ScotRail has introduced a new on-train voice following a row over AI-generated announcements earlier this year.
Paisley-based employee Vannessa Sloan was chosen to serve as a model for the text-to-speech (TTS) announcements, after recording a demo reel alongside seven other colleagues.
Sloan recorded hundreds of words, sentences, sounds and stations across 18 studio sessions.
Now, the recordings have been used to create a TTS voice to be used across ScotRail’s infrastructure.
Replacing the ‘Iona’ announcements, which were widely panned for their use of artificial intelligence, the new voice has debuted on Class 380 trains, with a further rollout planned to follow in 2026.
Phil Campbell, ScotRail’s customer operations director, said: “Our people are at the heart of everything we do, so it’s fitting that the new voice of ScotRail comes from within our own team.
“Vannessa is already a trusted and familiar voice for customers at stations, and we’re delighted that her voice is now part of the announcements that will be made on our Class 380 trains.
“Working with ReadSpeaker, we’ve created an announcement system that’s modern, reliable, and ethically produced.
“The use of an automated voice allows us to have more control over the announcements being made, ensures consistency for customers, and gives us flexibility to make changes at short notice.”
ScotRail’s ‘Iona’ voice was axed following criticism from service users, as well as a voiceover artist whose accent was used to train the AI system without her permission.
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Gayanne Potter told the BBC earlier this year: "It's hard enough for people in the creative industry to sustain careers, but to be competing with a robotic version of yourself adds insult to injury."
"After the years that I've gone through to try to have my data removed - it's still being used.
"They don't realise it's actually a real person who's been put through a dreadful voice app."
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