TfL Ref: FOI-1468-2425
Thank you for your request which we received on 6 August 2024, asking for information about Northern Line announcements recorded by Louisa Gummer.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You specifically asked:
- Which exact announcements has she recorded for the Northern line and when did she do them?
Louisa Gummer recorded Northern Line announcements which catered for changes required for the Northern Line Extension (NLE) and Elizabeth Line, as well as adjustments to some interchange announcements and platform numbers, mainly for Battersea Power Station, Nine Elms, Kennington, Bank, Tottenham Court Road and Moorgate stations. They would have been recorded in early 2020/21.
Unfortunately, to provide the exact announcements she recorded would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
There are multiple documents where the announcement scripts were developed and agreed. In order to locate, extract and collate the new announcements that changed and check that they are indeed the ones with the new voice, we would need to manually review a significant volume of material. In some cases, just a part of the message was changed, e.g., adding platform numbers for interchange etc.
To help bring the cost of responding to your question within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider refining your request to concentrate on matters which are important to you. For example, you may find it more beneficial to ask specific questions or request specific documents which are less likely to lead to such a significant volume of information requiring review in order to collate the information that is relevant to your request.
- How was she chosen, who chose/approved her, and who else was on the shortlist for this role?
This work did not include re-recording all announcements on the Northern line trains. Therefore, in this instance, our service provider selected the voice over artist so as to be reasonably similar to the previous one.
3. Did TfL source this voice directly or appoint a supplier to source them? If so, which supplier and how much were they paid?
For the leased Northern line trains, Ketech / Alstom are the audio system providers. The audio message changes were procured as part of variation orders for larger scopes of work to update the trains for operation on the Northern line Extension (NLE) and complete integration work with the ATC Signalling. As a result, the specific costs of the audio elements are bound up in Alstom’s framework and variations and we are unable to attribute specific costs associated to these audio announcements alone.
4. Is TfL planning to renew other announcements on the Northern line soon, as currently they do not reference any interchanges with London Overground, say nothing about step free access stations, and use an old/posh voice with verbose wording and incorrect pronunciation as referenced in this article [https://highgatefestival.org/any-pedants-travel-on-the-northern-line/]?
Yes, our Customer Experience team is in the process of identifying the options available to them with regard to completing a programme of Digital Voice Announcement (DVA) system upgrades across London Underground fleet. Any new announcements for the Northern Line will include clearer wording, interchange updates, step-free access information, and a new voice in line with latest customer research.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely
Eva Hextall
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
