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Ingrid is leaving, Petra is coming

14.12.2016 | 15:03 Clock | Citywhispers
Ingrid is leaving, Petra is coming

New (computer) voice in Frankfurt's buses and trains

(kus) Petra is her name, and she will succeed Ingrid. Starting with the buses, the automatic announcements in Frankfurt's buses and trains will be switched to a synthetic computer voice over the next few months.

Of course, this voice can't compete with the human touch brought for 40 years by the nationally known announcer Ingrid Metz-Neun. On the one hand, however, Ingrid Metz-Neun is slowly retiring, and on the other hand, "Petra", combined with the development of a new control system and the equipping of buses and trains with new on-board computers, has clear advantages: Changes, for example to stop names or transfer relationships, will be able to be implemented much more quickly in the future than before. Where previously, due to the production process and the technical equipment, up to three months passed before a new announcement was "on the bus" or "on the train", in future a few days will suffice.

During the changeover phase, which is expected to last until mid-2017, the municipal public transport company traffiQ and VGF ask their passengers for a little patience and support. With the large amount of data to be processed, some things will not run completely smoothly right away. There will be errors, the pronunciation will not always be entirely correct, and sometimes a connection information may not be correct. traffiQ and VGF are grateful for information from their customers about these "teething problems".

Once "Petra" is at home on all of Frankfurt's 600 or so public transport vehicles, traffiQ and VGF can take the next step: Then information about major planned roadworks and diversions, such as the next S-Bahn tunnel closure, will also be able to be communicated much more accurately and in a more customer-friendly way than today on buses and trains.

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