(27 Feb 2015, 5:58 pm)Dan wrote We've done this so many times now.
You need to get yourself on the full 56 from Sunderland to Newcastle... Far more tolerable than an hour and a bit on an Arriva service with monotonous announcements.
The ones on the 56 sound professional and retain the regional accent. How it should be done, in my opinion. None of the gimmicks, none of the repetitiveness...
Most judge the announcements based on the very first buses to get them in the entirety of the North East. Of course Go North East was going to make mistakes and learn from them...
Not done the 56 yet (keep meaning too) but I have done the 60 I can't really remember what the announcements sounded like but I remember them being alright.
For me it's just the ring the bell... Bit that annoys me on the 21 if they just didn't have that bit I would have no problem with Steve and Karen's announcements.
I will admit that there are flaws with Arriva's announcements too, some of them could do with coming out faster as with the announcements for certain stops you have practically passed the stop by the time it has been announced, some of the stops on the 7 have no announcements and there was no announcements at all on the morning journeys up to Framwellgate Moor.
Although at least with the monotonous Arriva announcements I have found if you do the journey often enough you can tune out the announcements out, some days on the 7 I sometimes think that they aren't even working because I have tuned them out. Some would say that this is a bad thing.