Lex Ave Line Announcements

[R142Aficionado]

Hi all!

Good evening! I tried to do a search in the forums but I was unable to find an answer.

Does anyone know why the MTA has been changing the announcements on the Lexington Avenue Lines?
I've noticed that Diane Thompson has started saying "The Next Stop Is" and the stops on the 5 train whereas Jessica only says "This is a XXX Bound 4/5 train"

 

[Lawrence St]

23 hours ago, R142Aficionado said:

Hi all!

Good evening! I tried to do a search in the forums but I was unable to find an answer.

Does anyone know why the MTA has been changing the announcements on the Lexington Avenue Lines?
I've noticed that Diane Thompson has started saying "The Next Stop Is" and the stops on the 5 train whereas Jessica only says "This is a XXX Bound 4/5 train"

 

Its a glitch. Its not a priority to fix right now.

[Lance]

I thought it was a capacity problem on the ancient hardware in those trains, and also the reason why most of the remaining '04-era transfers were replaced by Charlie Pellett versions.

[Jemorie]

On 12/8/2020 at 10:02 PM, R142Aficionado said:

Hi all!

Good evening! I tried to do a search in the forums but I was unable to find an answer.

Does anyone know why the MTA has been changing the announcements on the Lexington Avenue Lines?
I've noticed that Diane Thompson has started saying "The Next Stop Is" and the stops on the 5 train whereas Jessica only says "This is a XXX Bound 4/5 train"

Following the full completion of the  project, they lazily removed the  transfer announcement at 59th Street on the . Hence, Diane and Jessica’s announcements mixing in together.

Though generally, they are always fidgeting around with the NTTs’ automated announcements and LCDs, including unnecessarily removing all of Charlie Pellet’s PSAs and so on.

[Lance]

Makes you wonder what their end goal is here.

Speaking of the 59 Street transfers, I just wish they'd fix it so it stops playing before 4 and 5 trains have already come to a complete stop. Conductors won't open the doors until it finishes so the destination/next stop announcement plays correctly, which I'm guessing is on orders from management since it happens on every train I'm on regardless of time of day. They got it right once when they moved the playback trigger back a couple hundred feet sometime after 2010 when they added the walking transfer to the F announcement. Of course, it got knocked back when they added the "watch the gap" portion later and hasn't been fixed since.

[Lex]

7 minutes ago, Lance said:

Makes you wonder what their end goal is here.

Speaking of the 59 Street transfers, I just wish they'd fix it so it stops playing before 4 and 5 trains have already come to a complete stop. Conductors won't open the doors until it finishes so the destination/next stop announcement plays correctly, which I'm guessing is on orders from management since it happens on every train I'm on regardless of time of day. They got it right once when they moved the playback trigger back a couple hundred feet sometime after 2010 when they added the walking transfer to the F announcement. Of course, it got knocked back when they added the "watch the gap" portion later and hasn't been fixed since.

If they didn't already get rid of it, then that should be the first order of business. That station's not even remotely built on a curve and the gaps aren't particularly wide.

[Bay Ridge Express]

6 hours ago, Lance said:

Speaking of the 59 Street transfers, I just wish they'd fix it so it stops playing before 4 and 5 trains have already come to a complete stop. Conductors won't open the doors until it finishes so the destination/next stop announcement plays correctly, which I'm guessing is on orders from management since it happens on every train I'm on regardless of time of day.

I was on the  recently there. The conductor opened the door and let the transfer announcement play, and then cut off the "next stop" announcement to close the doors. But I agree, that announcement is way too long.

[Lance]

On 1/3/2021 at 3:13 PM, Lex said:

If they didn't already get rid of it, then that should be the first order of business. That station's not even remotely built on a curve and the gaps aren't particularly wide.

Well, you're definitely not going to like that they apparently added it to Pelham Pkwy-Dyre recently. I caught it on a downtown 5 yesterday. I'm starting to think they're adding them to all these stations just to spite us at this point.

I agree with you that it isn't needed for most of the stations it's been attached to these days. Only Union Square on the Lex, Times Square on the shuttle and West Farms Sq need it for the severe curves at those stations. Might as well just add it to every station with an announced transfer at this point and save everyone the trouble.

