December 7, 2021 • 29 mins
In Episode 2 of Life on Rails, Juliette Maxam and Lucy Wright take another look behind the scenes at Greater Anglia.
Have you ever wondered who decides what colour trains should be and designs the interior? In this episode we speak to Jason Brandon, who as brand manager of Greater Anglia, was responsible for what the new trains should look like – and answers the question - "why do they have carpets?”
Engineering director Martin Beable picks his favourite green features of the new trains, while accessibility manager Rebecca Richardson explains some of the innovative features which are making the railway more accessible for all. Resident fares guru Ken Smith gives his top tips on cheap travel for nights out in London. Listen in to meet Julie Berry, voice over artist and the woman behind Greater Anglia's announcements.
Finally, Juliette and Lucy talk about snow and ice, and what the railway does to cope with it.
Icicles in Ipswich tunnel - https://twitter.com/networkrail/status/969514836609634304
Network Rail’s snow plough - https://twitter.com/GreaterAngliaPR/status/970305018934054912
London evening out tickets - https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/londonevening
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lucy Wright (00:02):
Hello, I'm Lucy Wright.
Juliet Maxim (00:04):
I'm Juliet Maxim, and welcome back to Life on Rails.
Lucy Wright (00:07):
We both work in PR at Greater Anglia and in
this podcast, we want to take you behind the curtain at
one of the UK's biggest train companies.
Juliet Maxim (00:15):
We're talking to all kinds of staff at Greater Anglia,
those who work in stations, depos and on trains, head
office support staff, and some of the biggest names in
the train world or local celebrities.
Lucy Wright (00:26):
And in this winter episode, we speak to Judy Barry,
one of the voices for Greater Anglia's announcements.
Juliet Maxim (00:32):
So you're coming out of London, Victoria, you might go
through places like Pulborough, Billingshurst, Horsham, there's more to come,
you hear that inflection, and then Portsmouth and Portsmouth Harbor
Lucy Wright (00:43):
Accessibility manager, Rebecca Richardson.
Rebecca Richardson (00:45):
I've brought in professionals in equality training, communications professionals to
help create an accessible comms strategy. That's probably the most
satisfying part of my job is to give a voice
to disabled people,
Lucy Wright (00:58):
Our resident fares guru, Ken Strong.
Ken Strong (01:00):
A London night out is when you are actually going out for
the whole night and coming back the following morning, either
staying in a hotel or just going to a club and spending the
whole night in a club and doing what you do
during the night as people do.
Lucy Wright (01:11):
And Martin Beable talking about the green features on our
new trains.
Martin Beable (01:14):
We've got a fleet of new bi- mode trains. They're
called bi- modes because they can use two types of
power, so diesel and electric. When the trains run onto
areas of the network where there's overhead wires, the trains
can use the electric systems on board, which are really green.
Lucy Wright (01:30):
To kick things off, though, we are going to speak to Jason Brandon, our brand manager in charge
of our trains designs.
Juliet Maxim (01:37):
Jason, how are you? Thanks very much for coming on.
Jason Brandon (01:39):
Thank you. I'm very good, very good.
Juliet Maxim (01:42):
How did you decide what color the new trains were
going to be and what they would look like inside?
Jason Brandon (01:47):
Yeah, it's a good question. It is a blank canvas
to some degree, but there are certain factors which kind
of push you in certain directions. So first and foremost
is the brand, the brand color palette, and that is
set. But then you have to develop those colors. You
can't just use the exact same red, the exact same
gray, the exact same blacks and whites. You have to
(02:08):
flex them to work on different materials and that takes
an awful lot of testing and lots of samples flooding
both my house in my office. I've got a crazy
cupboard full of samples upstairs. You want to make it
a comfortable environment. Our brand colors are contemporary, but they're
not necessarily what I'd call comfortable colors. They're quite cold
and harsh. So you want to add in different textures,
(02:29):
lots of different gradients. Whether that be a wood grain
that we introduced or metallic looks, they all ads and
have to blend together.
Juliet Maxim (02:38):
I'm interested. How much does your house look like the
inside of our lovely new trains?
Jason Brandon (02:43):
I'll be honest. Yes. There is a lot of gray
in my house and I use wood grains to break
up that gray. So yes, there is definitely an element
of my taste in there. But then I think my
main objective was to ensure that it was comfortable for
as many people as possible.
Juliet Maxim (02:58):
I've got to ask you, why carpet? Our new trains
have got carpet, which I personally really like, but other
people might think is slightly impractical.
Jason Brandon (03:06):
There's two things really. I mean, one is, and you've
said you like it yourself, and that is because there
is a slightly more luxurious feel about carpet that makes
you feel like you are on a higher class service.
On our class 720 Austin- built trains, the underflow heating
requires a very specific type of flooring, not too thick
of a carpet so that the heating can't get through,
(03:29):
but then also not too thin a lino so that too
much gets through and we end up kind of melting
the glue on the lino. So there's a very specific fabric
called Forbo which is a halfway house between those two ,
while it's also easy to clean.
Juliet Maxim (03:43):
We sat on the seats that we took out to
our road shows. Now I really like these seats. I
love the lumbar support, I find them really comfortable. But
can you tell me a little bit about how you
chose the design for these?
Jason Brandon (03:56):
Yes, so when we were looking at the seats, there's
lots of different elements that we wanted to incorporate. Our in-
city trains have always had popular seats. One of the things that
used to catch people out was the armrest and they
used to have to slide over laps a bit uncomfortably
at times, whereas this was the up and down seat
armrest was very important to make sure we had that.
(04:17):
One of the key features is sometimes you sit in
the seat and you think that's it, but you have
to think about the seat in front of you as well,
textures as well. So we've selected a (inaudible) , well
you can hear my hand rubbing on it now, because it's got a bit of
give to it, which actually adds an extra level of
comfort as well. I've always been a fan of leather in
(04:38):
the correct use. When you have a seat that's all
leather, sometimes you end up sliding off of it, whereas
we've opted just for the headrest, so we've got a
slightly different headrest texture to the rest of the seat,
which adds extra luxury as well. We've actually got the
leather all the way through the train, so we've really
kind of upped our standards out the train. And we
(04:59):
also wanted to make sure that we had seat back
tables as well.
Juliet Maxim (05:02):
That's that special S shape.
Jason Brandon (05:04):
Yeah. That, that S shape's not only good for the person
behind you, but also that is kind of vital for
your lumbar support and good posture on the journey.
Juliet Maxim (05:12):
What about the foam? Because some people seem to think that we
can put in their settee- type comfort on a train
seat, but there are other things to consider aren't there?
Jason Brandon (05:21):
There are, yeah. There's lots of legislation, rigorous fire and
smoke testing, the entire carriage goes through a fire and
smoke test. So the more foam you have in a
seat, the more smoke is emitted. Unfortunately it's that that
kind of triggers those tests and fails the seats. So
we do have to reduce the amount of foam that's
in the seat so that we pass those tests. But
(05:43):
yeah, we try to make up for that in the
fabric choices and also, more importantly, the shape of the seat.
Juliet Maxim (05:48):
And we do get an awful lot of feedback from
customers saying how comfortable the seats are.
Jason Brandon (05:52):
Yeah. I think we get lots of good feedback on that.
Lucy Wright (05:54):
We now go behind the scenes with Rebecca Richardson, our
accessibility manager. Hi Rebecca. Thanks for coming on our podcast.
Rebecca Richardson (06:03):
Thanks for inviting me.
