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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2014 15:08:53 GMT
Hello there,
I've heard this quite a few times but apparently, before the DVA system we have now which was introduced on to the refurbished 1973 stock trains in 2006, there were DVA announcements before that were announced by man.
Does anyone have a recording of these old announcements or any memories?
Thank You to all :-)
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Post by Alight on Jun 22, 2014 17:54:41 GMT
You're absolutely right, there was a male voice who was in place before Julie Berry. He is believed to have been a driver from the Arnos Grove group. I used to travel on the Piccadilly line just as frequently back then as I have done since the 2006 upgrade, but I don't once remember hearing the announcements. Perhaps his announcements were so convincing that I just assumed it was the driver speaking live rather than a pre-recording!
I only ever remember the screens displaying the destination information e.g. "This trains is for OAKWOOD" etc. An example of this can be seen in the following clip:
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Post by Tomcakes on Jun 22, 2014 20:00:42 GMT
They existed but I believe had to be played manually, and so very rarely occurred. They would often play the odd one - for example "Please mind the gap" at Holborn, or "all change please".
Today you will occasionally see a train with no automatic announcer and the old style destination information, usually early in the morning. I presume that it'll default to the "old" system if the DVA is switched off, and the driver either a) forgot to switch the DVA on, or b) "forgot" to switch the DVA on (and got thanks from all the 0530 commuters).
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Post by Alight on Jun 22, 2014 20:19:01 GMT
Today you will occasionally see a train with no automatic announcer and the old style destination information, usually early in the morning. I presume that it'll default to the "old" system if the DVA is switched off, and the driver either a) forgot to switch the DVA on, or b) "forgot" to switch the DVA on (and got thanks from all the 0530 commuters). Yes, I see this a lot too. Particularly if I've board a train on the middle platform at Arnos Grove during the morning peak in which the driver hasn't quite setup the DVA yet (supporting your theory). It's usually not long before they are switched on, however occasionally they will completely forget (or the system is faulty) and so it remains in old style for the remainder of the journey. I must be pedantic at this point and highlight that it isn't 100 per cent the old style insofar that it now doesn't capitalise the destination name, nor does it pause on it. The old-style used to go "This train is for COCKFOSTERS" [pausing on the 'COCKFOSTERS' for a short time before re-scrolling) whereas the new one just continuously scrolls "This trains is for Cockfosters" I used to like the "HEATHROW AIRPORT" one as it came complete with an aeroplane symbol. I suppose they phased this out once the Terminal 5 branch opened.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2014 15:58:07 GMT
You're absolutely right, there was a male voice who was in place before Julie Berry. He is believed to have been a driver from the Arnos Grove group. I used to travel on the Piccadilly line just as frequently back then as I have done since the 2006 upgrade, but I don't once remember hearing the announcements. Perhaps his announcements were so convincing that I just assumed it was the driver speaking live rather than a pre-recording! I only ever remember the screens displaying the destination information e.g. "This trains is for OAKWOOD" etc. An example of this can be seen in the following clip: Thank you ever so much, I have been wondering about the old DVA voice for a while. I think this could be one of the old DVA announcements on this video - a BVE version of the 1973 stock on the Piccadilly line at 13:50. Other annoucements can be heared as the train is at a platform:
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Post by rheostar on Jun 23, 2014 17:14:01 GMT
The voice was of a driver based at Arnos Grove depot.
Each recording was selected by a push button box in the driver's cab. Most drivers either didn't bother using it or did the announcement themselves, so that would explain why not many people heard the pre recorded announcements.