[Deucey]

On 1/5/2021 at 12:42 PM, Lance said:

I agree with you that it isn't needed for most of the stations it's been attached to these days. Only Union Square on the Lex, Times Square on the shuttle and West Farms Sq need it for the severe curves at those stations. Might as well just add it to every station with an announced transfer at this point and save everyone the trouble

To be fair, I once got my foot wedged between the platform and the last car at Wall Street  when a throng knocked me over during rush hour.

Statement doesn't apply really to my situation, but it's kinda necessary.

[Trainmaster5]

On 1/5/2021 at 12:42 PM, Lance said:

Well, you're definitely not going to like that they apparently added it to Pelham Pkwy-Dyre recently. I caught it on a downtown 5 yesterday. I'm starting to think they're adding them to all these stations just to spite us at this point.

I agree with you that it isn't needed for most of the stations it's been attached to these days. Only Union Square on the Lex, Times Square on the shuttle and West Farms Sq need it for the severe curves at those stations. Might as well just add it to every station with an announced transfer at this point and save everyone the trouble.

You've got to add 174th St on the  and   if you mention West Farms Square. That's a school car double play where I come from 😀.

[marmarog]

On 1/3/2021 at 2:20 PM, Jemorie said:

Following the full completion of the  project, they lazily removed the  transfer announcement at 59th Street on the . Hence, Diane and Jessica’s announcements mixing in together.

Though generally, they are always fidgeting around with the NTTs’ automated announcements and LCDs, including unnecessarily removing all of Charlie Pellet’s PSAs and so on.

MTA stated that they removed Charlie's announcements because of the 'Ladies and Gentlemen". They wanted the PSA's to be gender neutral so riders could be more comfortable, hence the "Hello Everyone.. when your riding.."

[IRT Bronx Express]

On 6/4/2021 at 2:31 AM, marmarog said:

MTA stated that they removed Charlie's announcements because of the 'Ladies and Gentlemen". They wanted the PSA's to be gender neutral so riders could be more comfortable, hence the "Hello Everyone.. when your riding.."

In all honesty, removing that bit was very unnecessary, to the point where nothing was achieved. Whenever I rode the Lexington Ave trains to work, I always loved hearing "ladies and gentleman, as you exit, please be careful of the gap between the platform and the train". They snipped the first bit, and literally sped up the bold portion, and to this day I ask my self why they bothered. They should've condensed that long "walk to transfer" announcement at 59 St instead.

[Lex]

7 hours ago, IRT Bronx Express said:

In all honesty, removing that bit was very unnecessary, to the point where nothing was achieved. Whenever I rode the Lexington Ave trains to work, I always loved hearing "ladies and gentleman, as you exit, please be careful of the gap between the platform and the train". They snipped the first bit, and literally sped up the bold portion, and to this day I ask my self why they bothered. They should've condensed that long "walk to transfer" announcement at 59 St instead.

I mean, there's a few stations where its use makes sense. (Naturally, 59th Street is not one of them.)

How do you propose to condense the transfer announcement?

[Lance]

Late I know, but they could condense the walking transfer announcement to something as such:

usual in-station transfer plays, followed by...

"A free out-of-system transfer is available to the and trains at Lexington Av-63 St."

That's much better than "A free transfer is available to the and trains by walking to the Lexington Av-63 St station and using OMNY or your Metro-Card."

Also, they could lose the "watch the gap" portion on one of the straightest stations in the system.

[ImTheATrain]

I'm very late to this topic but if you're referring to what I think you're referring too which is the 4 5 and 6 train announcements having the 2 train "The Next Stop Is" Segment, then this was not a glitch nor a mistake. It was a deliberate decision made by the MTA to shorten dwell times in stations. I actually had this concern my self come to realize that it was on purpose. Something else about this is that the MTA plans on doing this to all lines eventually. You might see the N train with the Next Stop segment from the A line. It all comes down to what they believe is quicker. Personally, I find it quite stupid for MTA to really believe that this would some how work.

[ImTheATrain]

It is worth knowing that each announcement shares its own segment. This means, "This is a manhattan bound  Train" "The Next Stop Is" "Prospect Avenue" All of these in this order is how it plays which is what made it easy to switch the voice around.