New voice in Hoboken

Anybody hear that new announcement voice in Hoboken? Is that a real person or some sort of synthesized thing?

I was surprised when i started hearing the automated announcements at trenton, i guess they are spreading to more and more stations. Makes sense to have them at endpoint terminals or anywhere there are not too much chance of a track change. I am waiting for them to remove all of the old cone style speakers and put in the JBL speakers to reduce echoing at a few stations such as NWK.

- A

The automated voice in Hoboken is a Text-2-Speech computer. If you listen carefully, it can't pronounce all the station names properly.

sullivan1985 wrote:The automated voice in Hoboken is a Text-2-Speech computer. If you listen carefully, it can't pronounce all the station names properly.

Why does NJT use like 6 different voices around the state?

I'm not sure I would want to trust a synthesized voice. The automated announcements (and the screens) on the trains have been wrong often enough for me to not entirely trust them. I like a real person, who is thinking on his or her feet, in the midst of a problem.

Idiot Railfan wrote:I'm not sure I would want to trust a synthesized voice. The automated announcements (and the screens) on the trains have been wrong often enough for me to not entirely trust them. I like a real person, who is thinking on his or her feet, in the midst of a problem.

I agree, but we all must deal with it as we do countless times on the phone....Welcome to Modernism and the 21st century..

blockline4180 wrote:

Idiot Railfan wrote:I'm not sure I would want to trust a synthesized voice. The automated announcements (and the screens) on the trains have been wrong often enough for me to not entirely trust them. I like a real person, who is thinking on his or her feet, in the midst of a problem.

I agree, but we all must deal with it as we do countless times on the phone....Welcome to Modernism and the 21st century..

I notice the ones on the trains themselves (the automated ones) are better, albeit annoying. I am curious, does it pronounce some of the harder stations correctly? Most of the lines I've used them with only English names.

It is hilarious hearing them changing them over time so the computer pronounces it correctly.

Levittown was "leave it down", and Tacony was "tackunny". New york was "knee-irk" but they changed it to what sounds like "new york".

- A

TREnecNYP wrote:It is hilarious hearing them changing them over time so the computer pronounces it correctly.

Levittown was "leave it down", and Tacony was "tackunny". New york was "knee-irk" but they changed it to what sounds like "new york".

- A

I've tried some of the less English-sounding names and got some weird results:

Wanaque - Wanack
Ho-Ho-Kus - HoHoKist
Montague - Montauget

Strange answers

Are any of these voices in spanish? If not, why not?

boxcar wrote:Are any of these voices in spanish? If not, why not?

Porque ellos no es.

boxcar wrote:Are any of these voices in spanish? If not, why not?

En Estados Unidos, se habla Inglés.

En los Estados Unidos, nosotros hablamos Inglés.

Sorry, I had to. If only that Spanish test today was as easy as taht

Do the railroads in Mexico or Spain make announcements in English? If not, why should NJ Transit or any other railroad in the US make announcements in spanish?

trainwayne1 wrote:Do the railroads in Mexico or Spain make announcements in English? If not, why should NJ Transit or any other railroad in the US make announcements in spanish?

Because of the plague infesting this land called political correctness??
Yay in before the lock!