Mind the gap please

At Ealing common used to say mind the gap on the tannoy but since they refurbished the stn it doesn't work any more

"Mind the Gap, please" is at Bow Road, Gloucester Road, Bethnal Green and Great Portland Street... Gloucester Road and Bethnal Green both have straight platforms, the irony is is that Baker Street on the Met has a gigantic gap yet there is a complete absense of an announcement there...

The new "Mind the Gap, please" and female "Mind the Gap" are both utterly dire. The old style one at Embankment (northbound, Northern line) is the best.

And if you think the lifts at Chalk Farm are bad, listen to the ones at Queensway, they should get her to do it! Or possibly Thatcher.

Baker Street had a noise abatement order slapped upon it years ago following complaints from local residents. This may be the reason why there is no automated 'Mind The Gap' announcement.

Unfortunately residents are a powerful voice these days but it started years ago with the advent of PA at all stations. I recall not long after installing and commissioning the local PA at Kingsbury, Queensbury and Canon's Park in the 1980s that residents complaints meant that announcements after 8pm at Queensbury were forbidden and indeed a couple of speakers at the end of the southbound platform were also removed which affected the volume of announcements on that platform throughout the day.

It did too !! Also at Bank Central Line, two diferent lengths for peak and off peak and some sort of odd chime before hand. Finishing with "Stand clear of the doors, please"

TOTAL authority, no messing about and only at stations where it is needed !

Let's have that recording back ! (It's still used at Embankment, northbound Northern Line, isn't it? I'm sure it was when i was there earlier this year !)

Does not make much difference to me .

I think (Oracle will probably know) that if you apologise for something, it is an admission of liability - and hence you can *theoretically* be held to it. Which, obviously LU don't want to do, they want to blame it on one of their sub-sub-contractors to stop the passenger claiming their refund.

Or perhaps one day we'll hear... "Ladies and gentlemen, this train is currently 57 minutes late, we apologise for this delay, this apology does not construe any admission of liability or impart blame onto London Underground, Transport for London or it's myriad of contractors, and any claims arising will not be altered by the broadcast of this announcement". ;D

I would tend to agree with TV...if you apologise you could be held to be accountable. If you say nothing then there is no admission of liability.

True - I was thinking more generally.

However, *theoretically*, let's say a train is delayed because some contractor has screwed something up further along the line. Under the conditions of carriage, it's "outside of LU's control", thus when you fill in the form after the 45 minute delay they come out with that. What would happen though, if you said "Well, the driver came over the PA and said "We're sorry for the inconvenience to your journey""?

Anyway - as a passenger, something that really bugs me is when a train can be an hour late, and whilst there's a nice long PA about keeping the aisles free so the trolley can get through, there's no apology for the delay.

While waiting at Barking this morning, as many District Line trains do, with a cold wind whistling through the open doors, I was listening to the C2C announcment of a train that was three minutes late. It was full of apologies, and was a big contrast to what I'd been reading on this thread yesterday.

Yes the TOTAL authority were the days! Now they try not to offend so much by being a bit calmer.

Im yet to hear a female voice say it. The stern man is just so funny.

But as many adults say, "Information Overload" comes to mind. I mean the other day waiting 15 mins for a Picc train north bound at Finsbury, it was just constant bloody announcements on a loop about 20 differnet kinds - SOO annoying.

However these are key targets for management and also part of this nonsense bonus scheme that operational staff are on.

The really useful bits like telling you that the next train is in 20 mins aren't included.

I think you'll find the vast majority of LUL staff would totally agree with you Tomcakes, but like JTD's says, our bosses have dictated to the frontline operational staff that X, Y & Z announcements must be made at a set frequency........this dictation is blanket across the network and takes no account of any one specific location (well, except perhaps a distinction between zone 1 & the rest). It is totally ridiculous that a security reminder, for example, has to be put out all day long at the likes of Upminster Bridge or Stamford Brook (to name but two random quiet stations) - but the staff have no choice

Has anyone noticed the C Stock lady is now telling people to EXIT at Earl's Court for the Exhibition Centres and EXIT at Southfields for Wimbledon Lawn Tennis? Are you not allowed to ALIGHT anymore? Was that too posh??

I've never heard the Northern say 'change' or 'alight' etc, for anything...