"Welcome to New York."

You can still hear her recorded greeting at Pennsylvania Station. For nearly 30 years, her reassuring, resonant voice helped millions of passengers get where they needed to be. So how did Sheila Herriot end up at the mic?

Along with her warm, confident baritone, she says it was her high school diploma.

“There were two of us applying. But because I finished high school, I got the job.” Her 40-year career with Amtrak included stops in laundry, reservations, information, ushering, and even the accounting division. However, track announcing was the career destination she was born to arrive at.

Though she never had any formal vocal training, Ms Herriot says she starred in plays and made speeches in school. Yet she credits her unique gift to her mom and dad. “My classmates teased me about my deep voice, and my teachers always asked, “Where did you get that?” She laughed. “I always said, ‘It's genetics. What else?’”

Surrounded by a digital screens in an underground command center, Ms Herriot calmly guided the riders of Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. And she says she always aimed for clarity and certitude. “I just wanted to be understood.”

Ms Herriot retired from the mic in 2015, to pursue a different career track, helping people in a more tangible way, as a registered nurse.

Who among us can say that our voice helped millions of travelers in the biggest city in the world? Sheila can.