This section provides an overview of automated announcement systems that are no longer in use.
Amey[]
Founded in 2000 Amey was a system that ran on Ditra computers like Thales. The main announcers were Phil Sayer and Celia Drummond who were both professional voice artists, announcing across the railway network. First Great Western InterCity were first to have Amey installed at major stations such as Reading, Didcot Parkway, Plymouth, Exeter St. Davids and Bath Spa, then later in 2009 at a couple more installed at Slough and Oxford. Connex South Central installed Amey at their stations before Govia took over in 2001, Stagecoach South West Trains in 2002 and Thameslink City Flyer in 2003 Phil replacing Atos Anne at Luton Airport Parkway (Installed in 1999). In 2010 Amey repalced Atos across the London Overground network using Emma Hignett as the professional voice artist. In 2013, Only Woman was installed, replacing Phil on the Southern network at London Victoria, East Croydon and Brighton and also replacing Anne and Mike at Gatwick Airport and also rolled out at Virgin Trains in 2016.
Due to Phil's passing in 2016 the license was removed and therefore was replaced by Atos on South Western Railway, Southern and Virgin Trains, leaving London Overground the only one to have Amey. In 2019, Amey was closed, making the existing systems for London Overground only done by maintenance. From July 2022 (when Barking Riverside opened), Atos replaced Amey on the GOBLIN line and was slowly being phased out in July-September 2022, December 2023, February and March 2024. Only Woman announced "City Thameslink" as a calling point for Thameslink services to Bedford at Norwood Junction.
Funkwerk[]
Phil Sayer was the announcer for the Funkwerk system in 1996, used at Arriva Trains Northern, Thameslink/Thameslink City Flyer stations. Announcement settings on the Funkwerk were much similar of that from Ditra/Amey system which Phil was also the announcer for those systems with Celia Drummond.
Due to the high cost of the system to run, First Capital Connect decided to replace the system in 2011 by Atos leaving Northern the only company to run the system in most parts of the station.
In 2014-17, Funkwerk was slowly being phased out and replaced by KeTech using Celia Drummond. By 2019 there were only two stations left that had the Funkwerk system which were Redcar British Steel and Teeside Airport as they were the only stations that have had the lowest passenger use in the history of Northern network.
In December 2019, the announcements at Redcar British Steel and Teeside Airport have been disabled due to very low passenger use, the station becoming disused and to save money from it being wasted.
"BR Ditra"[]
This comprised of voice actor John Elgar, and an unknown female voice actor, and was first installed by BR Ditra and used by BR in the Southern Region in around 1983 to coincide with the resignalling scheme in the Victoria area. The system was first installed at stations such as London Victoria, London Blackfriars, Elephant and Castle, East Croydon, Beckenham Junction, Bromley South, replacing an earlier generation of automated announcements played on tapeboxes.
Over the years, this system gradually expanded across the BR network, not just the Southern region, although Jon Elgar tended to be used in the London area only. The female voice could be heard at stations on the Eastern region such as Stratford, Hackney Downs, Tottenham Hale, Seven Sisters, Cheshunt, Harlow Town, Bishops Stortford, and on the LTS network around Southend. She was also used at quite a few stations in the North West, such as Liverpool Lime Street, Warrington Bank Quay , Wigan North Western, and could also be heard down in South Wales at Cardiff Central. On the Southern region, it was eventually expanded to London Charing Cross, Waterloo East, London Bridge, Orpington, City Thameslink, Guildford and Southampton Central.
Around about the mid 1990s, the onset of privatisation, Jon Elgar the male voice became unavailable to make new recordings, which meant in some cases, words which sounded vaguely similar had to be scrambled together.
It was also around this time that Ditra had recruited two new voiceover artists to take over the recordings; the ubiquitous Phil Sayer and Celia Drummond, so from 1996 onwards, Phil and Celia, and of course various over systems gradually replaced the BR Ditra and Infomat systems.
There were a few notable survivors well into the 21st century, on the former West Anglia section of what became National Express East Anglia (NXEA), at Seven Sisters and Bishops Stortford ; those stations hung onto this system until mid 2011, long after many stations lost it in some cases nearly 15 years previously!
"Infomat"[]
In 1983 Robert Lister and Angela Peberdy were the first male and female voice over actors for the Infomat CIS system and were used in the Southern Region. The system was first introduced as a tape-based system until 1988/89 when they became solid state system. Julie Berry replaced Angela Peberdy for new recordings from 1988 until early 2000s before she started doing announcements for on-board trains. In 1991 Informat was taken over as Radicle 5 years before privatisation of rail franchises.
Robert was the default announcer for the Informat system and shared stations with Angela Peberdy (then later Julie Berry). They were used at various locations on the BR network mainly used at South Western, Chiltern Railways and South Central stations and various other locations. Such as Gatwick Airport, Clapham Junction, Basingstoke, Woking etc.
In 1995 the onset of privatisation Robert Lister and Julie Berry made recordings to add the TOC name on their announcements. i.e. "Platform 4 for the Connex South Central service to London Victoria."
In early 2000s Infomat which was at the time then called Radicle along with BR Ditra was slowly being phased out by new voice announcers such as Phil & Celia, Anne & Mike, Boofay and other announcement systems. By 2001/2 Radicle was completley phased out.
Julie Berry who formerly announced on stations now announced on-board trains such as Thameslink, Southern, Gatwick Express, Chiltern Railways, West Midlands Trains, Merseyrail and other TOCs.
Thales[]
Thales was a Ditra based system like Amey system. Used at Southeastern stations when they previously used Atos Anne temporarily and before BR Ditra. Thales was rolled out in 2004 by South Eastern Trains by SRA (Strategic Rail Authority) using Pauline Cavilla (Charlotte) and Mark Stutter (Roger). Southeastern was the only National Rail operator to have used Thales as other operators who used Ditra based systems were mostly Amey and some using Funkwerk. By 2012 Thales was being phased out (after only 8 years of use) by Southeastern (Govia) replacing Pauline and Mark with Anne and Mike/Rob. Thales was also used on the East London line between Dalston Junction and Surrey Quays with Emma Hignett until it was phased out in May 2020, replacing Emma with ATOS Anne. More information can be found here - https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/london_overground_railway_statio_2?utm_campaign=alaveteli-experiments-87&utm_content=sidebar_similar_requests&utm_medium=link&utm_source=whatdotheyknow
Siemens[]
Used at TransPennine Express stations as well as Northern stations that were previously managed by TransPennine Express. A TPE employee named Rob Randall provided the announcement recordings at those stations.
In December 2017 and January 2018 the Siemens system at TPE stations was replaced by the Atos system some stations that had Siemens when it transferred to Northern was replaced by KeTech, and as a result Anne and Celia Drummond ended up replacing Rob providing the announcements.
Siemens made a comeback in May 2022 at stations on the newly built Elizabeth line core section between Paddington and Abbey Wood, voiced by Emma Hignett.
Racal Plc.[]
An unkown female voice-over artist, nicknamed after her posh voice, abundant in the pronunciation of the phrase 'Hot and cold drinks and light refreshments are available in the buffet'.
Fitted to a number of stations in East Anglia (First Great Eastern and Anglia Railways) and former Thames Trains stations on the GWML, and on the Southeastern Main Line at Deal, she was also temporarily used at Medway lines when it was managed by Connex as most stations on the Southeastern Main Line used Pauline Cavilla and Mark Stutter. Greater Anglia used the system until 2009 and all other installations had been replaced by the end of 2011 by Atos Anne. The system was supplied by Racal plc.
Here is an example of the "Boofay" system at Newbury, which has since been replaced by an Atos installation.