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Post by Alight on Jun 23, 2014 20:09:18 GMT
Thank you ever so much, I have been wondering about the old DVA voice for a while. I think this could be one of the old DVA announcements on this video - a BVE version of the 1973 stock on the Piccadilly line at 13:50. Other annoucements can be heared as the train is at a platform: It's good to hear the old platform announcers in that BVE clip; these were phased out in conjunction with station refurbishments carried out by Tubelines. You'll notice that the platform announcer at Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden is Julie Berry. The male voice heard at Holborn and Russell Square is Tim Bentinck. Strangely enough, the other week I was travelling westbound on the Piccadilly line during the morning peak and heard a female voice at the Earl's Court platforms read "This is Earl's Court.... Change here for the District line... The next station is Barons Court.... Please stand clear of the closing doors." It's uncanny that the script was exactly the same as the Tim/Julie ones, yet I can't imagine Earl's Court ever had such a system in place in the first place? The voice sounded younger and the recordings sounded newer, yet I only heard it that once and it hasn't been played since. If they are a recent installation to warn about Gloucester Road, I am certainly yet to hear them on the eastbound.
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Post by malcolmffc on Jun 24, 2014 13:57:10 GMT
Those type of platform announcements are done by Emma Hignett (the voice of iBus), I believe. They are played at several stations now - I'm sure the station staff are sick of them!
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Post by Alight on Jun 24, 2014 19:28:35 GMT
Ah thanks for the clarification - I thought the voice sounded familiar! It does seem a little bit of a retrograde step, now that they have the in-car announcements on every line.
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Post by malcolmffc on Jun 25, 2014 6:07:01 GMT
The purpose of the announcements is to help visually impaired passengers know which platform they're on.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2014 16:12:42 GMT
The voice was of a driver based at Arnos Grove depot. Each recording was selected by a push button box in the driver's cab. Most drivers either didn't bother using it or did the announcement themselves, so that would explain why not many people heard the pre recorded announcements. I'm Pretty sure they were just manual announcements, which as you said, explains why not many people heard the old DVA announcements.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2014 16:22:36 GMT
Thank you ever so much, I have been wondering about the old DVA voice for a while. I think this could be one of the old DVA announcements on this video - a BVE version of the 1973 stock on the Piccadilly line at 13:50. Other annoucements can be heared as the train is at a platform: It's good to hear the old platform announcers in that BVE clip; these were phased out in conjunction with station refurbishments carried out by Tubelines. You'll notice that the platform announcer at Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden is Julie Berry. The male voice heard at Holborn and Russell Square is Tim Bentinck. Strangely enough, the other week I was travelling westbound on the Piccadilly line during the morning peak and heard a female voice at the Earl's Court platforms read "This is Earl's Court.... Change here for the District line... The next station is Barons Court.... Please stand clear of the closing doors." It's uncanny that the script was exactly the same as the Tim/Julie ones, yet I can't imagine Earl's Court ever had such a system in place in the first place? The voice sounded younger and the recordings sounded newer, yet I only heard it that once and it hasn't been played since. If they are a recent installation to warn about Gloucester Road, I am certainly yet to hear them on the eastbound. Thanks, I think the in-station DVA annoucements was to take place of the in car DVA announcements when at the time the Piccadilly line 1973 stock trains didn't have an automatic DVA system, which would announce the station and changes. In the BVE version of the Piccadilly line I gave you a link to, the male announcer in the clip says interchange options as the train approches the platform such as "Please change here for the northern line" or "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform" if there was one, like at Holborn. I knew already that the in-station announcer was Tim Bentick, but I did not know that Julie Berry already did some Piccadilly Line in-station announcements before she had her voice recorded for the in-car DVA.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2014 16:28:30 GMT
The voice was of a driver based at Arnos Grove depot. Each recording was selected by a push button box in the driver's cab. Most drivers either didn't bother using it or did the announcement themselves, so that would explain why not many people heard the pre recorded announcements. Thank you, that is interesting since most of the DVA announcements are recorded by Voiceover artists. However, I did hear before that the original Piccadilly line announcements when the 1973 stock was first refurbished was done by a Piccadilly line driver at the time.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2014 16:35:05 GMT
The purpose of the announcements is to help visually impaired passengers know which platform they're on. It's also helpful if you want to take a quick nap and all you have to do is listen for your stop!
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Post by rummer on Jun 26, 2014 5:52:19 GMT
It was indeed a driver at Arnos Grove i was talking to him only yesterday.
