Is there a training program for Amtrak crew on how to make announcements 5 times longer than needed? Begin and end each sentence with " ladies and gentlemen", ask for "your attention please" 3 times, confuse the passengers with one crew calling it the snack bar and the next, the cafe car. I cannot imagine how confusing these overly verbose announcements must sound to our foreign riders.all that is needed is "next stop Memphis, check around your seat, go downstairs" (repeat that again 2 minutes before the stop).
Tips: 1. minimize station name; we know Memphis is in Tennessee and others are just listening for the city
2. You have our attention if you are giving useful information
3. Be consistent in names of things
4. Repeat info twice in one announcement and repeat a couple of minutes later. If the announcement is to the point, people will listen
5. "Last call" is a bar term. Use "the dining cal will close in 10 minutes" ( if that is the case)
6. Coordinate car attendant and conductor announcements so the don't interrupt each othe (very confusing)
7. Shorten all sentences/phrases to 4 or 5 words.
8. Identify the speaker.
9. Keep up the great work and service. I know these announcements are trying to be helpful, but too many words confuse the useful information.
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard, in more than sixty years of traveling by train, the "Last call for (name of meal);" this form, then, is used correctly in diners.
One peeve of mine is (I have not ridden overnight in a coach since 1989, so the practice may have been discontinued) calling out station names in the middle of the night, waking coach passengers who are not getting off at any such station. What is the purpose of hat checks if they are not used to inform attendants or conductors that a person is getting off at a particular station?
And, there were the calls by two trainmen in one car, as the train approached Euraliar: "You're a liar," and "You really are."
Johnny
Today on public transit in general (trains and buses) there is a much greater emphasis on station announcements because some people have visual impairments and cannot see the electronic signs that are also present. The "Your attention please" seems to come with the recorded announcements. But my own experience is that recorded announcements are sometimes wrong; they announce stations and stops you have already left.
On the other hand when I go to Providence and go down to the tracks at NYP the train personnel invariably say as they have always said "Train to Boston....train to Boston."
Amtrak is very good about keeping quiet at night. The last station announcements on th City of New Orleans are about 11:00 pm and the first in the morning are a 6 am or so. They do that right. I will have to ask my blind students what is the best for pa announcements. Good point.
petitnjI will have to ask my blind students what is the best for pa announcements. Good point.
Let us know what your blind students say.
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