Lucy Wright (06:05):
Can you just tell me a bit about your role please? What it is
that you do?
Rebecca Richardson (06:07):
Yes, so like you said, I'm the accessibility manager and essentially
I'm the gatekeeper of our accessibility policy, which is our
commitment to how we support customers with access requirements. That
means I get involved in every area of the business.
I mean, I work across all the different departments, all
the different teams. We look at policies, projects, explore where
(06:30):
customers might encounter barriers when they travel and try and
unpick that and work to remove them. So it could
be working on rail replacement policy one day or writing
training programs for colleagues the next, or maybe supporting the
fleet team with new train design, that sort of thing.
Lucy Wright (06:47):
It's a really, really important role. And like you said,
it encompasses every aspect of the business and a lot's
changed over the past couple of years, hasn't it? We've
obviously got our new trains. So can you just talk
me through what accessibility features we have on the new trains?
Rebecca Richardson (07:00):
Yeah, sure. So the accessibility of trains is a regulatory
standard and trains are designed according to that. This includes
a lot of technical details, such as lighting, information screens,
things like color contrasts, size of the wheelchair space, for
instance, and even how many wheelchair spaces the train has
to have.
Lucy Wright (07:19):
The new trains have been running now for a couple
of years. So what kind of feedback have you had
from our disabled customers?
Rebecca Richardson (07:24):
The feedback we've had from customers has been really good
actually. And there's a lot about these trains that make
them significantly better than what we were running before. But
from an accessibility point of view, there's no denying that
the level boarding that we've now got at the majority of
the stations that these trains call at is completely transformative
for how people can access rail services more independently. And
(07:47):
so, yeah, it's been really nice to have that feedback.
Lucy Wright (07:50):
How can customers arrange assistance when traveling?
Rebecca Richardson (07:52):
There are lots of different ways, but I would probably
suggest people consult our website. On the front page of
our website there is button for accessibility and it'll take you
through to the pages where there's lots and lots of
information about assisted travel and our accessible travel policy and
how people can find support for their journey. So I
would suggest customers go on the website first and there's
(08:13):
lots of different ways that they can get in touch
with us.
Lucy Wright (08:15):
What's your ultimate goal for making travel accessible? What are you
hoping to do in the future?
Rebecca Richardson (08:19):
Well, I think there's probably an awful lot still to
do. So we've made some really good progress over the
last few years, tackling some of those barriers that people
face when they travel, but there is an awful lot
still to be done both within Greater Anglia and actually
the wider industry. Making rail accessible is more than just
altering the physical infrastructure of a station. It's ensuring everything that
(08:40):
we do from how we manage customer information, how we
maintain facilities such as lifts and toilets, how we sort
our rail replacement, for instance, it's how we do that
with an inclusive mindset and in a way that makes
it accessible for as many people as possible.
Lucy Wright (08:56):
You really have achieved so much in your role. What
is it that you're most proud of?
Rebecca Richardson (09:00):
I think ultimately the thing that I have taken the
most satisfaction from, I suppose, is how I've been able
to personally amplify the voices of disabled people within the
business in a really meaningful and professional and respectful way.
So I've brought in professionals in equality training to support
our training program, communications professionals to help create an accessible
(09:24):
comms strategy. And another project that I worked on in
the same sort of vein during lockdown, and you may
remember, Lucy, I worked with a disability equality expert to
build some webinars for colleagues. We spoke to lots of
disabled people about their experiences of traveling by rail. That
was really good. And it helped us with our training
program for colleagues. That's probably the most satisfying part of
(09:47):
my job is to give a voice to disabled people.
Lucy Wright (09:49):
I do remember the training. I thought the training was really good.
It was so helpful and there were tangible things which
I took changed in the way that I work as
a result of the training and the work that I
do on a lot of our social channels. Thank you
so much for coming on our podcast. Thank you so much for
all the hard work that you do.
Rebecca Richardson (10:04):
Thank you.
Lucy Wright (10:08):
Now it's time for seasonal myth busters. And in this
episode, I'm quizzing Juliet on cold weather. We are very
much in the winter months now, and today we're going
to talk about what winter weather means for the railway.
So Juliet, how do our new trains cope with snow
and ice? And what do we do to prepare for
this kind of weather?
Juliet Maxim (10:25):
We have got some great tech on board. Did you
know, we've got snow brakes and they kick in automatically
in the right conditions. So the brakes come on like
dominoes down the train, one set of wheels after the
other, putting heat into the brakes and keeping them clear
of snow and ice. And we've also got these things
called heated couplers. You join two trains together, and those
(10:48):
are with couplers, and it stops the couplers from getting frozen
so you don't have delays because you can't join the
trains together. Just quite amazing. But we've got some other
really low tech things as well. We've got snow socks
for horns, these are on our old trains, because if
the horns fill up with snow, the horn doesn't work.
If the horn doesn't work, the train has to go
(11:09):
at 20 miles an hour and nobody wants their trains
crawling along, do they? So we've got these special socks
to keep the snow from going into the horns. And
the new trains, I mean, they are incredible. They've been
put through their paces in something called climatic testing, which
is they're put into this horribly cold chamber, you would
hate at Lucy, iced up, snowed up and it makes
(11:32):
sure that the train functions properly in bad weather. But
customers can be toasty on board because we've got modern
heating systems on all of our new trains to keep
everybody nice and warm.
Lucy Wright (11:43):
And how does Greater Anglia prepare for the cold weather?
Juliet Maxim (11:46):
Preparation is absolutely key. We've spent the last few months
drawing up plans for every kind of weather. Winter, the
biggest problem, snow ice, and then a bit of wind
can create blizzard conditions. So we've got plans for our
customer service staff, our train drivers, our control, so that
when the bad weather strikes, we know what we are
(12:07):
doing. We keep a really close eye on the weather
all year round and we have detailed 24 hour forecasts
and then two to five day weather outlooks, working very
closely with Network Rail who run the tracks, the overhead lines, the
points, the signals, all of that sort of thing. When
the temperatures do plummet, and let's hope that doesn't get
(12:27):
too cold this year.=, There's lots of stuff that we
do. We can treat our new trains with stuff called
pre frost and it's like a sticky, bloopy gel that
has a much lower freezing temperature than water. And we
stick it onto the underside of our trains so that when the trains
are rushing along between, say, Norwich and London they don't
get frozen up with ice and snow. I really like
(12:50):
the thermal warning signs that we have in stations which
change color when it's icy. Because, let's face it, you
can't always see ice, it's a bit like black ice,
and the last thing you want to do is go
skidding along the platform.
Lucy Wright (13:02):
As you said, Network Rail, they have responsibility for track
and infrastructure. Whereas our responsibility focuses more on the actual
running of the trains and the managing of the stations. So what
does Network Rail do to prepare for snow and ice?
Juliet Maxim (13:14):
Oh wow. Network Tail have some really cool bits of kit.
Remember the snowplow? Oh the snowplow, in Beast from the
East videos of the snowplow just went viral. They are
incredible. They go along the track and they just blast
all of the snow out of the way, making an
amazing sound as they do it. But did you know,
(13:35):
they've also got a train called an ice maiden? And
that's for knocking all of the icicles off tunnels and
equipment. And in fact, as well as the ice maiden,
they have icicle patrols. And so these Network Rail engineers
and workers go around the system, making sure there aren't any
icicles, clearing all the points. And the points actually have
(13:56):
heaters as well to keep them warm so they don't
freeze up. Because if the points freeze up, the trains
go in the wrong direction.
