SUBWAY - Random Thoughts Topic

[trainfan22]

3 minutes ago, P3F said:

I wonder if we'll be seeing these kinds of messages once more lines start getting CBTC.

IDK why but this post reminded me of the TV Show "Black Mirror".

[Daniel The Cool]

6 hours ago, GreatOne2k said:

Some specials have been signed and announced as .  The Barclays specials using r160s are signed as  trains to 145 St.

Barclays Specials signed up as  Trains hasn't been done since 2014 or so. And plus most times they used its usual R68/R68As and only it was only like two occasions when an R160 was used.

Edited October 16, 2018 by Daniel The Cool

[Around the Horn]

6 hours ago, GreatOne2k said:

Some specials have been signed and announced as .  The Barclays specials using r160s are signed as  trains to 145 St.

The countdown clocks call the baseball specials trains...

[GreatOne2k]

42 minutes ago, Around the Horn said:

The countdown clocks call the baseball specials trains...

Some C/Rs have announced them as  before (the ones that were signed as ) this was before the countdown clocks though.

[Lance]

On ‎10‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 3:04 PM, Jemorie said:

By the way, does anyone know who announces "Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center" on the IRT A Division's NTTs? Is it Dianne Thompson (the announcer for all 3 7th Avenue lines) or Kathleen Campion (the announcer for the )?

The latter. If I'm not mistaken, Thompson no longer works in the NYC area, nor does Ettinger (the primary voice of the Lexington Ave line), which is why new recordings fall to Cowdery and Campion.

10 hours ago, GreatOne2k said:

Some C/Rs have announced them as  before (the ones that were signed as ) this was before the countdown clocks though.

I think the new MO is to simply label them as specials on the trains nowadays. Reduces the amount of confusion when passengers see random trains signed as services that normally don't run at those times.

[Lawrence St]

5 minutes ago, Lance said:

The latter. If I'm not mistaken, Thompson no longer works in the NYC area, nor does Ettinger (the primary voice of the Lexington Ave line), which is why new recordings fall to Cowdery and Campion.

I think the new MO is to simply label them as specials on the trains nowadays. Reduces the amount of confusion when passengers see random trains signed as services that normally don't run at those times.

I dont understand why they dont hire new voices. There's this one railfan who sounds almost exactly like Ettinger and Thompson and does a perfect immitation of the two, and even recorded a mockup video. Announcements should always be consistent.

The new PSA's have reached the A divison and they are horrible. She talks so low you can barely hear her, when she says "hello everyone" she says it so fast you dont even realize a PSA is playing. Charlie shouldve redone the PSA's.

[Around the Horn]

42 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

I dont understand why they dont hire new voices. There's this one railfan who sounds almost exactly like Ettinger and Thompson and does a perfect immitation of the two, and even recorded a mockup video. Announcements should always be consistent.

The new PSA's have reached the A divison and they are horrible. She talks so low you can barely hear her, when she says "hello everyone" she says it so fast you dont even realize a PSA is playing. Charlie shouldve redone the PSA's.

Charlie doesn't do new recordings anymore or else he would be doing them.

[Lance]

I'll go one further and say they need to redo all the announcement with one voice. The current setup worked well back in 2004 when the announcements were relatively consistent across lines, Lexington Ave being the oddball from 2000-'04 with the combination of Kleiner, Thompson and Ettinger on the . Nowadays, with all of the updates in recent years, it's extremely easy for multiple voices to play on the same announcement set. It's an extremely minor thing in the grand scheme of things, but the audiophile in me really notices this.

In regards to the new PSAs, the person who recorded them (I'm blanking on her name at the moment) does not sound authoritative enough to convey pertinent information the way Pellet did. It's actually why they had him do all of the PSAs back in 2000 and left the other announcements to the ladies. Also, "hello everyone" sounds way too casual for important announcements. Of course, "ladies and gentlemen" is such a taboo around here nowadays. I guess it's better than "what's up" or "hey dudes" though.

[transitfan111]

13 minutes ago, Lance said:

I'll go one further and say they need to redo all the announcement with one voice. The current setup worked well back in 2004 when the announcements were relatively consistent across lines, Lexington Ave being the oddball from 2000-'04 with the combination of Kleiner, Thompson and Ettinger on the . Nowadays, with all of the updates in recent years, it's extremely easy for multiple voices to play on the same announcement set. It's an extremely minor thing in the grand scheme of things, but the audiophile in me really notices this.

