A first for the region: new ‘talking’ buses launched

Pictured Metro Radio Breakfast Show DJ’s Steve & Karen

Go North East has become the first bus operator in the region to introduce innovative onboard audio-visual announcements that help transform bus travel for the visually impaired and new users.

Pictured Metro Radio Breakfast Show DJ’s Steve & Karen

The region’s largest bus company has teamed-up with local Sony Radio Award winning DJs to record the voices for on board TV screens that announce current stops, destinations and next stops.

UK charity for the blind and partially sighted, Guide Dogs, recently published The Road to Nowhere Survey which is campaigning to make all buses ‘talking buses’. Audio announcements on buses make a “massive difference” to passengers with sight loss, say the charity. Go North East is working with Guide Dogs and RNIB to make using its services easier for blind and partially sighted users. This includes the audio visual announcements, joint developments in driver training and awareness and customer events to educated all bus users of the importance of these initiatives.

Go North East has introduced the announcements on over 60 of its buses operating its Red Arrows, Quaylink, Angel, TEN and Simplicity services. These buses cover the four main corridors in and out of Newcastle and also Sunderland and Newcastle city centres and plans are in place to introduce this to further services in 2014.

Voicing the announcements are popular Metro Radio DJs Steve and Karen and Real Radio’s Gary and Lisa.

Stephen King, marketing and sales manager, Go North East said: “We are always looking for ways to improve our service to customers and audio and visual announcements will make travelling by bus so much easier for many passengers – not just those that are bind and partially sighted but those that are new to our services too. We decided to use some of the most familiar voices from the regional radio airwaves to add some additional excitement to the sound bites.”