Lucy Wright (14:03):
You mentioned there, the snowplow and the long icicles. And
we've had those in Ipswich tunnel. I remember it really
well. So we'll put a link to some of these
pictures and videos in the show notes. Are there any
misconceptions about snow and ice on the railways that you'd like
to correct?
Juliet Maxim (14:18):
I'd just like to remind people that our railway is
built for our weather. We're not Germany. We're not Canada.
We're not used to extreme temperatures. We have a bit
of snow and ice maybe for one week a year,
if we are lucky we don't get any at all
in East Anglia. Just as schools close, roads clog up
(14:38):
with congestion, remember a few years back when everybody was
abandoning their cars on the M 11, the railway has
to take precautions as well. But the thing that we
can guarantee is that we will always let you know
of any changes to the service as a result of
the weather. And just keep an eye on our website,
keep an eye on our social media. We'll let you
(15:01):
know. Always, always check before you travel. That's our advice
at all times of year, but especially in the winter.
Lucy Wright (15:08):
Brilliant. Well, let's hope this winter is kind to us
and not too harsh. Thank you so much Juliet and
I look forward to speaking to you in the spring
where we will be back to talk about April showers,
flooding, and all types of challenges that are associated with
spring weather.
Juliet Maxim (15:26):
It's time now for greener Anglia, and joining us is
Martin Beable, Engineering Director at Greater Anglia. Hi, how are you?
Martin Beable (15:33):
Hi Julia. I'm very good, thanks. How are you?
Juliet Maxim (15:35):
Oh, fine, thanks. Really good to have you as a
guest. So can you just tell me a little bit about your role please?
Martin Beable (15:41):
Yeah, of course. I'm Engineering Director, so I'm responsible for
providing trains to the network, the right amount of them,
safe, reliable every day so that our passenger just can get to and from where
they want to go. And I'm also, excitingly, responsible for
buying the new trains that are rolling out across the route at the moment,
which is a lot of fun and keeps me entertained,
keeps me off the streets and it's a really good
(16:02):
job. I really enjoy it.
Juliet Maxim (16:03):
Wow. Pretty broad role there.
Martin Beable (16:05):
Absolutely.
Juliet Maxim (16:05):
And very important, very important. We are here today
to talk about our green features on our trains and our trains
have some amazing green features, but I'm just interested, which
do you think are the coolest?
Martin Beable (16:18):
As a man nearing 40, I'm not sure I'm in
a brilliant position to be the judge of what's cool,
but I'll give it a go. We've got a fleet
of new bi- mode trains. Now those of you that have been traveling
on our network around Norfolk and Suffolk, especially, will have
seen these. They're called bi- modes because they can use
two types of power. So diesel and electric. Electric can
(16:38):
be drawn from the overhead lines. So the diesel engines
they've got are built to modern standards, which really limits
the environmental impact of them, and then when the trains
run onto areas of the network where there's overhead wires,
the trains can use the electric systems on board which
are really green. As efficient as you can get. So
effectively, our drivers can make sure that they're always selecting the
(17:00):
most appropriate type of power to use and can go
for the greenest. They're the only rural trains like it
in the entire country at the moment, which is something
I think we should be proud of.
Juliet Maxim (17:10):
Oh, absolutely. That's incredible. It really is.
Martin Beable (17:13):
They've also got the capability to fit batteries later in
life. So if, say for example, battery technology gets better...
I know that lots of people will think, " Well, batteries
are great now, aren't they? I see the Teslas driving
up and down the street every day." And batteries are
good and getting better, but when we're talking about moving
trains that are potentially hundreds of tons, you just don't
(17:34):
have the right level of what we'd call energy density
in a battery. In other words, you'd need a massive
battery to keep a train like ours running it all
day. But in the future, we expect batteries to get
smaller and better. And therefore we hope to be able
to replace the engines on some of our trains in
the future with batteries which will help them become even
more greener. But we've also got some fantastic stuff on
(17:56):
these new trains here, like regen brakes. Where we've got trains
that are being powered by overhead line electricity the trains
normally have, well the trains do have, electric motors which
they use to power the wheels. So the power comes in
from the overhead lines, through a transformer, and then we
use it to power the motors. So when we're breaking,
(18:17):
we stop powering those wheels and those motors effectively turn
into generators. So they generate electricity. So the momentum that
the train has got, the train uses that momentum effectively
to generate electricity and put it back into the overhead
lines. Now that means that the trains that are coming
up the network behind it can use that electricity. And
if you are using a traditional, old diesel train or
(18:38):
an old electric train, you won't have that capability. So
it really is pretty incredible and a really efficient way
to operate a train and to travel. And so all
of our new train have got that capability, which I think
is fantastic.
Juliet Maxim (18:51):
Gosh, these are just such incredible energy saving features. Is
there anything else on your cool list?
Martin Beable (18:58):
Well, it's a little bit less cool, I think, but
they're actually designed to be a lot lighter as well.
Now, like I say, it's not a really snazzy feature,
but it's a really simple, important, basic feature which helps
to limit the amount of electricity we have to use,
the amount of power we have to use to move
the trains around. Because of course, if they're lighter it
takes less effort to move them around. And we've done
(19:19):
that with the manufacturers through a range of different ways,
but primarily a lot of our old trains were made
out of steel. The new ones are made out of aluminum.
Juliet Maxim (19:28):
Oh, just brilliant. So how much does thinking about the environment
and measures to combat climate change come into the decisions
that you are making every day? Has it changed the
way that engineering in the railway is done?
Martin Beable (19:43):
Absolutely. So if you were to pull out a copy
of the specification that we wrote for these trains, energy
saving and reducing the carbon footprint of the trains was
written through it like a stick of rock. You would
see that the trains were designed so that they could
easily recycled at end of life. Just for instance. They
were designed to try and be as energy efficient as
(20:03):
they can be. They were designed to reuse energy, as
we've already talked about, when it's at all possible. But also,
it's not just the design of trains, it's how we use
them as well. So we're always looking to minimize the
amount of movement of empty trains around the network, so
to get them into the right place for the next
day, we try and reduce that, all the way through
(20:24):
to making sure we're managing our waste and trying to
recycle at the depots as well. It's a really core part
of what we do and who we are. And we know
that it's really important to our passengers and it's getting
even more important to the UK public and to the world
as a whole. So we need to play our part
in making sure we're focusing on our environment and sustainability as well.
Juliet Maxim (20:44):
That's brilliant. And of course we play our part and
it means that people choosing to go by train are
reducing their carbon footprint more and more as we make
improvements and we cut our own carbon footprint.
Martin Beable (20:58):
Absolutely.
Lucy Wright (21:02):
We're joined now by Kens Strong, Greater Anglia's resident fares
guru. Ken, welcome back.
Ken Strong (21:06):
Thank you for having me back.
Lucy Wright (21:08):
Back in October, we heard from you about the benefits
of advanced tickets. Christmas is coming up fast now, and
I just wanted to speak to you about how our
Group Save and London Evening Out and London Night Out tickets
can help people with their holiday plans. So when traveling
in groups, is it cheaper for people to buy tickets
separately or together?
Ken Strong (21:26):
We have a very good offer where people traveling in
groups of between three and nine people can buy tickets
together and save a third on each ticket. So that's
obviously worth doing.
Lucy Wright (21:36):
And how can people do that? Is there an option when
people go to book their ticket?