In regards to the new PSAs, the person who recorded them (I'm blanking on her name at the moment) does not sound authoritative enough to convey pertinent information the way Pellet did. It's actually why they had him do all of the PSAs back in 2000 and left the other announcements to the ladies. Also, "hello everyone" sounds way too casual for important announcements. Of course, "ladies and gentlemen" is such a taboo around here nowadays. I guess it's better than "what's up" or "hey dudes" though.

I don’t get what’s wrong with “ladies and gentlemen”. Sounds way more professional than “hello everyone”. 

[Lance]

Everything has to be gender-neutral these days and apparently, those who don't identify as either a lady or a gentleman took offense. Or something.

[Around the Horn]

5 hours ago, Lance said:

Everything has to be gender-neutral these days and apparently, those who don't identify as either a lady or a gentleman took offense. Or something.

That's what "Attention passengers" is for...

[transitfan111]

Wow 

I didn’t know the MTA cared about this. Don’t they have better things to do?

Why not just change all the announcements to include Spanish or Chinese as well eh? 

[Lawrence St]

31 minutes ago, transitfan111 said:

Wow 

I didn’t know the MTA cared about this. Don’t they have better things to do?

Why not just change all the announcements to include Spanish or Chinese as well eh? 

I fully agree with this statement. The new PSA's are complete garbage and should be redone.

[RR503]

1 hour ago, transitfan111 said:

Wow 

I didn’t know the MTA cared about this. Don’t they have better things to do?

Why not just change all the announcements to include Spanish or Chinese as well eh? 

To be fair, changing from "ladies and gentlemen" to "attention passengers" is a really small effort the agency can make to make the system feel more inclusive while actually reducing announcement word count. I'm sorry for sounding like a holier-than-thou moral splainer, but I think making people whose identities are rejected/denigrated (just read this conversation) feel more at home is a positive thing. 

Edited October 16, 2018 by RR503

[Jemorie]

10 hours ago, Lance said:

The latter. If I'm not mistaken, Thompson no longer works in the NYC area, nor does Ettinger (the primary voice of the Lexington Ave line), which is why new recordings fall to Cowdery and Campion.

Ah I see. Thanks. I would assume some of the rerouted  /  announcements such as "This is an Eastchester-Dyre Avenue  train" and "This is a Wakefield-241st Street-bound  local train" was done by Campion herself as well. Whenever I listen to the recorded NTT announcements on YouTube from either MrRailfan or even DJ Hammers himself, I listen very CAREFULLY and compare the voices between Thompson and Campion.

[Lawrence St]

35 minutes ago, Jemorie said:

Ah I see. Thanks. I would assume some of the rerouted  /  announcements such as "This is an Eastchester-Dyre Avenue  train" and "This is a Wakefield-241st Street-bound  local train" was done by Campion herself as well. Whenever I listen to the recorded NTT announcements on YouTube from either MrRailfan or even DJ Hammers himself, I listen very CAREFULLY and compare the voices between Thompson and Campion.

Those  and  one's aren't really good announcements. She says the Eastchester bound on the  so fast you can barley hear her, and the  to 241 St is just...blech. Not to mention those announcements don't sound the same. Plus the  to 241 has a very weird program. It uses a mix of announcements from the  itself and the , instead of using it's own.

[Jemorie]

2 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

Those  and  one's aren't really good announcements. She says the Eastchester bound on the  so fast you can barley hear her, and the  to 241 St is just...blech. Not to mention those announcements don't sound the same. Plus the  to 241 has a very weird program. It uses a mix of announcements from the  itself and the , instead of using it's own.

Fully agreed. Especially the part about that  to 241st Street. There's two of them scheduled to leave Bowling Green in the AM Rush.

[Lawrence St]

Just now, Jemorie said:

Fully agreed. Especially the part about that  to 241st Street. There's two of them scheduled to leave Bowling Green in the AM Rush.

Since when?

[Jemorie]

5 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

Since when?

