The Elizabeth line announcer has said she is “proud” to be going down in history as the voice of the new Crossrail in time with the Platinum Jubilee.
Emma Hignett listed her most known recordings for Transport for London, as the “voice” of London buses, Overground and now the Crossrail.
She said: “When I started working on this it was still called the Crossrail – so the fact that it’s now called the Elizabeth line is really quite special. I’m very proud to be a part of it.
“TfL have done a very good job of pulling it together at the perfect time.”
In October 2017, Emma began recording for the world’s first fully digital railway, launched on Tuesday, from her family loft.
With the Platinum Jubilee around the corner and excitement building, she has found the attention “strange” but “part of the day-to-day” in her unique job.
Emma said: “Having not been in London for the last few weeks I hadn’t noticed how excited people were at the launch - but I was! Then seeing it on Twitter, Facebook and the news was very exciting for me.
“I wouldn’t say I have a fan club but there are people who’ve found me because of what I do.
“I have had people tweet me from a bus and say: ‘You just told me to sit down’.”
The north-east England based voice artist recorded her first TfL announcement 16 years ago for the 149 bus route.
This was followed by another 20,000 recordings, which have now cemented her role in history.
Wish I was in London tomorrow to ride the first #LondonUnderground line I’ve voiced #ElizabethLine pic.twitter.com/UQFSKrpM93
— Emma Hignett, Voiceover-PR-Mum-Happy Person! (@emmahignett) May 23, 2022
Emma, who has planned her own Jubilee celebrations with her 13-year-old son, has yet to board the Elizabeth line trains, but she has been “very excited” to “get from A to B ridiculously quickly”.
She said: “London’s public transport is brilliant. As someone who lived in London for many, many years – it gets you to wherever you need to be.
“When [my family] go London we have to get around in a bus, obviously, and doing it with a child now it’s great fun. We’ve been through the moments where he’s said, ‘Mum is that you?’ which is strange.
“But then who ever thought growing up you’d be the voice of the Elizabeth line?”