Ken Strong (21:40):
If you're booking online and you go to the rail
card options, there is one of the options is for
Group Save, as the offer is known. And you just
put in one lot of Group Save and you and you get the discount
on your group. Once you've selected the number of passengers,
obviously it won't let you do it if you don't
put in that you're three or more people.
Lucy Wright (21:56):
So no need to buy a rail card or anything
like that, just pop in that there's more than three
of you traveling and you can get Group Save.
Ken Strong (22:01):
Easy as pie. You can buy it from the ticket
office, you can buy it online. You can buy it
on the app. Easy as pie, just specify how many
people are traveling and select the Group Save discount. And
another useful tip, if it's two adults and one child,
you can make the child an honorary adult, just select
three adults, and then you only pay for the two
adults and the child, in effect, is free. So that's a
useful little tip as well.
Lucy Wright (22:22):
That's a great tip. And it's Christmas shopping season and
people are now enjoying mini- breaks after having limited travel
during the pandemic. So can you just tell me a
bit about the London Overnight ticket and the London Evening
Out as well please?
Ken Strong (22:35):
We have a couple of offers that the London Evening
Out and the London Night Out, which are available on quite
a lot of our long distance routes into London from
north Suffolk and north Essex and Cambridgeshire. The London Evening
Out ticket is, as it suggests, going for an evening
out in London. So you book a specific train to go
out and then the return is flexible and you can
(22:57):
go back anytime that evening. The first train you can
book out is right about 14
the afternoon. Obviously it varies depending where you're coming from.
And then you can go back on any train apart from
in the main high rush hour between five o'clock, seven
o'clock. But anytime other than that, you can come back.
So you can go to London, have a meal, see
(23:18):
a show, have a few drinks, whatever you want to
do, and come back that same evening. And it's cheaper
than buying an ordinary day return. The London Night Out,
also as the name suggests, is when you're actually going
out for the whole night and coming back the following
morning, either staying in the hotel or just going to a
club and spending the whole night in a club and
(23:38):
doing what you do during the night, as people do.
And that one you can come back anytime the following
morning from 08
anytime at weekends up till 12 o'clock. And again, it's
anytime after roughly 2
on the afternoon of the first day.
Lucy Wright (23:57):
That sounds brilliant. Thank you so much, Ken.
Ken Strong (23:59):
Thank you.
Juliet Maxim (24:03):
Up next is travel surgery where Lucy and I sit
down with a special guest to pick the perfect destination
on our network for them.
Lucy Wright (24:10):
And today we're joined by voiceover artist, Julie Berry. Her
voice is heard across the country, including on our trains.
As well as doing announcements for Greater Anglia, Julie is
the voice of the Piccadilly Line and for all train lines
over Southern England. And she's also worked for brands such
as British Airways, CNN, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer. Hers is
definitely a voice you'll recognize.
Juliet Maxim (24:29):
Hello, Julie, how are you?
Julie Berry (24:31):
Hello there. I'm very well indeed, thank you.
Juliet Maxim (24:33):
To kick it off, I wondered if you could describe
your role for us, for someone who's never heard of
voice acting.
Julie Berry (24:38):
Well, voice acting encompasses all sorts of things because you
might be the disembodied voice on a television advert, or
on a radio advert, or you might be the narrator
on a documentary, or you could be doing a corporate
narrative, but basically it's when just the voice is involved,
no body needed.
Lucy Wright (24:58):
And how does voice recording work? Do you spend the
whole day in the studio listing off Greater Anglia station
names? How does it work?
Julie Berry (25:05):
It's a largely put together by a super computer. So
you'll take a short phrase, for example, change here, and
that will be put together by the computer with something
like, for stations to, wherever. So you've got all those
sort of little bits. The front four coaches are for
somewhere and it'll list a load of things, the rear
(25:28):
four coaches are for wherever. This service is for, it
will be a phrase and then all the stations get
recorded separately in different inflections, depending on where they are
on the line. For example, say, you're coming out of
London, Victoria, you might go through places like Pulborough, Billingshurst,
Horsham, there's more to come, you hear that inflection, and
(25:52):
then Portsmouth and Portsmouth Harbor or whatever is at the
end of the line. Once upon a time, we used
to do three different inflections. When I first started doing
this back in the '80s there would be this station, this
station, this station, then there'd be a penultimate one, this
station, and this station. So I don't know if you can hear the different.
Juliet Maxim (26:14):
Yeah, I can. I'm going to listen out for that next
time I'm on the train.
Lucy Wright (26:17):
Julie, do you live on Piccadilly Line?
Julie Berry (26:19):
I do. I actually do. And that's partly why I
did the job.
Lucy Wright (26:24):
I love this.
Julie Berry (26:25):
I know, I know. I hear me all the time.
Juliet Maxim (26:29):
So just do you not mind the sound of your own voice?
Julie Berry (26:31):
I mean, I not only have a trained voice, but
I then trained other voices for five years and you
learn your craft. You really learn your craft and what
your voice will and won't do. And mostly I've had
very, very nice feedback about my voice. The only time
I didn't was when did a job for British Telecom
at the end of the eighties which was being the
voice model for director inquiries, the first automated director inquiries
(26:55):
when there was only BT and I had to do
all the Welsh exchange names. But one of the newspapers
down in Cardiff or something, when the AVR was rolled
out there, some journalists said that I sounded like Margaret
Thatcher. I don't think so.
Lucy Wright (27:12):
You don't sound anything like Margaret Thatcher. No. And outside of voice acting, have you got
any other creative pursuits that you enjoy?
Julie Berry (27:21):
Well, I wrote a book called Ray's Game about a
man called Ray Haff, which I published under the name
of Jools Berry. And that's quite fun.
Juliet Maxim (27:29):
Oh, it's just fascinating hearing about your career and how
you got into it and all the different things you've done.
But we must ask you some questions about what you
like to do, because we want to send you somewhere
on our network. When you are recording announcements of station
names, do you ever think, " Hmm, I like the sound
of that place. I'd like to go there."
Julie Berry (27:48):
Oh yes. There are always places that sound rather exotic
and one of them is in Norfolk, Sheringham. I've always thought, "
Sounds like it must be very beautiful," somehow.
Juliet Maxim (27:57):
It's certainly a very quaint little coastal town, gorgeous scenery,
clifftop walks.
Julie Berry (28:03):
Sounds good
Juliet Maxim (28:05):
In your spare time. What type of things do you like to do? What do you
like to do for fun?
Julie Berry (28:09):
In the country I love to get out and walk
on the downs in Sussex, if I'm down that way.
I love a good hike up a hill.
Juliet Maxim (28:16):
Ah, well, we've got a lot of countryside in East
Anglia and I think we've got something just perfect for
you, actually. You could catch a train to Sheringham, you
must go and see it, you've wondered what it's like,
you've announced it often enough, you must go and see
it for yourself. And then you can walk the coastal
path, part of the Norfolk Coastal Path to Cromer which
(28:40):
is another quaint seaside town, wonderful fish and chip, Cromer
crabs. If you go in the summer there's even goats
on the hills.
Julie Berry (28:49):
Wonderful.
Juliet Maxim (28:50):
And it's just a four and a half mile walk. So not too taxing, but
wonderful views over the North Sea, which really does look
blue on a beautiful sunny day. So yeah, let's send
you a ticket to Sheringham and we'll send you details
of the walk.
Julie Berry (29:05):
That sounds absolutely wonderful. I would love that. Thank you.
Lucy Wright (29:10):
That's it for us for this episode, we hope you've enjoyed listening
and exploring more of what makes Greater Anglia tick.
