Perhaps one of the unexpected little joys of using buses in Bristol is that First Bus has, quite correctly, decided that the announcements should sound as though they belong there. Not a flat national voice, not the slightly bloodless tone of railway automation and not the sort of corporate voiceover that sounds as though it was recorded in a cupboard near Milton Keynes. Instead, there is a West Country accent and it’s very noticeable for passengers.
So I am choosing to regard Bristol’s bus announcements as a small civic victory. Not a grand one, admittedly, but a win. Fran Edwards was first revealed in 2019 as the voice behind the announcements, and that she now voices announcements across Bristol and the wider West of England network. I wonder if they’ll do this in the Norfolk countryside next…..