Liverpool Overhead Railway - 21st Century...

[Awayo]

That Metrolink thing in Manchester appears to have someone vaguely Lancastrian (I'm not sure which town) doing its announcements. Obviously Merseyrail Electrics extends, just about, to areas where the folk do not have Liverpool accents but the extremity of the woman's beyond-RP paralect does clang in a local context. I prefer it when I hear the generally north Liverpool accents of the driver butting in and adding extra information, most commonly just before the Sandhills junction as it happens. And he always says it right.

[Pablo Diablo]

The Merseyrail woman gets around... you'll also hear her on some London Underground lines


I really like the way announcements are done on the Barcelona Metro.



Having the female voice say station names and the male voice say any other info make it very clear for any one who doesn't speak the language. And the voices are in Catalan (although whether they're Barcelona accents or not, I have no idea), not Spanish

[Awayo]

That reminds me of a time when I was on the London Underground and a man across from me was conducting a conversation with himself, in two voices: one posh sounding man and the other a cockney woman.

Real driver's voices are the best though. Like when I was on the M in Cambridge, Massachusetts once and the driver announced that we were approaching Havad Squeh.

[aek-94]

I like the female announcer on Merseyrail, she pronounces station names clearly and everyone can understand her. I got the train from Kirkby to Manchester on Thursday, and the conductor was the announcer. I couldn't understand anything he said, as he seemed to muffle every word.

Originally Posted by Pablo Diablo

The Merseyrail woman gets around... you'll also hear her on some London Underground lines

She does, I heard her on the train I got a few weeks ago from Stafford to Birmingham New Street.

[TybMwQ]

Originally Posted by Pablo Diablo

A station there and another near the Tobacco Warehouse would be great. It seems stupid that there's such a huge gap between Moorfields and Sandhills and yet there's a train passing every 5 mins!


I'd also stick a new station somewhere between Chinatown and the Anglican Cathedral and one somewhere in Toxteth to help with regeneration in these areas (and I'd turn Ormskirk and Kirkby trains around at Brunswick or South Parkway to help relieve pressure on Central (which I'd rename Central Village after its refurb)).

Liverpool City Council have had a station on the Northern Line at Stanley Dock in mind for a number of years (to be called 'Vauxhall'). There is/was a station (St James's) on the corner of Upper Parliament Street/Great George Street (opposite the Bridal Shop) which could be re-named 'Cathedral' or 'Cathedral St James'.

A loop between the two along Strand Street etc would be a tourism loop and a commercial loop connecting the convention/leisure/hotel facilities in the south to the commercial offices and residential in the north - of course picking up Cruise Liner/Pier Head traffic on the way.

A link via the underground 'under the water' (via the existing tunnel) would not be easy (without changing) but could not only tie Liverpool and Wirral Waters together but also extend the 'tourist experience' to take in Hamilton Square and Cammell Laird.

Ambitious but not a pipe dream. If you want to make the waterfront happen, you have to have it.







.

[Awayo]

Originally Posted by aek-94

I like the female announcer on Merseyrail, she pronounces station names clearly and everyone can understand her.

Clarity is for dullards.

[Neilsatiscitycentre]

Originally Posted by Pablo Diablo

The Merseyrail woman gets around... you'll also hear her on some London Underground lines


I really like the way announcements are done on the Barcelona Metro.



Having the female voice say station names and the male voice say any other info make it very clear for any one who doesn't speak the language. And the voices are in Catalan (although whether they're Barcelona accents or not, I have no idea), not Spanish

I guess that has that been edited. It's a few years since I've been to Barcelona, but the announcements were always in both Catalan and Spanish. Has it changed?

On the subject of renaming stations, which was mentioned a couple of posts ago, should James Street be renamed? Pier Head, perhaps? I know the purists wouldn't like it, but I don't think there is every going to be a station right at the Pier Head ever again as was the case with the Overhead. I think a renaming makes sense, personally.

[Pablo Diablo]

Originally Posted by Neilsatiscitycentre

I guess that has that been edited. It's a few years since I've been to Barcelona, but the announcements were always in both Catalan and Spanish. Has it changed?

Only Catalan now. To be fair though, the Catalan is very similar to the Spanish. "Proxima estació: Catalunya" vs "Proxima estación: Cataluña". I understand every word of it and my Spanish is a bit rusty

On the subject of renaming stations, which was mentioned a couple of posts ago, should James Street be renamed? Pier Head, perhaps? I know the purists wouldn't like it, but I don't think there is every going to be a station right at the Pier Head ever again as was the case with the Overhead. I think a renaming makes sense, personally.

Yeah Pier Head could be a better name... or maybe Waterfront?

[trainrover]

Originally Posted by Awayo

hear the generally north Liverpool accents of the driver butting in and adding extra information, most commonly just before the Sandhills junction as it happens. And he always says it right.

Cheesh ... I guess the drivers themselves must've seen (dealt with) one too many a senior citizen being mislead by the automated on-board announcment there. It sort of reminds me how telephonic voice menus around Montreal have dreadfully gushy female Americans for the options said in English yet either a stern male or classy female in a standard French accent (i.e., continental one, which is really foreign-sounding for Québécois [Quebeckers]) for the same options read out in French