is consistent, it is implied that 'left' or 'right' is in the direction of travel.

Don't get me started on the essays on what to do in an emergency and so forth. Melbourne is great - 'Now arriving at: <station>'. Done. No fuss, no noise pollution, no guards repeating what has already been said.

[ozbob]

The announcements on Adelaide Metro trains are minimal. " Train is approaching Outer Habour.  Mind the gap. " < that's it.

Occassional announcements about security cameras and police travel on board.  One per trip.

[verbatim9]

The announcements on Adelaide Metro trains are minimal. " Train is approaching Outer Habour.  Mind the gap. " < that's it.

Occassional announcements about security cameras and police travel on board.  One per trip.

^^Thats a good thing.

[JustSomeTrainGuy]

Oh my favourite is when there's a partial track closure and the guard has absolutely no idea what they're saying and obviously didn't know what they were going to say before they picked up the mic. No wonder punters are always confused about these things.

[ozbob]

Short sequence of voice announcements on board an Adelaide Metro DMU

"Arriving St Clair.  Mind the gap .. "

Also announcement for Woodville - junction for Grange line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHg4wfIxYdw&feature=youtu.be

[JustSomeTrainGuy]

*pulling into Roma St on an Ipswich service*

*guard interrupts auto announcement*

Guard: "Roma St, Roma St station. This is an Ipswich train stopping all stations to Redcliffe"

[verbatim9]

Yep! The guard was doing the same all the way back from the Gold Coast in a high pitched Australian twang with the PA volume full blast. It's not very comfortable to the ears,  that's for sure.

[SurfRail]

I've just come back from Auckland this morning, their announcements are also quite reasonable.  Only the Eastern line was running today due to trackwork, but there were plenty of rail replacement buses for the other 3 lines (all low-floor and virtually all in the AT livery, and properly integrated into the timetables, roadside real-time displays and ticketing system).  There is what appears to be a permanent set of railbus stops on Customs St just around the corner from Britomart, and it even has real-time signage.

Word to the wise - ignore Skybus, get the train to Papatoetoe and the 380 bus for a much cheaper trip from the CBD to the airport and at around the same journey time.

[achiruel]

Word to the wise - ignore Skybus, get the train to Papatoetoe and the 380 bus for a much cheaper trip from the CBD to the airport and at around the same journey time.

Thanks for the tip. I don't go to Auckland at all, but my brother travels there a lot and complains about the SkyBus. I'll let him know.

BTW weirdly, it seems their journey planner recognises timezone and uses local time for trip planning. So when I tried to plan a trip for leaving the airport at 9am, it gave me a trip leaving at 12pm.  :conf

[verbatim9]

I've just come back from Auckland this morning, their announcements are also quite reasonable.  Only the Eastern line was running today due to trackwork, but there were plenty of rail replacement buses for the other 3 lines (all low-floor and virtually all in the AT livery, and properly integrated into the timetables, roadside real-time displays and ticketing system).  There is what appears to be a permanent set of railbus stops on Customs St just around the corner from Britomart, and it even has real-time signage.

Word to the wise - ignore Skybus, get the train to Papatoetoe and the 380 bus for a much cheaper trip from the CBD to the airport and at around the same journey time.

Sounds like Aucklamd Transport is following best practices.

[verbatim9]

Short sequence of voice announcements on board an Adelaide Metro DMU

"Arriving St Clair.  Mind the gap .. "

Also announcement for Woodville - junction for Grange line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHg4wfIxYdw&feature=youtu.be

and Adelaide too re following best practices re Automated Voice announcements.

[JustSomeTrainGuy]

From /r/Brisbane

The train driver of the Springfield line

He came over the train speakers and started giving us a spiel about the ride, the weather, the time, the date, just like a plane pilot would.. extremely bizarre but extremely hilarious

Props to the guard (OP thought it was the driver) for trying to brighten up everyone's day but this is just unnecessary.

[verbatim9]

On the train south this afternoon, arriving at South Brisbane Station guard interiors the automated announcements, carrying on about QPAC etc....then announces the station as Southbank.

This is how unnecessary it is to give this job to guards. They make mistakes and  duplicate automated announcements. It needs to be automated announcements only. With beeps for platform sidings until the automated announcements are upgraded.

[not_available]

Automated announcement, heading north after bowen hills
"This is a Brisbane City and Redcliffe Peninsula train, running express from Bowen hills to northgate, stopping only at Eagle Junction, the next station is Springfield".
Just after Albion : Now arriving at springfield station et cetera et cetera ngr the button is on the door

[verbatim9]

^^It confused people as well a few weeks back coming from Darra and arriving at Taringa. The  address system was saying we are "arriving at Corinda". But when the train arrived and  the doors opened it said "Corinda station" then immediately after "Taringa station".