sara weaver.jpg

Sara Weaver

(Photo courtesy of Sara Weaver)

HOBOKEN — You don't know her, but if you ride NJ Transit enough, you'd likely recognize the calm female voice, made slightly didactic by an electronic edge.

For Sara Weaver, 48, the actor whose voice is used in NJ Transit buses, hearing herself speak for inanimate objects can be somewhat comical.

"It makes me giggle every time I hear it," she said.

Weaver's voice can also be heard on certain escalators in Penn Station, as well as in commercials, video games, casino slot machines and health care instruction videos. She started working with NJ Transit a few years ago, and now her voice is what passengers hear when they signal a stop. Or when the bus turns a corner: "Caution, bus is turning." Then in Spanish: "Cuidado autobús está girando."

She started her career as a singer, dancer and actor. She performed in off-Broadway productions, worked as a showgirl at an Atlantic City casino and even appeared on the soap opera "One Life to Live." But 15 years ago she found a challenge and career stability in voice acting.

“It’s still performing,” she said. “I’m not producing great works of art here, but am I helping to make people’s lives better? Yes.”

Hearing voices



Weaver is just one of NJ Transit's voices, though she is the only human source. The woman's voice on the light rail — the one that advises passengers of the next stop and reminds passengers not to lean on doors— is computerized, said NJ Transit spokesman, William Smith. The voice is provided by ARINC Corp, he said.

The occasionally unnerving "Welcome to NJ Transit" that emits from ticket vending machines is also computerized. Affiliated Computer Services, a subsidiary of Xerox, is the company that provides and maintains the machines, Smith said.

Two years ago, NJ Transit contracted Clever Devices, a technology company based in Woodbury, N.Y., to provide Weaver’s voice, as well as other technologies —including an app that tracks the location of buses to estimate its arrival at any given stop— to its fleet of 2,000 buses, said Andrew Stanton, COO of Clever Devices. The company has approximately 50 different voice talents, who record words and phrases that are then strung together into different permutations as needed by clients.

Using a human voice instead of a computerized voice can allow cities and companies to put a personal touch on their product, Stanton said and make transportation more accessible to passengers.

“This was an opportunity to do something interesting,” he said. “The digital voice has gotten better, but it doesn’t have the same personality. It's a little unique thing for that particular company or city.”



From the stage to the bus



Weaver's career as a voice actor evolved from her love of performing. She graduated from the University of Toledo in Ohio where she studied performing arts, and then moved to New York City to pursue acting, singing and dancing. She performed in off-Broadway productions, television and sang with several bands — one of which performed at Donald Trump's second wedding. At one time, she worked as a

showgirl at the Trump Castle Casino Resort in Atlantic City.

Then a friend — who was singing back up for Billy Joel— introduced her to Clever Devices. Weaver tried out to provide the voice for a bus service in Denver, Colo., and got the job. She's been working for Clever Devices for the last 15 years, she said.

Mind the gap

Voice acting can be a somewhat anonymous industry. An actor's voice can pervade an entire city, without residents knowing the person behind it. Only recently did the original voice of Apple's virtual assistant Siri become public. Voiceover actor Susan Bennet reportedly didn't know that old recordings of her voice had become that of personal assistant/soothsayer Siri.

In March, the voice behind the London Underground's "mind the gap" message turned into a real-life Nicholas Sparks adaptation. The widow of the man whose voice warned passengers for several years would go to the stations, just to hear her deceased husband's voice, the BBC reported. When the voice was replaced, she reportedly embarked on a quest to hear his voice once more.

For Weaver, the voice acting industry is romantic in its own way. Voice acting allows her to visit places she's never been and also return to locations she's long left, she said. As with other art forms, her recordings carry the possibility of a certain immorality.

“I think that that’s why we do what we do, to leave a little bit of ourselves behind” she said. “It’s what any artist wants.”