(24 Aug 2018, 6:37 pm)Dan wrote The inclusive transport strategy forms part of the Government's proposals to make public transport more accessible for disabled people.

Should they go ahead, these proposals will mandate the fitting of audio-visual Next Stop Announcement systems to almost all buses operating public services.

These proposals also have specific requirements for the audio - one requirement is for the service number and terminus to be announced at every stop where the doors have been opened.

So whilst this is not currently required by law, I'd suggest it's not too far away, and isn't something that is likely to disappear any time soon...

I've driven a lot of buses with Next Stop Announcements, even more so over the last few months since the announcements were changed to announce the service on doors close, and in my view from a drivers perspective you barely hear the announcements. It just blends into the background noise, along with the accompanying rattles, squeaks, talking passengers, etc.

From a passenger perspective, it's much of the same story in my opinion. If you concentrate on something else (your phone, a book, the views outside, the person you're travelling with), have music coming through your earphones, etc, then in my view you tend to blank out the announcements.

If it was "driving passengers mad", I'd expect Customer Services to be receiving a large volume of complaints about it. I wonder if they are?

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Whilst proposals may make it to becoming legislation, unless the government stipulate a prescribed method of announcements, passengers are at the whim of the operator. 
No consistency between them when using 2/3 routes or vehicle types. Imagine a journey with the potential to use 2/3 operators?

PSVAR has a standard. Surely NSA's should apply a standard? 
Not just with the display; but tone, structure and frequency of the announcements. 

After all, a proportion of those unhappy or appreciating the NSA's, may not be able to type that strongly worded email or have the inclination or willingness to overcome personal barriers to ring up to compliment or complain.
CS data may show one thing...