Juliet Maxim (29:16):
If you've enjoyed this episode, please do leave us a
rating or review on your podcast platform and tweet us
at Greater Anglia PR
Lucy Wright (29:23):
Life On Rails releases quarterly, so be sure to check
back next time for episode three.
Juliet Maxim (29:28):
In the meantime, though, follow or subscribe to the podcast
for free so you never miss an episode and visit
our website at www. greateranglia. co. uk/ podcast for more information.
Lucy Wright (29:42):
Thanks for joining us. Bye.
Hello, I'm Lucy Wright.
Juliet Maxim (00:04):
I'm Juliet Maxim, and welcome back to Life on Rails.
Lucy Wright (00:07):
We both work in PR at Greater Anglia and in
this podcast, we want to take you behind the curtain at
one of the UK's biggest train companies.
Juliet Maxim (00:15):
We're talking to all kinds of staff at Greater Anglia,
those who work in stations, depos and on trains, head
office support staff, and some of the biggest names in
the train world or local celebrities.
Lucy Wright (00:26):
And in this winter episode, we speak to Judy Barry,
one of the voices for Greater Anglia's announcements.
Juliet Maxim (00:32):
So you're coming out of London, Victoria, you might go
through places like Pulborough, Billingshurst, Horsham, there's more to come,
you hear that inflection, and then Portsmouth and Portsmouth Harbor
Lucy Wright (00:43):
Accessibility manager, Rebecca Richardson.
Rebecca Richardson (00:45):
I've brought in professionals in equality training, communications professionals to
help create an accessible comms strategy. That's probably the most
satisfying part of my job is to give a voice
to disabled people,
Lucy Wright (00:58):
Our resident fares guru, Ken Strong.
Ken Strong (01:00):
A London night out is when you are actually going out for
the whole night and coming back the following morning, either
staying in a hotel or just going to a club and spending the
whole night in a club and doing what you do
during the night as people do.
Lucy Wright (01:11):
And Martin Beable talking about the green features on our
new trains.
Martin Beable (01:14):
We've got a fleet of new bi- mode trains. They're
called bi- modes because they can use two types of
power, so diesel and electric. When the trains run onto
areas of the network where there's overhead wires, the trains
can use the electric systems on board, which are really green.
Lucy Wright (01:30):
To kick things off, though, we are going to speak to Jason Brandon, our brand manager in charge
of our trains designs.
Juliet Maxim (01:37):
Jason, how are you? Thanks very much for coming on.
Jason Brandon (01:39):
Thank you. I'm very good, very good.
Juliet Maxim (01:42):
How did you decide what color the new trains were
going to be and what they would look like inside?
Jason Brandon (01:47):
Yeah, it's a good question. It is a blank canvas
to some degree, but there are certain factors which kind
of push you in certain directions. So first and foremost
is the brand, the brand color palette, and that is
set. But then you have to develop those colors. You
can't just use the exact same red, the exact same
gray, the exact same blacks and whites. You have to
(02:08):
flex them to work on different materials and that takes
an awful lot of testing and lots of samples flooding
both my house in my office. I've got a crazy
cupboard full of samples upstairs. You want to make it
a comfortable environment. Our brand colors are contemporary, but they're
not necessarily what I'd call comfortable colors. They're quite cold
and harsh. So you want to add in different textures,
(02:29):
lots of different gradients. Whether that be a wood grain
that we introduced or metallic looks, they all ads and
have to blend together.
Juliet Maxim (02:38):
I'm interested. How much does your house look like the
inside of our lovely new trains?
Jason Brandon (02:43):
I'll be honest. Yes. There is a lot of gray
in my house and I use wood grains to break
up that gray. So yes, there is definitely an element
of my taste in there. But then I think my
main objective was to ensure that it was comfortable for
as many people as possible.
Juliet Maxim (02:58):
I've got to ask you, why carpet? Our new trains
have got carpet, which I personally really like, but other
people might think is slightly impractical.
Jason Brandon (03:06):
There's two things really. I mean, one is, and you've
said you like it yourself, and that is because there
is a slightly more luxurious feel about carpet that makes
you feel like you are on a higher class service.
On our class 720 Austin- built trains, the underflow heating
requires a very specific type of flooring, not too thick
of a carpet so that the heating can't get through,
(03:29):
but then also not too thin a lino so that too
much gets through and we end up kind of melting
the glue on the lino. So there's a very specific fabric
called Forbo which is a halfway house between those two ,
while it's also easy to clean.
Juliet Maxim (03:43):
We sat on the seats that we took out to
our road shows. Now I really like these seats. I
love the lumbar support, I find them really comfortable. But
can you tell me a little bit about how you
chose the design for these?
Jason Brandon (03:56):
Yes, so when we were looking at the seats, there's
lots of different elements that we wanted to incorporate. Our in-
city trains have always had popular seats. One of the things that
used to catch people out was the armrest and they
used to have to slide over laps a bit uncomfortably
at times, whereas this was the up and down seat
armrest was very important to make sure we had that.
(04:17):
One of the key features is sometimes you sit in
the seat and you think that's it, but you have
to think about the seat in front of you as well,
textures as well. So we've selected a (inaudible) , well
you can hear my hand rubbing on it now, because it's got a bit of
give to it, which actually adds an extra level of
comfort as well. I've always been a fan of leather in
(04:38):
the correct use. When you have a seat that's all
leather, sometimes you end up sliding off of it, whereas
we've opted just for the headrest, so we've got a
slightly different headrest texture to the rest of the seat,
which adds extra luxury as well. We've actually got the
leather all the way through the train, so we've really
kind of upped our standards out the train. And we
(04:59):
also wanted to make sure that we had seat back
tables as well.
Juliet Maxim (05:02):
That's that special S shape.
Jason Brandon (05:04):
Yeah. That, that S shape's not only good for the person
behind you, but also that is kind of vital for
your lumbar support and good posture on the journey.
Juliet Maxim (05:12):
What about the foam? Because some people seem to think that we
can put in their settee- type comfort on a train
seat, but there are other things to consider aren't there?
Jason Brandon (05:21):
There are, yeah. There's lots of legislation, rigorous fire and
smoke testing, the entire carriage goes through a fire and
smoke test. So the more foam you have in a
seat, the more smoke is emitted. Unfortunately it's that that
kind of triggers those tests and fails the seats. So
we do have to reduce the amount of foam that's
in the seat so that we pass those tests. But
(05:43):
yeah, we try to make up for that in the
fabric choices and also, more importantly, the shape of the seat.
Juliet Maxim (05:48):
And we do get an awful lot of feedback from
customers saying how comfortable the seats are.
Jason Brandon (05:52):
Yeah. I think we get lots of good feedback on that.
Lucy Wright (05:54):
We now go behind the scenes with Rebecca Richardson, our
accessibility manager. Hi Rebecca. Thanks for coming on our podcast.
Rebecca Richardson (06:03):
Thanks for inviting me.
Lucy Wright (06:05):
Can you just tell me a bit about your role please? What it is
that you do?
Rebecca Richardson (06:07):
Yes, so like you said, I'm the accessibility manager and essentially
I'm the gatekeeper of our accessibility policy, which is our
commitment to how we support customers with access requirements. That
means I get involved in every area of the business.
I mean, I work across all the different departments, all
the different teams. We look at policies, projects, explore where
(06:30):
customers might encounter barriers when they travel and try and
unpick that and work to remove them. So it could
be working on rail replacement policy one day or writing
training programs for colleagues the next, or maybe supporting the
fleet team with new train design, that sort of thing.