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Post by A60stock on Jun 26, 2014 11:55:01 GMT
Strangely enough, the other week I was travelling westbound on the Piccadilly line during the morning peak and heard a female voice at the Earl's Court platforms read "This is Earl's Court.... Change here for the District line... The next station is Barons Court.... Please stand clear of the closing doors." It's uncanny that the script was exactly the same as the Tim/Julie ones, yet I can't imagine Earl's Court ever had such a system in place in the first place? The voice sounded younger and the recordings sounded newer, yet I only heard it that once and it hasn't been played since. If they are a recent installation to warn about Gloucester Road, I am certainly yet to hear them on the eastbound. [/quote]Thanks, I think the in-station DVA annoucements was to take place of the in car DVA announcements when at the time the Piccadilly line 1973 stock trains didn't have an automatic DVA system, which would announce the station and changes. In the BVE version of the Piccadilly line I gave you a link to, the male announcer in the clip says interchange options as the train approches the platform such as "Please change here for the northern line" or "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform" if there was one, like at Holborn. I knew already that the in-station announcer was Tim Bentick, but I did not know that Julie Berry already did some Piccadilly Line in-station announcements before she had her voice recorded for the in-car DVA. [/quote]
so when were the in station announcements removed from the stations and what was the reason for this? also was the piccadily line the only one to have sported stations which announced connections and next station or were other lines also included at one point?
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Post by Alight on Jun 26, 2014 12:00:34 GMT
One article I read said that the Tim Bentick announcements were installed in 1990 and lasted 15 years. That sounds about right - it was sometime during the mid-'00s. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was the Tubelines refurbishment works that saw the end of them, which included upgrading the PA system to the new Phil Sayer / Elinor Hamilton system.
RE: other stations, I don't know - hopefully someone else will be able to shed some light on this.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2014 15:39:05 GMT
It was indeed a driver at Arnos Grove i was talking to him only yesterday. Really? I find that a bit hard to believe! One article I read said that the Tim Bentick announcements were installed in 1990 and lasted 15 years. That sounds about right - it was sometime during the mid-'00s. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was the Tubelines refurbishment works that saw the end of them, which included upgrading the PA system to the new Phil Sayer / Elinor Hamilton system. RE: other stations, I don't know - hopefully someone else will be able to shed some light on this. Wow, I did not know that Tim's announcements were around for that long. I wonder why TFL took them away? Thank you ever so much, I have been wondering about the old DVA voice for a while. I think this could be one of the old DVA announcements on this video - a BVE version of the 1973 stock on the Piccadilly line at 13:50. Other annoucements can be heared as the train is at a platform: It's good to hear the old platform announcers in that BVE clip; these were phased out in conjunction with station refurbishments carried out by Tubelines. You'll notice that the platform announcer at Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden is Julie Berry. The male voice heard at Holborn and Russell Square is Tim Bentinck. Strangely enough, the other week I was travelling westbound on the Piccadilly line during the morning peak and heard a female voice at the Earl's Court platforms read "This is Earl's Court.... Change here for the District line... The next station is Barons Court.... Please stand clear of the closing doors." It's uncanny that the script was exactly the same as the Tim/Julie ones, yet I can't imagine Earl's Court ever had such a system in place in the first place? The voice sounded younger and the recordings sounded newer, yet I only heard it that once and it hasn't been played since. If they are a recent installation to warn about Gloucester Road, I am certainly yet to hear them on the eastbound. As well as the in-station DVA announcers, do you think that the in-train DVA announcements in the video of the BVE version of the Piccadilly Line was the original male voice of the Piccadilly line (I do not mean Tim Bentick), when he said things such as "Please change here for the northern line" as the train approached Lester Square or at stations like Holborn, or "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform", or do you think that was made for the BVE version of the Piccadilly line only? Because I think that those announcements were the original in-train DVA announcements of the Piccadilly line.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2014 15:10:09 GMT
Thank you to everyone here who has replied to my question already. If anyone finds a recording or video of these old announcements on the internet then please send me a link to it.
