Re: Length of announcements

Arthur Figgis wrote:

Chris Tolley wrote:
It's hard to think of circumstances where railway announcements don't
have any potential informational content at all. The fact that some
people are irritated by them is just a natural consequence of the
variability of personal attitudes. ITYWF that the balance is very
very firmly the other way when situations arise and no information
is provided. Being overburdened with information is a very much less
serious matter than being starved of it.

But the choice isn't between (a) continuous posterior-covering messages
or (b) complete silence even when a freak incident has shut down the
entire rail network. It is about getting the information over when and
where it is needed, which continuous streams of announcements do poorly.

Well, Roland has said that the next time he makes a trip, he'll note the
nature and frequency of the announcements. So shall I. And then at least
there'll be a tiny sample of data to analyse. I can't recall any
continuous streams of announcements on any of my recent journeys. In
fact, the most obtrusive PA-ing that I can recall was on a railtour,
where most of the PA seemed to be about bacon butties, real ale and
raffle tickets. (Except just before the train left Crewe where it had
stood for a while, and there was one about it only being for special
ticket holders.)

I was on MML recently, and their announcements didn't seem to bad
(except for "arriving into", of course).

There seems to be an effort to make printed timetables easier to use,

Maybe where you are... The font size used for the train times in the
Central timetables for my nearest station is ridiculously small. And
overall, most modern timetables seem to contain multiple pages of just
the kind of extraneous matter that you are railing against in the
announcements (usually in a much more readable font than the times).

announcements seem to be done "because we can" rather than because
they are useful.

It's the "seem" in the above that I question. Manifestly the technology
is there to enable a particular TOC to give, e.g. non-stop advertising
announcements about all the wonderful fare offers and attractions at the
places they serve, but on the whole they don't do that, so one might
reasonably suspect that there *is* some line being drawn between what
they could do and what they should do. It's years since I've been on a
HEX service; now that really *was* an unpleasant aural and visual
assault. Is it still like that, I wonder.

I used to live in a student hostel where the fire alarm went off rather
frequently. This didn't mean we were all well prepared for a fire,
instead it meant that the one time there was a fire no-one moved until
there was smoke coming under their doors.

Please don't get the impression that I don't see the point you are
making. I do. It's just that in my own not-so-limited experience, the
reality on the train or station isn't so bad as some people have
alleged. Sure, if one spends a longish time on a station say, taking
pictures, one may well hear the same security/gritting/skateboarding
announcement several times, but a regular commuter who knows through
habit where he/she is going to and just passes quickly through the
station may not hear them at all. Which is the more typical station
user?

But as it happens, the logician in me perceives that the problem in the
hostel situation you describe was with whatever was setting the alarm
off. Whether it was pranking or incorrect set-up of the equipment,
clearly that was the thing than needed putting right, for the reasons
you illustrate.
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(159 004 at Reading, 7 Jun 1995)
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