The T line just opened and I’m already sick of hearing the “transfer here” message eight goddamn times when my train passes Powell Station. It plays in four languages each time, once when Powell is the next station and again at Powell itself. Sounds like they made them part of the “station name” audio itself based on the way they are cued.
The transfer information is at least in line with why there’s a voice over system in the first place: giving useful actionable information to the blind in line with ADA requirements.
But it does not need to be in four languages, nor should there ever be a single message played back that isn’t exactly the stop information and maybe some transfer information. Every single other message from “please stand clear of the doors” to “sexual harassment sucks, don’t do it” doesn’t need to be in there.
I don’t know which one comes out the speaker because San Francisco officially counts Cantonese and Mandarin together as just “Chinese” for some reason, but the fourth is Filipino (not Tagalog, Filipino is what they list which I think is just a more standardized Tagalog but I am not an expert).