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Post by domh245 on Jun 27, 2014 15:24:29 GMT
I remember that there is (was?) a website where someone had recorded a large number of announcements on the tube network, but whether or not these would be the old announcements, or if the website even exists any more, I don't know (I certainly couldn't find it on the first page of google results!)
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2014 16:13:57 GMT
I remember that there is (was?) a website where someone had recorded a large number of announcements on the tube network, but whether or not these would be the old announcements, or if the website even exists any more, I don't know (I certainly couldn't find it on the first page of google results!) Is it this website? www.haltestellenansage.de/ansagen/u/london/london_en.htmThank you for replying
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Post by domh245 on Jun 28, 2014 16:17:49 GMT
That was the one I was thinking of, thanks for finding it, but it would appear that it is Julie Berry.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2014 16:21:53 GMT
That was the one I was thinking of, thanks for finding it, but it would appear that it is Julie Berry. Yes. On that website you can also hear the old circle and Hammersmith and city line announcements by Emma Clarke.
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Post by Tomcakes on Jun 28, 2014 20:31:09 GMT
As well as the in-station DVA announcers, do you think that the in-train DVA announcements in the video of the BVE version of the Piccadilly Line was the original male voice of the Piccadilly line (I do not mean Tim Bentick), when he said things such as "Please change here for the northern line" as the train approached Lester Square or at stations like Holborn, or "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform", or do you think that was made for the BVE version of the Piccadilly line only? Because I think that those announcements were the original in-train DVA announcements of the Piccadilly line. Yes, the recordings are from the old DVA system. As to the platform announcements, my opinions regarding the verbal diarrhoea perpetuated in the name of "giving 'customers' more information" are well known. However the other week I did hear the old platform based announcements running at South Kensington so they still work!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2014 20:39:45 GMT
As to the platform announcements, my opinions regarding the verbal diarrhoea perpetuated in the name of "giving 'customers' more information" are well known. I find the Piccadilly line announcements telling you about the next train excruciating, and yet slightly amusing. By way of example: Piccadilly line. The next train on platform 2 will arrive in one minute. Next station: Holborn (Or something very close to that, I can't be certain off the top of my head) She sounds very upbeat until "one minute" when she sounds so fed up I feel like she's about to throw something across the recording studio!
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Post by Alight on Jun 28, 2014 21:50:30 GMT
I remember Elinor being interviewed on BBC London 94.9 where she mentioned that she'd recorded 2,500 announcements, so she probably did get bored at times! As to the platform announcements, my opinions regarding the verbal diarrhoea perpetuated in the name of "giving 'customers' more information" are well known. However the other week I did hear the old platform based announcements running at South Kensington so they still work! Are these the originals you're referring to or the newer Emma Hignett versions Malcolmfcc mentioned on the previous page?
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Post by Tomcakes on Jun 28, 2014 21:53:45 GMT
They were the original ones - I specifically stopped to listen to them when the next train came through to make sure I wasn't hearing things!
As an aside, I vaguely remember similar announcements on the Northern line - although this was probably 10 years ago or so as there were still 59 stock running - am I imagining things?!
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Post by Alight on Jun 28, 2014 22:01:26 GMT
Oh right - how curious! I don't think BVE features the ones at South Kensington - are they Tim or Julie?
I suppose the reason why they fell out of favour for so long was due to due to the in-car ones being upgraded, but as someone mentioned earlier, new regulations mean they're becoming favourable again. Perhaps the old ones are being used where possible, with the newer ones filing in the gaps?
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Post by Tomcakes on Jun 28, 2014 22:08:16 GMT
It's the only time I've ever heard it and I am a regular user of South Kensington station (to my eternal regret). At all other times I have heard the usual new ones. I assumed that the new system had developed a defect and somebody had switched the old system back on for the duration (there is a key-switch on the platform).
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2014 22:09:50 GMT
I remember Elinor being interviewed on BBC London 94.9 where she mentioned that she'd recorded 2,500 announcements, so she probably did get bored at times! I don't blame her particularly but it really does sound terrible!
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