A Tannoy is a system of loudspeakers used to make public announcements, for example at a fair or at a sports stadium. [British, trademark]regional note: in AM, use public address system.
The funniest announcement in my railway station has been: "The train xxxxx coming from y and directed to z has been canceled because someone stole the electrical cables on the line".
A few years ago in Paris I was waiting for my train to Marseille and the announcer was rambling about our destination like he were paid to advertise it. "Marseille ! its cicadas ! its legendary sunny weather ! the smiles on people's faces !" after a while he seemed to run out of things to list so he went on with random stuff "its horses ! the ladies' perfume !"
I had a good laugh
I had the SNCF jingle as my notification sound for meetings like 10 years ago. I loved the sound of it. But I was a tourist and didn’t have to listen to it play 700 times during my commute.
Was this in French or multiple languages? I ask because the trolley system in San Diego has automated announcements in English/Spanish, and most of the drivers are bilingual so they can yell at most of the people in a language they understand.
Similarly I remember there was a (driver?) announcing the stations when I commuted from StLeonards to Central in Sydney, and he was hilarious, cracking jokes and congratulating people for not blocking the doors, keeping time records of how long passengers took to alight and aboard the trains
I came here to comment that Melbourne had a few train and tram drivers that were very chatty and brightened your commute. I don't miss trying to change at South Yarra at rush hour, though.
A few weeks ago I got on the train home and whoever had control of the intercom (not the guy at the front, though he was having a grand time) proceeded to yell a bunch of stuff about anime (mostly names) during the time when they normally say to hit the button to request street level stops. I will always wonder who that hero was, it totally made my day.