Liam O’Dell: Let’s replace ‘irritating’ tannoy announcements with something accessible

Tannoy announcements are annoying, and it was good to learn earlier this week – via a piece in The Times – that the UK Government finds them irritating as well.

A document laying out the Department for Transport’s plans for changing up the UK’s railway system, published in May and known as the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, reads:

“Useful, timely information is needed to make travelling by rail easier and simpler and can help rebuild confidence in using public transport. Today’s sometimes mixed messages – from different operators, Network Rail and the Department for Transport – will be replaced by a ‘single source of the truth’ across [new public body] Great British Railways services.

“New standards for communications will underpin this. There will be fewer annoying and repetitious recorded announcements.”

Taking action against something so frustrating is a plan I can certainly get on board with – pun most definitely intended.

Granted, hearing people find them annoying for a different reason entirely: tannoy announcements become white noise distracting them from their latest true crime podcast. For me, they are often garbled, mumbly nonsense which offers me no further insight as to what’s happening with my journey.

It’s even worse when there’s delays. If it’s on the platform, then it’s still over a poor quality PA system; if it’s when I’m on the train, then it’s dependent on whether or not the staff member has the appropriate level of diction.

Access to important travel information shouldn’t be down to chance, yet it is for Deaf people like me. In what is often a simple case of getting from A to B, Deaf people shouldn’t be left feeling so anxious, distressed and isolated.

Okay, fine, but can we please talk about the tannoy/megaphone announcements made at train stations during delays and how they are completely inaccessible to #Deaf people such as myself? Thanks. #BoredOfAudismhttps://t.co/LhGtLfZS8t

— Liam O'Dell (@LiamODellUK) June 27, 2021

So it does bring me some relief to know that rail communications are being switched up a little bit – even if it’s for different reasons to the ones I’ve just laid out. The “single source of truth” idea, while interesting, can also be risky.

If travel information is consolidated in one place, but that area is inaccessible to Deaf and hard of hearing people, what are we supposed to do? We’d be in exactly the same predicament as we’re in now.

“By working with innovative partners, new information such as average punctuality data, expected service crowding and real-time updates on station accessibility and service times will be rolled out at stations, on trains and directly to passengers,” the document goes on to add.

Right, so in a bid to group all journey information together, as one “single source of truth”, the process will involve partners and “third-party providers”. It certainly sounds like a “single” approach to me(!)

As an aside, other aspects of the plan raise some questions over logistics, too. There’s a “national accessibility strategy” which they say will provide “the first robust, joined-up, system-wide approach to accessibility, including getting to, from and around stations and on and off trains”.

“This will be underpinned by improvements in training and information for staff, leading to a more inclusive culture that puts the needs of passengers first.”

Who will provide the training, and will it involve deaf awareness training? Similarly, who’s providing the “comprehensive audit of network accessibility?”

If the new strategy and approach to travel information is all about simplifying things, then they must still allow for some element of choice and personalisation. As I’ve already said, limiting details to one inaccessible source doesn’t benefit us at all.

By all means, cut down on the tannoy announcements – I won’t miss them – but it certainly doesn’t help me if we continue to get stuck in this loop of overcomplicating matters around accessibility while trying to keep things simple. What happens then, is you simply replace one kind of anxiety with another.

Photo: Ollie Cole.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitterand on his website.