Lucy Wright (06:47):
It's a really, really important role. And like you said,
it encompasses every aspect of the business and a lot's
changed over the past couple of years, hasn't it? We've
obviously got our new trains. So can you just talk
me through what accessibility features we have on the new trains?
Rebecca Richardson (07:00):
Yeah, sure. So the accessibility of trains is a regulatory
standard and trains are designed according to that. This includes
a lot of technical details, such as lighting, information screens,
things like color contrasts, size of the wheelchair space, for
instance, and even how many wheelchair spaces the train has
to have.
Lucy Wright (07:19):
The new trains have been running now for a couple
of years. So what kind of feedback have you had
from our disabled customers?
Rebecca Richardson (07:24):
The feedback we've had from customers has been really good
actually. And there's a lot about these trains that make
them significantly better than what we were running before. But
from an accessibility point of view, there's no denying that
the level boarding that we've now got at the majority of
the stations that these trains call at is completely transformative
for how people can access rail services more independently. And
(07:47):
so, yeah, it's been really nice to have that feedback.
Lucy Wright (07:50):
How can customers arrange assistance when traveling?
Rebecca Richardson (07:52):
There are lots of different ways, but I would probably
suggest people consult our website. On the front page of
our website there is button for accessibility and it'll take you
through to the pages where there's lots and lots of
information about assisted travel and our accessible travel policy and
how people can find support for their journey. So I
would suggest customers go on the website first and there's
(08:13):
lots of different ways that they can get in touch
with us.
Lucy Wright (08:15):
What's your ultimate goal for making travel accessible? What are you
hoping to do in the future?
Rebecca Richardson (08:19):
Well, I think there's probably an awful lot still to
do. So we've made some really good progress over the
last few years, tackling some of those barriers that people
face when they travel, but there is an awful lot
still to be done both within Greater Anglia and actually
the wider industry. Making rail accessible is more than just
altering the physical infrastructure of a station. It's ensuring everything that
(08:40):
we do from how we manage customer information, how we
maintain facilities such as lifts and toilets, how we sort
our rail replacement, for instance, it's how we do that
with an inclusive mindset and in a way that makes
it accessible for as many people as possible.
Lucy Wright (08:56):
You really have achieved so much in your role. What
is it that you're most proud of?
Rebecca Richardson (09:00):
I think ultimately the thing that I have taken the
most satisfaction from, I suppose, is how I've been able
to personally amplify the voices of disabled people within the
business in a really meaningful and professional and respectful way.
So I've brought in professionals in equality training to support
our training program, communications professionals to help create an accessible
(09:24):
comms strategy. And another project that I worked on in
the same sort of vein during lockdown, and you may
remember, Lucy, I worked with a disability equality expert to
build some webinars for colleagues. We spoke to lots of
disabled people about their experiences of traveling by rail. That
was really good. And it helped us with our training
program for colleagues. That's probably the most satisfying part of
(09:47):
my job is to give a voice to disabled people.
Lucy Wright (09:49):
I do remember the training. I thought the training was really good.
It was so helpful and there were tangible things which
I took changed in the way that I work as
a result of the training and the work that I
do on a lot of our social channels. Thank you
so much for coming on our podcast. Thank you so much for
all the hard work that you do.
Rebecca Richardson (10:04):
Thank you.
Lucy Wright (10:08):
Now it's time for seasonal myth busters. And in this
episode, I'm quizzing Juliet on cold weather. We are very
much in the winter months now, and today we're going
to talk about what winter weather means for the railway.
So Juliet, how do our new trains cope with snow
and ice? And what do we do to prepare for
this kind of weather?
Juliet Maxim (10:25):
We have got some great tech on board. Did you
know, we've got snow brakes and they kick in automatically
in the right conditions. So the brakes come on like
dominoes down the train, one set of wheels after the
other, putting heat into the brakes and keeping them clear
of snow and ice. And we've also got these things
called heated couplers. You join two trains together, and those
(10:48):
are with couplers, and it stops the couplers from getting frozen
so you don't have delays because you can't join the
trains together. Just quite amazing. But we've got some other
really low tech things as well. We've got snow socks
for horns, these are on our old trains, because if
the horns fill up with snow, the horn doesn't work.
If the horn doesn't work, the train has to go
(11:09):
at 20 miles an hour and nobody wants their trains
crawling along, do they? So we've got these special socks
to keep the snow from going into the horns. And
the new trains, I mean, they are incredible. They've been
put through their paces in something called climatic testing, which
is they're put into this horribly cold chamber, you would
hate at Lucy, iced up, snowed up and it makes
(11:32):
sure that the train functions properly in bad weather. But
customers can be toasty on board because we've got modern
heating systems on all of our new trains to keep
everybody nice and warm.
Lucy Wright (11:43):
And how does Greater Anglia prepare for the cold weather?
Juliet Maxim (11:46):
Preparation is absolutely key. We've spent the last few months
drawing up plans for every kind of weather. Winter, the
biggest problem, snow ice, and then a bit of wind
can create blizzard conditions. So we've got plans for our
customer service staff, our train drivers, our control, so that
when the bad weather strikes, we know what we are
(12:07):
doing. We keep a really close eye on the weather
all year round and we have detailed 24 hour forecasts
and then two to five day weather outlooks, working very
closely with Network Rail who run the tracks, the overhead lines, the
points, the signals, all of that sort of thing. When
the temperatures do plummet, and let's hope that doesn't get
(12:27):
too cold this year.=, There's lots of stuff that we
do. We can treat our new trains with stuff called
pre frost and it's like a sticky, bloopy gel that
has a much lower freezing temperature than water. And we
stick it onto the underside of our trains so that when the trains
are rushing along between, say, Norwich and London they don't
get frozen up with ice and snow. I really like
(12:50):
the thermal warning signs that we have in stations which
change color when it's icy. Because, let's face it, you
can't always see ice, it's a bit like black ice,
and the last thing you want to do is go
skidding along the platform.
Lucy Wright (13:02):
As you said, Network Rail, they have responsibility for track
and infrastructure. Whereas our responsibility focuses more on the actual
running of the trains and the managing of the stations. So what
does Network Rail do to prepare for snow and ice?
Juliet Maxim (13:14):
Oh wow. Network Tail have some really cool bits of kit.
Remember the snowplow? Oh the snowplow, in Beast from the
East videos of the snowplow just went viral. They are
incredible. They go along the track and they just blast
all of the snow out of the way, making an
amazing sound as they do it. But did you know,
(13:35):
they've also got a train called an ice maiden? And
that's for knocking all of the icicles off tunnels and
equipment. And in fact, as well as the ice maiden,
they have icicle patrols. And so these Network Rail engineers
and workers go around the system, making sure there aren't any
icicles, clearing all the points. And the points actually have
(13:56):
heaters as well to keep them warm so they don't
freeze up. Because if the points freeze up, the trains
go in the wrong direction.
Lucy Wright (14:03):
You mentioned there, the snowplow and the long icicles. And
we've had those in Ipswich tunnel. I remember it really
well. So we'll put a link to some of these
pictures and videos in the show notes. Are there any
misconceptions about snow and ice on the railways that you'd like
to correct?
Juliet Maxim (14:18):
I'd just like to remind people that our railway is
built for our weather. We're not Germany. We're not Canada.
