THE woman who has been the voice of ScotRail trains for 20 years only learned she was being replaced after a friend heard the new synthetic voice onboard.
Fletcher Mathers, a Scottish voiceover artist and actress with credits on Shetland and Taggart, has told The National she was sent a recording of the AI announcer by her friend, who asked if she had been replaced.
The Government-owned train operator recently rolled out “Iona”, an AI voice on some routes, which replaced older messages recorded by Mathers since 2005.
While established Scottish voiceover artist and actress Gayanne Potter is seeking “an apology from ScotRail and an acknowledgement they have made a mistake” when basing "Iona" on recordings she made in 2021 without her consent, Mathers has revealed she also had no knowledge of the AI rollout.
“I got a WhatsApp message from a friend, an audio message, and she just went, ‘listen to this,’ and she was on the train. She recorded the voiceover on the train and let me hear it.
“And that’s the first I knew that they were looking at changing over to AI,” Mathers shared.
“To be honest, after 20 years, it was a bit hurtful that they hadn't informed me that they were changing.
“I get things are moving in that direction. But I think we have to be really careful about it and just let people know. Let people know if their voices are going to be taken over by AI.”
Mathers then got in touch with her agent, who went to ScotRail and asked if their client was now out of a contract.
ScotRail told Mathers’s agent which trains the AI has now been rolled out on and contracted the actress for another six months of usage.
“I think that was the compromise that ScotRail and my agent came to: That I would be paid for six months of usage,” Mathers, originally from just outside Perth, explained, adding: “There's not much I can do. I do the voiceover, and I love that job.
“That’s a third of my life I've been the voice on ScotRail. I don't take it for granted. I love the job. I think it's quite a privilege to do that job, to be the voice that so many people hear.”
Passengers also don’t take her for granted. One 21-year-old man wrote to Mathers thanking her “on behalf of all passengers” for her voice making him feel cared for when his living situation didn’t feel safe as a child. A woman also got in touch and thanked her for keeping her company when travelling to her husband, who was undergoing chemotherapy in hospital.
Mathers shared: “She said ‘I never felt lonely because I felt as if you were with me on the train,' and that's a lovely thing for someone to say. They would no one will say that with an AI voice.”
Mathers isn’t necessarily upset about the move to AI, but the way in which it has been handled for all involved. She stressed her support for Potter as well as voiceover artist Diane Brooks — a second Scottish woman who has discovered a synthetic version of her voice being used, this time on Edinburgh bus operator Lothian Buses.
“I know I'm not there forever. I thought what might happen is they may go with a male Scots voice after me. I didn't know that it would be so quickly to AI."
From what Mathers understands, the AI’s possibly not quite ready, and she doubts its ability to pronounce words in Scots.
“I would like them to wait until it’s ready. I haven't heard much of it, but I'm not sure it's good on the ‘CH’ pronunciation in Scots.
Mathers works with Braw Clan, a Scots language theatre company, to create plays in Scots for audiences in Clydesdale and southern Scotland.
"We cannot put out an AI system that mispronounces key aspects of the Scots language. And this is a national company — it’s important," she said.
“Its intonation pattern doesn't sound quite right. So why not wait until it’s ready?
“It feels rushed and feels kind of lurched towards it.”
She added: "Let's just stop for a moment and think, take a more considered and careful path moving forward, a path on which which people own their own body and voice, a path in which multinationals pay for their voiceovers in a fair and just manner, a path in which people are informed in advance if their work is being replaced by AI.
"Let's simply be human, be thoughtful and respectful to everyone involved. That's surely the answer."
The rail operator has told media it does not intend to remove the AI voice from its trains.
A sign of changing times
Since originally recording announcements two decades ago with the team who rolled out the voiceover on the Hong Kong underground, Mathers has intermittently recorded and re-recorded updated lines.
Around 10 years ago, Mathers changed agents and ScotRail struggled to get in touch with her.
“But they sought me out for that continuity,” Mathers stressed, comparing the contrasting treatment she has faced in the last week.
“If I'd been the announcer on them for two years or five years, maybe even seven years, then fair enough, but I've been there for 20 years.”
Mathers has still not been contacted by anyone from ScotRail and is in the dark on whether her voice will disappear suddenly from the trains.
“I hope they use both,” she said, referring to human voices and AI, adding: “I think there’s a place for both. I think, for example, when you arrive at a station, I could say, ‘you are now arriving in Edinburgh Waverley,’ or whatever, and then if there’s a delay or something changes, AI could be helpful in updating that.”
“Even if AI can say the words right, it doesn’t have the same feeling. It’s that connection that matters."
When The National approached ScotRail, a spokesperson said: “ScotRail has been in contact with Fletcher Mathers’ agent and confirmed that her voice would be used on all of the remaining trains in our fleet until at least December 2025.”
The voice, “Iona,” is the same that will be used on a remote real-time system currently being developed for future use, the operator shared.
They added: “Place names and words can be entered phonetically. Milngavie is input as Mill-guy, Achnasheen as Akna-sheen, for instance. This ensures that ScotRail staff have control over the current pronunciation of stations throughout the country.
"It has been used on the class 156 fleet for small additional announcements in relation to East Kilbride, and also on the HST trains for announcements to advise of things like single door operation.”
