Praise where it is due. I have just had a peaceful ride from near Cambridge to Tottenham Hale on a National Express East Anglia train totally uninterrupted by any announcements. There was a screen providing accurate information on the next station and absolute blissful silence.
Yet in the past few weeks I have been on parts of the railway where one is bombarded by announcements. The worst is undoubtedly Hull station which is no paragon of silence. Indeed, within two minutes, there were announcements about the potential dangers of a slippery surface – it was a dry sunny day – feeding the pigeons, and not leaving your baggage unattended. Similarly on South West Trains, there are often announcements, usually automatic ones which people always ignore, every couple of minutes about forgotten bags, platform edges or whatever. All of it is nonsense, designed to irritate and alienate rail passengers with absolutely no discernible benefit.Perhaps the Railway Safety and Standards Board should do an analysis to see if there are fewer accidents at Hull – I suspect there are more as people get irritated!
I don’t wish to sound like a grumpy old man, but this is something that the railway could get together to discuss in order to reduce unnecessary announcements. I’ve just thougth – perhaps the tannoy system was not working – though that, today, is a reason for cancelling the service.