We're not used to extreme temperatures. We have a bit
of snow and ice maybe for one week a year,
if we are lucky we don't get any at all
in East Anglia. Just as schools close, roads clog up
(14:38):
with congestion, remember a few years back when everybody was
abandoning their cars on the M 11, the railway has
to take precautions as well. But the thing that we
can guarantee is that we will always let you know
of any changes to the service as a result of
the weather. And just keep an eye on our website,
keep an eye on our social media. We'll let you
(15:01):
know. Always, always check before you travel. That's our advice
at all times of year, but especially in the winter.
Lucy Wright (15:08):
Brilliant. Well, let's hope this winter is kind to us
and not too harsh. Thank you so much Juliet and
I look forward to speaking to you in the spring
where we will be back to talk about April showers,
flooding, and all types of challenges that are associated with
spring weather.
Juliet Maxim (15:26):
It's time now for greener Anglia, and joining us is
Martin Beable, Engineering Director at Greater Anglia. Hi, how are you?
Martin Beable (15:33):
Hi Julia. I'm very good, thanks. How are you?
Juliet Maxim (15:35):
Oh, fine, thanks. Really good to have you as a
guest. So can you just tell me a little bit about your role please?
Martin Beable (15:41):
Yeah, of course. I'm Engineering Director, so I'm responsible for
providing trains to the network, the right amount of them,
safe, reliable every day so that our passenger just can get to and from where
they want to go. And I'm also, excitingly, responsible for
buying the new trains that are rolling out across the route at the moment,
which is a lot of fun and keeps me entertained,
keeps me off the streets and it's a really good
(16:02):
job. I really enjoy it.
Juliet Maxim (16:03):
Wow. Pretty broad role there.
Martin Beable (16:05):
Absolutely.
Juliet Maxim (16:05):
And very important, very important. We are here today
to talk about our green features on our trains and our trains
have some amazing green features, but I'm just interested, which
do you think are the coolest?
Martin Beable (16:18):
As a man nearing 40, I'm not sure I'm in
a brilliant position to be the judge of what's cool,
but I'll give it a go. We've got a fleet
of new bi- mode trains. Now those of you that have been traveling
on our network around Norfolk and Suffolk, especially, will have
seen these. They're called bi- modes because they can use
two types of power. So diesel and electric. Electric can
(16:38):
be drawn from the overhead lines. So the diesel engines
they've got are built to modern standards, which really limits
the environmental impact of them, and then when the trains
run onto areas of the network where there's overhead wires,
the trains can use the electric systems on board which
are really green. As efficient as you can get. So
effectively, our drivers can make sure that they're always selecting the
(17:00):
most appropriate type of power to use and can go
for the greenest. They're the only rural trains like it
in the entire country at the moment, which is something
I think we should be proud of.
Juliet Maxim (17:10):
Oh, absolutely. That's incredible. It really is.
Martin Beable (17:13):
They've also got the capability to fit batteries later in
life. So if, say for example, battery technology gets better...
I know that lots of people will think, " Well, batteries
are great now, aren't they? I see the Teslas driving
up and down the street every day." And batteries are
good and getting better, but when we're talking about moving
trains that are potentially hundreds of tons, you just don't
(17:34):
have the right level of what we'd call energy density
in a battery. In other words, you'd need a massive
battery to keep a train like ours running it all
day. But in the future, we expect batteries to get
smaller and better. And therefore we hope to be able
to replace the engines on some of our trains in
the future with batteries which will help them become even
more greener. But we've also got some fantastic stuff on
(17:56):
these new trains here, like regen brakes. Where we've got trains
that are being powered by overhead line electricity the trains
normally have, well the trains do have, electric motors which
they use to power the wheels. So the power comes in
from the overhead lines, through a transformer, and then we
use it to power the motors. So when we're breaking,
(18:17):
we stop powering those wheels and those motors effectively turn
into generators. So they generate electricity. So the momentum that
the train has got, the train uses that momentum effectively
to generate electricity and put it back into the overhead
lines. Now that means that the trains that are coming
up the network behind it can use that electricity. And
if you are using a traditional, old diesel train or
(18:38):
an old electric train, you won't have that capability. So
it really is pretty incredible and a really efficient way
to operate a train and to travel. And so all
of our new train have got that capability, which I think
is fantastic.
Juliet Maxim (18:51):
Gosh, these are just such incredible energy saving features. Is
there anything else on your cool list?
Martin Beable (18:58):
Well, it's a little bit less cool, I think, but
they're actually designed to be a lot lighter as well.
Now, like I say, it's not a really snazzy feature,
but it's a really simple, important, basic feature which helps
to limit the amount of electricity we have to use,
the amount of power we have to use to move
the trains around. Because of course, if they're lighter it
takes less effort to move them around. And we've done
(19:19):
that with the manufacturers through a range of different ways,
but primarily a lot of our old trains were made
out of steel. The new ones are made out of aluminum.
Juliet Maxim (19:28):
Oh, just brilliant. So how much does thinking about the environment
and measures to combat climate change come into the decisions
that you are making every day? Has it changed the
way that engineering in the railway is done?
Martin Beable (19:43):
Absolutely. So if you were to pull out a copy
of the specification that we wrote for these trains, energy
saving and reducing the carbon footprint of the trains was
written through it like a stick of rock. You would
see that the trains were designed so that they could
easily recycled at end of life. Just for instance. They
were designed to try and be as energy efficient as
(20:03):
they can be. They were designed to reuse energy, as
we've already talked about, when it's at all possible. But also,
it's not just the design of trains, it's how we use
them as well. So we're always looking to minimize the
amount of movement of empty trains around the network, so
to get them into the right place for the next
day, we try and reduce that, all the way through
(20:24):
to making sure we're managing our waste and trying to
recycle at the depots as well. It's a really core part
of what we do and who we are. And we know
that it's really important to our passengers and it's getting
even more important to the UK public and to the world
as a whole. So we need to play our part
in making sure we're focusing on our environment and sustainability as well.
Juliet Maxim (20:44):
That's brilliant. And of course we play our part and
it means that people choosing to go by train are
reducing their carbon footprint more and more as we make
improvements and we cut our own carbon footprint.
Martin Beable (20:58):
Absolutely.
Lucy Wright (21:02):
We're joined now by Kens Strong, Greater Anglia's resident fares
guru. Ken, welcome back.
Ken Strong (21:06):
Thank you for having me back.
Lucy Wright (21:08):
Back in October, we heard from you about the benefits
of advanced tickets. Christmas is coming up fast now, and
I just wanted to speak to you about how our
Group Save and London Evening Out and London Night Out tickets
can help people with their holiday plans. So when traveling
in groups, is it cheaper for people to buy tickets
separately or together?
Ken Strong (21:26):
We have a very good offer where people traveling in
groups of between three and nine people can buy tickets
together and save a third on each ticket. So that's
obviously worth doing.
Lucy Wright (21:36):
And how can people do that? Is there an option when
people go to book their ticket?
Ken Strong (21:40):
If you're booking online and you go to the rail
card options, there is one of the options is for
Group Save, as the offer is known. And you just
put in one lot of Group Save and you and you get the discount
on your group. Once you've selected the number of passengers,
obviously it won't let you do it if you don't
put in that you're three or more people.
Lucy Wright (21:56):
So no need to buy a rail card or anything
like that, just pop in that there's more than three
of you traveling and you can get Group Save.
Ken Strong (22:01):
Easy as pie. You can buy it from the ticket
office, you can buy it online. You can buy it
on the app. Easy as pie, just specify how many
people are traveling and select the Group Save discount. And
another useful tip, if it's two adults and one child,
you can make the child an honorary adult, just select
three adults, and then you only pay for the two
adults and the child, in effect, is free. So that's a
useful little tip as well.
