Metrorail riders are very familiar with the distinctive voice of WMATA‘s police chief, Polly Hanson, telling us over the intercom to ask: “Is that your bag?” when we see unattended items on the train or in stations. Polly has gotten us into the mindset of safety first, and we thank her. Click here for complete WMATA safety and security guidelines.

Now we have a new guy to listen to, but you’ll be lucky if you catch the automated announcement-bot as it seems he’s only on newer buses. On Sunday we were riding the D6 bus, we heard the new automated voice. An unidentifed man, with a somewhat muted but forceful voice told us to “please remember, safety is everyone’s responsibility.” But then the nasally robot woman instantly came on and said “Q Street and 35th Street … Stop requested.” The cacophony was deafening.

We personally think it’d be great if WMATA could get a prominent D.C. personality to do the bus stop announcements or even metrorail station announcements if trains could be equipped for automated announcements. Here’s who’d make our short list: Maureen Bunyan of WJLA (maybe she could do a tag team announcement with Gordon Peterson); Laura Bush; City Councilmember Carol Schwartz; the “Black Cat-Black Cat” guy outside the Black Cat; WKYS’ Russ Parr; and Washington’s quintessential linguistic ambassador Diane Rehm (despite her troubles with spasmodic dysphonia, we think she has a disticntive, majestic Washingtonian voice … Rehm is pictured at left). Who would you add to the list?

We think this new voice on D.C.’s metrobus trumps that automated hokie guy that New York’s MTA got for newer train cars on the Lexington Avenue/East Side IRT and select other subway routes.