Vocal Voices

Got on the bus to go to hospital when a voice said: "This is Otley Road, St Helen's Lane", then we set off....

"The next stop is Otley Road, Lawnswood cemetery."

"This is Otley Road, Lawnswood cemetery."

"The next stop is Otley Road, YMCA."

"This is Otley Road, YMCA."

And on and on and on!

All of these announcements are repeated on a bright green scrolling LED sign at every stop!

What is all that about? It is a local bus. It is used by the same passengers day in and day out. They know the route inside out. They do not need telling where every stop is.

OK, if you have just arrived from Outer Mongolia and have never used the #1 before it might be useful, for everyone else: Nada.

We have that on some buses here, it's displayed in a screen and there's an automated voice announcement too. It needs re-recording though as the stop before mine is Lowland Rd, not Low *pause* Lands Rd It's correct on the screen though.

Oh, I'm glad they've arrived in Leeds. Had them initially in Wolverhampton before they were rolled out in Birmingham, and the Wolves ones were brilliant, voice-recorded with a Black Country accent!

Black Country defies typing, really, but : "This is Dudlee Rowd, Fytin' Cocks" (for the pub) was my all-time favourite …..

I think as a stranger though, they can be quite valuable. I was up Basingstoke for the footie last Saturday, and eschewing a 1 3/4 mile hike in the heat, I used the No.1 Brighton Hill bus from the station to the ground which had a visual (not audio) display. As I'd already researched the route on Google Maps for walking, it gave me a good idea of my progress up the Winchester Road. The fact that I got off at the wrong stop and found I had a quarter-mile diversion to find some means of getting across an extremely busy dual carriageway was entirely my fault!

We've just got some posh female on our buses

Ossie, Joe take the mickey out of me because I always say 'buzz' rather than bus

Jo, about a week after they introduced them on the 110 (Arriva) Birmingham - Tamworth run, they diverted the route slightly in Sutton Coldfield.

After that, every stop was announced "one out" as a particular bus-stop on the old route was effectively being bypassed, and the system couldn't cope with it. I think they finished up having to re-program the whole batch of dedicated buses!

Our announcer is very North Leeds. Definitely Leeds but with a poshish edge. At least she does not say "love" at the end of every sentence as we all seem to do - love.

Not quite the same, but the voice in the lift from the car park in the city centre has a broad Scottish accent! In Gloucester!

Some of our bus stops has a display, it can be quite useful. No voices though, Scottish or otherwise

I do not mind the digital displays, especially the ones in the bus stops that give the expected time of arrival as opposed to the timetable version - they are really useful.

But a speaking sign... on a bus... for every blinkin' stop!!!