I don't know. Maybe 9:00-ish I guess. I've only caught it like twice before a little while ago. You can check the  Trip Planner. Btw, a friend sent me this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LwrMOg8nYRCOfNWiueTeNjB0v8ykyzH5/view

The "This is an Eastchester-bound  train" announcement must be that woman who recently was hired to replace Pellet for the PSAs in the NTTs and on the countdown clocks.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Jemorie
I was being vague. Sorry.

[Lawrence St]

2 minutes ago, Jemorie said:

I don't know. Maybe 9:00-ish I guess. You can check the  Trip Planner. Btw, a friend sent me this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LwrMOg8nYRCOfNWiueTeNjB0v8ykyzH5/view

The "This is an Eastchester-bound  train" announcement must be that woman who recently was hired to replace Pellet for the PSAs in the NTTs and on the countdown clocks.

I don't know who this is but it sounds like a he. But still, he sounds almost exatcly like her! The other lady has a more soft voice.

[Calvin]

1 hour ago, Lawrence St said:

Since when?

for a while

 

9:26AM departure from Bowling Green : 8:06AM from Eastchester

9:50AM departure from Bowling Green : 8:22AM from Eastchester

Edited October 17, 2018 by Calvin

[transitfan111]

Today on the train I saw a pregnant lady force a man to get up so she could sit. Felt bad for the poor man, and NOT for the lady. If she wants a guaranteed seat she should've taken a Uber or get a baby daddy with a car.

In my opinion, seats are never guaranteed no matter what/who you are. Some New Yorkers will be nice and give you a seat but others won't care, it's just how people are.

[Union Tpke]

35 minutes ago, transitfan111 said:

Today on the train I saw a pregnant lady force a man to get up so she could sit. Felt bad for the poor man, and NOT for the lady. If she wants a guaranteed seat she should've taken a Uber or get a baby daddy with a car.

In my opinion, seats are never guaranteed no matter what/who you are. Some New Yorkers will be nice and give you a seat but others won't care, it's just how people are.

Just because that is how people are doesn't make it right.

[Lance]

14 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Those  and  one's aren't really good announcements. She says the Eastchester bound on the  so fast you can barley hear her, and the  to 241 St is just...blech. Not to mention those announcements don't sound the same. Plus the  to 241 has a very weird program. It uses a mix of announcements from the  itself and the , instead of using it's own.

Since I haven't caught the to 241 Street in a very long time, my information may be a bit outdated. With that said, apparently when all of the extraneous route options were added to the IRT AAS, they were done after 2004 when Thompson and Ettinger did their updates for the 7th Avenue and Lexington Ave lines respectively. That means Ettinger likely never recorded a station announcement for Wakefield-241 St, leading to that weird mix of the two at the penultimate and last stops on Wakefield-bound trains. Why the most likely extension of the Nereid Av-bound  wasn't added back in '04 is a good question, obviously one I have no answer to.

38 minutes ago, transitfan111 said:

Today on the train I saw a pregnant lady force a man to get up so she could sit. Felt bad for the poor man, and NOT for the lady. If she wants a guaranteed seat she should've taken a Uber or get a baby daddy with a car.

In my opinion, seats are never guaranteed no matter what/who you are. Some New Yorkers will be nice and give you a seat but others won't care, it's just how people are.

That's my problem with people who feel they are entitled to things because of their circumstances. Normally, I have no problem offering my seat to someone who needs it more. All one needs to do is ask. I stopped assuming a long time ago as I've gotten up way too many times to offer a seat, only for the person not to want it and for me to lose my seat to someone else. However, if one expects me to give up my seat or worse, starts demanding it for X reason, well, I've got noise-cancelling headphones for a reason...

[Lawrence St]

30 minutes ago, Lance said:

Since I haven't caught the to 241 Street in a very long time, my information may be a bit outdated. With that said, apparently when all of the extraneous route options were added to the IRT AAS, they were done after 2004 when Thompson and Ettinger did their updates for the 7th Avenue and Lexington Ave lines respectively. That means Ettinger likely never recorded a station announcement for Wakefield-241 St, leading to that weird mix of the two at the penultimate and last stops on Wakefield-bound trains. Why the most likely extension of the Nereid Av-bound  wasn't added back in '04 is a good question, obviously one I have no answer to.

Did you see the video Jeromie posted? With the exception of Jessica announcing the stops on Dyre, those two announcers sound perfect together, and it sounds way better then that garbled mess we have now.