gare CFF

On the Tram 11 back into Basel center from the Schaulager, we pass by the central station, a structure divided in half - one half Swiss, the other half French, with a passport checkpoint before you board the trains into France. As we approach the station, we pass the Herzog & de Meuron switching station and a series of buildings ostensibly designed by Donald Judd, and the usual recorded woman's voice announces the upcoming stop:

Nächste Haltestellung Bahnhof SBB.

Then a very different woman's voice announces the stop in French:
Gare CFF SNCF.

Finally, yet another voice - again, a woman - states:
Swiss and French railway station.

We were on our usual commute this week back into town for lunch when I. announced that he loved the voices on the Basel trams, adding that the French voice sounded "so ... triumphant." But it was really the German voice that did it for him. "I adore the voices on German trains - I just fall in love with them. So reassuring, so beautiful. Whenever I hear them call out the stops I wonder about the world I'd find if I got off at that stop. They always sound so magical. One time I was in Vienna, I think... Louisenstrasse. And I thought, I want to go to this enchanted place, Louisenstrasse."