| “ | Platform 12, for the 10:23 Portsmouth Harbour and Bognor Regis service, calling at: Clapham Junction, Selhurst, West Croydon, Wallington, Sutton, Horsham, Christ's Hospital, fast to Pulborough, then Arundel and Barnham where the train will then divide. | ” |
— Part of a train announcement done by John Elgar | ||
John Elgar is a former voice and used by the Ditra system between 1983 and 1996, one of the first automated announcers on the British railway network. He announced at many stations, but was eventually replaced by Phil Sayer and Celia Drummond, which started the pair's time as announcers on the network. Reportedly, John was suffering from ill-health in the mid 1990s, and as such, he was unavailable to make new recordings. This caused a bit of an issue around privatisation when new train companies were created!
As he was an announcer during the time of British Rail, his train announcements were very different to the ones we hear today.