New voice on Metro thrilled by contest win

Randi Miller of Woodbridge, Va., will soon have the most listened to voice in town.

After a monthlong talent search, Metro officials yesterday announced that Ms. Miller, 44, will be the new lady who warns riders when the trains’ doors will be closing.

Officials said after a brief trial period, her voice will be played in all Metrorail cars and heard more than 33,000 times a day by riders.

Ms. Miller works as a lease manager at a car dealership in Alexandria. She said yesterday that she was very happy about winning Metro’s “Doors Closing Voice 2006” contest.

“This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me,” Ms. Miller said, after her name was pulled from the red envelope. “I owe it all to my parents for giving me such great genes.”

The runner-up was Linda Carducci, of Vienna, Va.

The new voice is an attempt by Metro to get riders to take notice of announcements. The new recording will be heard on some trains by the end of this month.

People are so used to the old warnings that they no longer pay attention to them, said Candace Smith, a spokeswoman for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).

Riders think of the old chime and pleasant voice that says “doors closing” as a “yellow light” that encourages them to hurry up and get in, Mrs. Smith said.

“However, the car doors are not like elevator doors that spring back,” she said. “You could get stuck in the door.”

The contest was part of a larger effort by WMATA officials to increase flow and movement of commuters and reduce delayed trains.

In addition to the new voice, the message will be modified. It will now say, “For your safety, please step back. The doors are closing in 3, 2, 1.”

Other ideas include stationing extra employees on busy platforms and removing seats from cars to add more handrails. Officials also will put directional signs on platform floors to show passengers where to stand while waiting for a train.

“This is part of the bigger picture,” Mrs. Smith said. “It is just one piece of the larger puzzle.”

After the contest began Jan. 3, more than 1,200 contestants from across the country sent in audition tapes and CDs. More than half the entries arrived Jan. 20, the last day of the contest.

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