Ride On Madison Metro Transit 2010 Gillig BRT HEV 40' 008 On Route 80 via Eagle Heights (Full Route)

Route 80 provides daily service to/from Langdon St/Park St - Memorial Union circulating the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Eagle Heights and back to Memorial Union.
Schedule: www.cityofmadison.com/metro/r...

[@BenjaminWillis-24]

I love Madison Metro buses up there in Madison, WI.

[@DragoonSlime]

Handy route, never have riden the Eagle Heights section, cool to hear those stop announcements from Ward Paxton, I hope they keep his voice work with the new hardware their implementing this fall, the test bus voice just doesn’t cut it.

[@dangelohartley5977]

You've managed to catch one of the test buses? How does the next stop announcements sound like if you remember?

[@DragoonSlime]

Yeah, somehow I’ve had a lot of rides on them already, Route G/P twice, D1 once, and A once, all by coincidence. I like most of the ideas they’ve implemented, it’s just the voice is text-to-speech so it mispronounces a lot of street names and sounds really disjointed between syllables sometimes, plus the tone for every stop announcement is identical, so it’s really dull compared to the current announcements that have so much life and personality in comparison. The timing has also changed so it announces the next stop as it leaves/passes the previous stop rather than when it is approaching it, and the dot matrix display has the name scrolling for the next stop as the default message. That’s probably better for folks that don’t use the bus as frequently, but I’m definitely biased towards the current setup.
I do have some audio recordings of announcements from my Route G, it’s a decent sample, although I wasn’t able to capture the “Stop Requested” voice clip (once again I prefer the current chime). Here’s a link :
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1--I5kYv2oUNfczJlDHXlRkd-jvu47dN1

[@dangelohartley5977]

@@DragoonSlime Took a listen to the files. They don't sound bad to me honest, but honestly prefer the original announcements. I just hope they don't kill off the unique stop requested chime because I like them. Honestly, it would've been better if it said "West Broadway" instead of "W Broadway". Could've sworn I heard a mispronunciation of a street or am I trippin? Also, did I also heard a announcement in Spanish after the next stop announcement in English? Plus does it still announces every stop like the current ones? Hopefully when I return, I'll attempt to catch it.

[@DragoonSlime]

Yeah, the originals have so much charm, plus that’s what we’re all used to, so I’ll definitely be sad if they phase them out, since they’re my personal favorite part of the bus experience in Madison. The local guy who did them really did a great job. If I heard these new ones without any context, I would probably think they’re solid, especially because the audio is so crisp. One strength they have too is that they can announce temporary stops along detours in contrast the silence you normally get. But you’re definitely not wrong about the mispronunciations (Metro did say they would work on those, and the recordings are a few months out of date by now), and they also do not call out nearby routes, points of interest, or give heads up that the bus is entering a no-stop zone. So ultimately I don’t love it, but the new fare hardware looks neat and the new bus tracker has its advantages too (that should also make it easier for you to find the test buses next time you’re around).
It called out almost every stop, but I do think it accidentally glitched out and skipped a few. So far, the system’s interaction with stop requests is a little shaky, because the visual cue vanishes from the dot matrix after a few seconds, so a lot of times people pull the cords repeatedly if they didn’t notice the initial chime/callout.
Yeah, the Spanish announcements were very sporadic, maybe only 4-5 times throughout the entire route length. Occasionally they’ll blurt out in the middle of nowhere something like “Thank you for riding Metro” and then have it in Spanish too.