Oren’s Reading List: The Stories Behind The Subway Announcement Voices We Know So Well

R142 6415 at East Tremont Avenue, June 20, 2009

In keeping with the recent post about a podcast episode recommendation, here comes another one that may be worth your time.  This time, we’re featuring the “Mind the Gap” episode from “Twenty Thousand Hertz“, which describes itself as “the stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds.”  If the episode’s title immediately conjures an image of the London Underground in your head, I think it is fair to say this podcast is achieving its goal.

This episode features the stories of the voices behind the iconic subway announcements in London by Elinor Hamilton and in New York City by Charlie Pellett and even though I had some familiarity with some aspects of their stories, there were also some parts of their careers and stories I was not familiar with, especially Elinor Hamilton’s.  If you’re really into the automated, prerecorded announcements that are commonplace on public transit today, you’ll want to give this a listen.  (Even Mrs. Oren’s Transit Page, who is not the biggest podcast fan, enjoyed listening to this one with me.)

Listen to Twenty Thousand Hertz’s “Mind the Gap” episode (or read the transcript) by clicking here, or searching wherever you prefer to download your podcasts.

Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.

Rail Photo of the Month: January 2019

R179 3150

R179 3150

Location: 125th Street/Saint Nicholas Avenue Station, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: December 23, 2018

It seems appropriate to welcome the new Gregorian year with a photo of one of the newest New York City Subway trains, the R179.  This is the first time I’ve taken a photo of an R179.  These B Division cars began revenue testing in November 2017, officially entered revenue service in December 2017, and currently operate on the C and J lines.  The R179 is yet another class of “New Technology Trains” (NTT) that include the R142, R142A, R160, and R188 car types.  The extent to which the NTTs have become the rolling stock associated with New York City Transit can be seen in how as I was taking these pictures, other transit fans at the station awaiting the vintage holiday train thought these cars were R160s.  While the R160s and R179s do look similar, they are not the same.  While the R32s and R42s that will be replaced by the R179s are not likely to be retired prior to the end of the Canarsie Line partial shutdown in 2020, the New York City transit fleet is gradually becoming more homogeneous as time goes on.

For more photos of the New York City Subway, please click here.