A couple years back the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) decided to do away with the practice of transit vehicle drivers announcing upcoming stations and stops. It was decided that a GPS-enabled system would instead announce upcoming stations (in the case of subways) and stops (in the case of streetcars and buses) via generic, female, computerized voices.
No harm done, right? Maybe not.
One evening while riding the Parliament 65 bus, I overheard the driver talking with another driver. To paraphrase, the driver was quite upset at having the responsibility of stop announcements taken away from him. Driving a bus is about as boring a job as there is, he complained, and the act of getting on the loudspeaker was one of the few things that broke up the monotony.
Sometimes, he said, he would turn off the computerized voice and do the announcements himself – surely in contravention of some misconstrued (but no doubt well-meaning) TTC policy.
As any regular rider of transit in Toronto remembers, the act of personal station-stop announcements gave the system a personality. There was the Singing Subway Driver who would concoct all sorts of bizarre puns set to television theme songs to announce the upcoming station. There was the College Streetcar Tour Guide, who would make the effort to describe a little bit of history and context about the sights and roads you passed along your way. There were dozens of others, all with their own unique style, take and effort. Sure they probably irritated a few riders who just wanted to read their book and be left alone, but a great many transit riders would smile when they heard those drivers’ voices.
They’re all gone now. Their bodies may remain, but their voices don’t.
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🙁