Dear Ian Baker

Our ref: FOI-2367-2324/GH

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 2
October 2023 asking for further information about Piccadilly Line new
trains automated announcements.

Your request will be considered in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and our information access policy, and we will issue
you with a response by 27 October 2023. We publish a substantial range of
information on our website on subjects including operational performance,
contracts, expenditure, journey data, governance and our financial
performance. This includes data which is frequently asked for in FOI
requests or other public queries. Please check
[1]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transpar... to see if this helps you.

We will publish anonymised versions of requests and responses on the
[2]www.tfl.gov.uk website. We will not publish your name and we will send
a copy of the response to you before it is published on our website.

Yours sincerely

Graham Hurt

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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Dear Mr Baker

TfL Ref: FOI-2367-2324

Thank you for your email received by us on 2 October 2023 asking for
information about announcements.

Your request is being considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I
can confirm we hold some of the information you require.

However, in accordance with Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act
we are still considering the balance of the public interest in relation to
a qualified exemption that applies to the requested information and have
not yet reached a conclusion. The exemption under consideration is section
43(2). It is estimated that a decision will be reached by 23 November and
I will write again to inform you of that decision.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to
appeal.

Yours sincerely

Graham Hurt

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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Dear Ian Baker

Our ref: FOI-2367-2324/GH

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 2
October 2023 asking for further information about Piccadilly Line new
trains automated announcements.

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that
we do hold the information you require.

Firstly i would like to request the name of the company that provides this
"Elloise" synthetic voice. If you have the details of the company or even
a link to their website too that would be great. I am trying to find out
more about this "Elloise" synthetic voice but there are a lot of Text To
Speech companies and i am struggling to find out which company this is.

Acapela Group Babel Technologies S.A.

Secondly i would like to ask are there any announcement sound files of
this synthetic voice. If so could you attach them. Or is the voice
generated automatically on the computer so no sound files exist. I suspect
as it is a synthetic voice that sound files may not exist ever exist as a
computer will just generate the announcement. But i just wanted to check
as i am not entirely sure.

We have the ability to download sound files of the demo version of the
voice which we are currently testing. However, we are not obliged to
supply these audio files as the information is subject to a statutory
exemption to the right of access to information under section 43(2). In
this instance section 43(2) has been applied as disclosure of the
information requested would be likely to prejudice the commercial
interests of TfL, Acapela Group, Siemens and/or Annax GmbH. The contract
for these announcements is between Acapela and Siemens, with the voice
being provided to TfL with conditions concerning their use and
distribution.

Thirdly do you have any samples of this voice that you could attach. Even
if no sound files are held i presume that you would at least have some
samples that you would have obtained when choosing the voice. If so could
you attach these please.

We do have samples obtained when choosing the voice. As stated above, we
are not obliged to supply these audio files as the information is subject
to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information under
section 43(2). In this instance section 43(2) has been applied as
disclosure of the information requested would be likely to prejudice the
commercial interests of TfL, Acapela Group and/or Siemens. The samples in
question are the property of Acapela Group and were provided to TfL under
a signed contract which contains explicit conditions concerning its use
and distribution.

The use of this exemption is subject to an assessment of the public
interest in relation to the disclosure of the information concerned. We
recognise the need for openness and transparency by public authorities,
but in this instance the public interest in ensuring that we adhere to the
terms of the contract with Acapela Group/Siemens outweighs the general
public interest in increasing transparency of our processes.

Lastly what company is providing the CIS system on the new trains. Note
this question is different to my first question. My first question is
regarding the company providing the synthetic voice but this question is
about the company providing the CIS system. So the system that operates
the announcements and screens and displays on the trains.

Annax GmbH, part of Wabtec Corporation

If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached
information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Graham Hurt

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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