Looking for French Train Announcement Sound Files.

December 7, 2005 8:22 AM

I’m looking for sound files from trains and buses in specific cities of Europe.

Specifically I would like to find recordings of station announcements (the ones they make right before the train stops) or recordings from announcements at train stations (la gare). I’m most interested in the following:
CFL (Chemin de Fer Luxembourgois) – Luxembourg (in French or Luxembourgois)
SNCF – (Societé Nationale de Chemin de Fer) French train system (specifically the areas around Lyon/Grenoble or up north near Metz)
TPG – The public transit buses and regional trains in the canton of Geneva, Switzerland

I wouldn’t be opposed to contributing a few bucks if I could find these anywhere, but so far no luck. Please hope me obiwan!

posted by blue_beetle to travel & transportation (7 comments total)

Sorry not in to trains myself, but I come from a train fanatic family. Hope this will help you.

Some sounds can be found at Kallas and Phoenix .

Called my father for you and he said he likes Dietz best. ( go to sounds > lieferliste and you get all the sounds there).

Also LGB had some trains with sounds.
posted by kudzu at 9:44 AM on December 7, 2005

There was a site a few years ago which consisted of abstract music made out of the sounds of various European public transport systems - basically collages, submitted by site users. I will rack my brains and try and remember what it is/was called - perhaps the users on there would be able to help you out with individual sounds.
posted by altolinguistic at 9:56 AM on December 7, 2005

I live in Lyon maybe I can help
posted by zouhair at 10:53 AM on December 7, 2005

Several pages from the Prague metro.
posted by gubo at 11:56 AM on December 7, 2005

Thanks for the responses, just to be clear, I'm not actually looking for sounds of the trains (mechanical sounds), but the announcements of stations, platforms, etc (announcers voice, those "bing, bing, bing" sounds they play before the announcements, etc).
posted by blue_beetle at 2:57 PM on December 7, 2005

Maybe I'll go to the Train Station (two in Lyon) and record you some announcements there :) (I have a minidisc with good microphones)
posted by zouhair at 3:34 PM on December 7, 2005

If I had the gear I could do the same in Geneva, but a) I'm afraid I don't and b) the new fleet of TPG buses don't seem to have the bing bong thing before the stops anymore.
posted by jontyjago at 11:42 PM on December 7, 2005