Lucy Wright (22:22):
That's a great tip. And it's Christmas shopping season and
people are now enjoying mini- breaks after having limited travel
during the pandemic. So can you just tell me a
bit about the London Overnight ticket and the London Evening
Out as well please?
Ken Strong (22:35):
We have a couple of offers that the London Evening
Out and the London Night Out, which are available on quite
a lot of our long distance routes into London from
north Suffolk and north Essex and Cambridgeshire. The London Evening
Out ticket is, as it suggests, going for an evening
out in London. So you book a specific train to go
out and then the return is flexible and you can
(22:57):
go back anytime that evening. The first train you can
book out is right about 14
the afternoon. Obviously it varies depending where you're coming from.
And then you can go back on any train apart from
in the main high rush hour between five o'clock, seven
o'clock. But anytime other than that, you can come back.
So you can go to London, have a meal, see
(23:18):
a show, have a few drinks, whatever you want to
do, and come back that same evening. And it's cheaper
than buying an ordinary day return. The London Night Out,
also as the name suggests, is when you're actually going
out for the whole night and coming back the following
morning, either staying in the hotel or just going to a
club and spending the whole night in a club and
(23:38):
doing what you do during the night, as people do.
And that one you can come back anytime the following
morning from 08
anytime at weekends up till 12 o'clock. And again, it's
anytime after roughly 2
on the afternoon of the first day.
Lucy Wright (23:57):
That sounds brilliant. Thank you so much, Ken.
Ken Strong (23:59):
Thank you.
Juliet Maxim (24:03):
Up next is travel surgery where Lucy and I sit
down with a special guest to pick the perfect destination
on our network for them.
Lucy Wright (24:10):
And today we're joined by voiceover artist, Julie Berry. Her
voice is heard across the country, including on our trains.
As well as doing announcements for Greater Anglia, Julie is
the voice of the Piccadilly Line and for all train lines
over Southern England. And she's also worked for brands such
as British Airways, CNN, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer. Hers is
definitely a voice you'll recognize.
Juliet Maxim (24:29):
Hello, Julie, how are you?
Julie Berry (24:31):
Hello there. I'm very well indeed, thank you.
Juliet Maxim (24:33):
To kick it off, I wondered if you could describe
your role for us, for someone who's never heard of
voice acting.
Julie Berry (24:38):
Well, voice acting encompasses all sorts of things because you
might be the disembodied voice on a television advert, or
on a radio advert, or you might be the narrator
on a documentary, or you could be doing a corporate
narrative, but basically it's when just the voice is involved,
no body needed.
Lucy Wright (24:58):
And how does voice recording work? Do you spend the
whole day in the studio listing off Greater Anglia station
names? How does it work?
Julie Berry (25:05):
It's a largely put together by a super computer. So
you'll take a short phrase, for example, change here, and
that will be put together by the computer with something
like, for stations to, wherever. So you've got all those
sort of little bits. The front four coaches are for
somewhere and it'll list a load of things, the rear
(25:28):
four coaches are for wherever. This service is for, it
will be a phrase and then all the stations get
recorded separately in different inflections, depending on where they are
on the line. For example, say, you're coming out of
London, Victoria, you might go through places like Pulborough, Billingshurst,
Horsham, there's more to come, you hear that inflection, and
(25:52):
then Portsmouth and Portsmouth Harbor or whatever is at the
end of the line. Once upon a time, we used
to do three different inflections. When I first started doing
this back in the '80s there would be this station, this
station, this station, then there'd be a penultimate one, this
station, and this station. So I don't know if you can hear the different.
Juliet Maxim (26:14):
Yeah, I can. I'm going to listen out for that next
time I'm on the train.
Lucy Wright (26:17):
Julie, do you live on Piccadilly Line?
Julie Berry (26:19):
I do. I actually do. And that's partly why I
did the job.
Lucy Wright (26:24):
I love this.
Julie Berry (26:25):
I know, I know. I hear me all the time.
Juliet Maxim (26:29):
So just do you not mind the sound of your own voice?
Julie Berry (26:31):
I mean, I not only have a trained voice, but
I then trained other voices for five years and you
learn your craft. You really learn your craft and what
your voice will and won't do. And mostly I've had
very, very nice feedback about my voice. The only time
I didn't was when did a job for British Telecom
at the end of the eighties which was being the
voice model for director inquiries, the first automated director inquiries
(26:55):
when there was only BT and I had to do
all the Welsh exchange names. But one of the newspapers
down in Cardiff or something, when the AVR was rolled
out there, some journalists said that I sounded like Margaret
Thatcher. I don't think so.
Lucy Wright (27:12):
You don't sound anything like Margaret Thatcher. No. And outside of voice acting, have you got
any other creative pursuits that you enjoy?
Julie Berry (27:21):
Well, I wrote a book called Ray's Game about a
man called Ray Haff, which I published under the name
of Jools Berry. And that's quite fun.
Juliet Maxim (27:29):
Oh, it's just fascinating hearing about your career and how
you got into it and all the different things you've done.
But we must ask you some questions about what you
like to do, because we want to send you somewhere
on our network. When you are recording announcements of station
names, do you ever think, " Hmm, I like the sound
of that place. I'd like to go there."
Julie Berry (27:48):
Oh yes. There are always places that sound rather exotic
and one of them is in Norfolk, Sheringham. I've always thought, "
Sounds like it must be very beautiful," somehow.
Juliet Maxim (27:57):
It's certainly a very quaint little coastal town, gorgeous scenery,
clifftop walks.
Julie Berry (28:03):
Sounds good
Juliet Maxim (28:05):
In your spare time. What type of things do you like to do? What do you
like to do for fun?
Julie Berry (28:09):
In the country I love to get out and walk
on the downs in Sussex, if I'm down that way.
I love a good hike up a hill.
Juliet Maxim (28:16):
Ah, well, we've got a lot of countryside in East
Anglia and I think we've got something just perfect for
you, actually. You could catch a train to Sheringham, you
must go and see it, you've wondered what it's like,
you've announced it often enough, you must go and see
it for yourself. And then you can walk the coastal
path, part of the Norfolk Coastal Path to Cromer which
(28:40):
is another quaint seaside town, wonderful fish and chip, Cromer
crabs. If you go in the summer there's even goats
on the hills.
Julie Berry (28:49):
Wonderful.
Juliet Maxim (28:50):
And it's just a four and a half mile walk. So not too taxing, but
wonderful views over the North Sea, which really does look
blue on a beautiful sunny day. So yeah, let's send
you a ticket to Sheringham and we'll send you details
of the walk.
Julie Berry (29:05):
That sounds absolutely wonderful. I would love that. Thank you.
Lucy Wright (29:10):
That's it for us for this episode, we hope you've enjoyed listening
and exploring more of what makes Greater Anglia tick.
Juliet Maxim (29:16):
If you've enjoyed this episode, please do leave us a
rating or review on your podcast platform and tweet us
at Greater Anglia PR
Lucy Wright (29:23):
Life On Rails releases quarterly, so be sure to check
back next time for episode three.
Juliet Maxim (29:28):
In the meantime, though, follow or subscribe to the podcast
for free so you never miss an episode and visit
our website at www. greateranglia. co. uk/ podcast for more information.
Lucy Wright (29:42):
Thanks for joining us. Bye.
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