Broad Street Subway..."Daws Closing"

[Winthorpe]

I noticed while riding the Broad Street Subway to work this morning that a different woman now annouces each station stop. The most distinct difference is that the lady now says "DOORS CLOSING" rather than "DAWS CLOSING"

Anyone else notice this?

Thumbs up for the new recording

[Geno]

Was that woman from Liverpool?

[ArcticSplash]

Was that woman from Liverpool?

I always imagined some late 50s, over-tanned Benson & Hedges chain smoker from Florida was making those announcements.


One minute she could be doing "The is Tasker-Marris STAI-SHUN", the next minute... going out with the girls to play canasta.

[ArcticSplash]

I think it would be cute if SEPTA could periodically change-up the voiceover announcements on the trains.


Like one afternoon, run the MTA NYC engine-diver announcer voice which is indecipherable to every human on the planet, the only thing you can make out is the rare occasion they slip in an epithet when there's a threat of a strike. "THIRTHEHTTNABD BRAWDAYTHTT NESSTTOPTH TWENNNYTHTEIT ERER FAWQ GUILIANI."


Or a witty celebrity announcement day.... like for one day all the South Philly stops are announced by Joey Vento.

[BarryG]

It depends what car you are in. Some cars still have the old recording, and in fact a lot of them lately have had no audio announcements at all. The new door announcement is actually "Doors are closing" and it sounds like the same announcement and voice as the El.

The old announcer was a woman from Philadelphia living in Germany. DN ran a piece about it a while ago, can't find it on their website (why would they want to drive traffic there, anyway?), but Colin's site has the full article:
SEPTA Watch - Blog - Hearing voices on*SEPTA?

[cewillm]

The history of the previous recordings are interesting. I believe the female was originally from Philadelphia and gained her odd accent from living in Germany for an extended period of time.

BSS announcements have always been hit-or-miss. Sometimes the announcements work, sometimes the operator makes manual announcements (which may or may not be audible), and sometimes it's silent. I've had fellow students afraid to take the subway because they claim they don't know how to know when they've arrived at their stop.

[Brian616]

Didn't they have to speed up the announcment a little, and that's what made it sound so strange? I wish I had a link, but I forgot where I read it...

[mixiboi]

I've had fellow students afraid to take the subway because they claim they don't know how to know when they've arrived at their stop.

Yes because all those signs in the station are so hard to find and read. Suburban kids Psh...

And yeah, the strange sound was created POST editing of the audio, they are changing it over as soon as cars go into the shops...Which is why you have a mixed/no audio cars

[BarryG]

Yes because all those signs in the station are so hard to find and read. Suburban kids Psh...

And yeah, the strange sound was created POST editing of the audio, they are changing it over as soon as cars go into the shops...Which is why you have a mixed/no audio cars

Why are they changing it?

[mixiboi]

Why are they changing it?

Because people complained..More seriously, thanks to the revamped AT&T Station, they have to update the audio system to included it, so might as well fix that minor error, and add a bunch of other things people ask them to include at other stops(Street level places and cross routes)

[phillysw]

I always imagined some late 50s, over-tanned Benson & Hedges chain smoker from Florida was making those announcements.


One minute she could be doing "The is Tasker-Marris STAI-SHUN", the next minute... going out with the girls to play canasta.

OK, this is going to sound really weird...but I always imagined it was an Asian transgender woman. The voice has a weird inflection/stresses odd syllables, and it's a little deep for a lady (thus the smoking thing you mentioned). I can't explain it...that's the picture I got in my head!

I'll kind of miss it if it's changed now. I wonder if they got complaints about how weird it was?

[BarryG]

I rode today on a car with the new announcements. Between Snyder and City Hall, the E-F and L-S recordings did not play properly--soft and garbled. The others sounded good. Main difference is that she speaks a bit more slowly and the words are more enunciated. When arriving at stops, she only says the stop name, so it's "Walnut-Locust" instead of "This is Walnut-Locust Station." "Daws closing" is now "Doors are closing."

When announcing the upcoming stop, T-M was was same, W-L is the same, but no longer lists "Avenue of the Arts" as a destination--just Kimmel and the Academy. I don't believe she mentioned the connection to the express train, but I'm not sure. City Hall no longer lists all the stairway exit numbers (good call), but does list out the individual trolley route numbers instead of just "subway-surface lines" or whatever it was before.

When I asked my coworker if his train this morning had the new announcements he said "I don't know, I wasn't paying attention." Hard to believe that some people don't care about this stuff.

[CHIOSSO]

I noticed "the english lady" was gone on new years day.

[cewillm]

...so it's "Walnut-Locust" instead of "This is Walnut-Locust Station." "Daws closing" is now "Doors are closing."

Oh man, this is awesome. If there's one thing I'll remember about my travels on SEPTA once I inevitably grow older and move away, it's the sexy-automaton "doors are closing" voice on the M-4 cars, followed by the lovely whining of the motors. I never get sick of hearing those sounds.

[Winthorpe]

I think it would be cute if SEPTA could periodically change-up the voiceover announcements on the trains.

Or a witty celebrity announcement day.... like for one day all the South Philly stops are announced by Joey Vento.

I think this is a great idea. Having local celebs calling out each station stop. Like MayfairMeat suggested, having Joey Vento call out all stations (not just South Philly) would be really neat.

Some other announcers could include the following:

Mayor Nutter
Will Smith
Kevin Bacon
Bill Cosby

So picture this, you board at AT&T station and just before the train pulls out of the station you hear something like this... "Hello and welcome aboard the Broad Street Subway, I'm Bill Cosby and I will be traveling with you today. Next station stop will be Oregon Avenue..."

Something to that affect.

Yes, I know it will be costly for SEPTA to do this but it would give each train its own personality.

[Outlaw Star]

So picture this, you board at AT&T station and just before the train pulls out of the station you hear something like this... "Hello and welcome aboard the Broad Street Subway, I'm Bill Cosby and I will be traveling with you today. Next station stop will be Oregon Avenue..."

Something to that affect.

Yes, I know it will be costly for SEPTA to do this but it would give each train its own personality.

Especially if he throws in some Cosby-speak like "frazzle snazzle" or "bleeble blabble." Or talks about his experience making "Ghost Dad."

[sputnik]

I think this is a great idea. Having local celebs calling out each station stop. Like MayfairMeat suggested, having Joey Vento call out all stations (not just South Philly) would be really neat.

Some other announcers could include the following:

Mayor Nutter
Will Smith
Kevin Bacon
Bill Cosby

So picture this, you board at AT&T station and just before the train pulls out of the station you hear something like this... "Hello and welcome aboard the Broad Street Subway, I'm Bill Cosby and I will be traveling with you today. Next station stop will be Oregon Avenue..."

Something to that affect.

Yes, I know it will be costly for SEPTA to do this but it would give each train its own personality.

You don't think Cos and Kevin Bacon would do it for free? Patti LaBelle? Schooly Dee? The Roots? Holy crap, that could be cool.

[sputnik]

Sylvester Stallone!

[ChiefSalsa]

I want to do smarmy messages.

"Next stop, North Philadelphia station. You really do not want to get off here."

[lemonfresh]

Wow. I'd always assumed that the voice was of a Japanese woman. Also wondered why SEPTA never did anything about the pronunciation "LomBARD," since we don't say it that way.