On Feb 26, 10:08 am, "Joe Patrick"
wrote:
Given that London is a major international tourist destination, and
having noticed many tourists staring in bewilderment at the line
diagrams in the trains, I think it's likely that many passengers do
appreciate being told the next station name in advance. There are many
examples of over-provision in announcements, but this isn't one of them.

But if you're going somewhere, do you just get on a train and hope
someone will announce where you've got to get off? Whenever I've been
somewhere I've researched in a guide book or online to find the
nearest station. It's rather like announcing where you can change for
other lines, surely you'd plan your journey beforehand and work out
yourself where you've got to change.



Or, looking at it another way, if you didn't know where any of the
lines went without an announcement, it wouldn't be any use to be told
that you could change to one of them, because you wouldn't know if it
took you where you wanted to go.

I can't see any point in any of the announcements, apart from the ones
reminding you that the next station is closed and other variations
from the published service.

Another thought is that if the people who are presumed to most need
the announcements are foreign tourists, a muffled announcement of a
station name that they possibly don't know how to pronounce is useless
anyway. When I'm in a foreign city, even one where I can use school
French, I find announcements completely useless and have to rely on
diagrams. Even if I can make out the station name, I don't know what
they are saying about it.