I think London Underground is the only major underground system in the
world that actually tells passengers when their service is good
(probably to celebrate this rate occasion?).
Today at Stratford station I heard an expanded version - "Ladies and
gentleman! There is a good service on the Central line from this
station. I repeat, there is a good service on the Central line". Now
aside from the questionable need for such announcement at all I see at
least three unneeded parts in the announcement:
1. "Ladies and gentleman" (pretending to be polite is even worse then
being impolite)
2. "from this station" (because, God forbid, there will be no Central
line service from all other stations???)
3. "I repeat, there is a good service on the Central line" (is there
any need to repeat that???)

And don't get me started on the constant announcements for the stupid:
"Ladies and gentleman! Be careful when using the platforms of the
Stratford station today - the floors has become slippery. This is due
to adverse weather conditions." ("adverse weather conditions" - wtf?
was it hard to say that it is raining???)
"Ladies and gentleman! Be careful when using the stairs and platforms
on the Docklands Light Railway. Take special care of the
children." (aka "watch your steps"?)

And more from the status updates:
"Ladies and gentleman! This is your status update from the control
room at Liverpool Street. We have a good service on all underground
lines. There are no reported station closures." (I don't care where
this update comes from - this is not a radio station, dammit! And if
there is not closed stations, or if the service is fine - then there
is no need to say anything!)

The DLR scrolling announcements are even funnier: for more then a year
now they constantly show the message that "No lift service at
Shadwell". I'm sure that 99,9% of DLR passengers never used this lift
and would prefer to see the time when their train will arrive instead!
It is actually hard to see between constant reminders to change at
Poplar for other destinations (don't the already have the signs and
the maps to show this?) or keep my belongings with me at all times.

Urgh...

"alex_t" wrote in message
ups.com...
I think London Underground is the only major underground system in the
world that actually tells passengers when their service is good
(probably to celebrate this rate occasion?).
Today at Stratford station I heard an expanded version - "Ladies and
gentleman! There is a good service on the Central line from this
station. I repeat, there is a good service on the Central line". Now
aside from the questionable need for such announcement at all I see at
least three unneeded parts in the announcement:
1. "Ladies and gentleman" (pretending to be polite is even worse then
being impolite)
2. "from this station" (because, God forbid, there will be no Central
line service from all other stations???)
3. "I repeat, there is a good service on the Central line" (is there
any need to repeat that???)

And don't get me started on the constant announcements for the stupid:
"Ladies and gentleman! Be careful when using the platforms of the
Stratford station today - the floors has become slippery. This is due
to adverse weather conditions." ("adverse weather conditions" - wtf?
was it hard to say that it is raining???)
"Ladies and gentleman! Be careful when using the stairs and platforms
on the Docklands Light Railway. Take special care of the
children." (aka "watch your steps"?)

And more from the status updates:
"Ladies and gentleman! This is your status update from the control
room at Liverpool Street. We have a good service on all underground
lines. There are no reported station closures." (I don't care where
this update comes from - this is not a radio station, dammit! And if
there is not closed stations, or if the service is fine - then there
is no need to say anything!)

The DLR scrolling announcements are even funnier: for more then a year
now they constantly show the message that "No lift service at
Shadwell". I'm sure that 99,9% of DLR passengers never used this lift
and would prefer to see the time when their train will arrive instead!
It is actually hard to see between constant reminders to change at
Poplar for other destinations (don't the already have the signs and
the maps to show this?) or keep my belongings with me at all times.


I remember not so long ago when the bottom line of those platform indicators
on the main lines used to helpfully alternate between the destination of the
2nd and 3rd trains to arrive. Now they seem to alternate between the No
Smoking or else, and Fast Trains regularly pass this platform. Progress?

Paul

"alex_t" wrote in message
ups.com...
I think London Underground is the only major underground system in the
world that actually tells passengers when their service is good
(probably to celebrate this rate occasion?).

You're right, it's probably because it's the only one that
has occasions when it runs badly.

tim

alex_t wrote:
Today at Stratford station I heard an expanded version - "Ladies and
gentleman! There is a good service on the Central line from this
station. I repeat, there is a good service on the Central line".

I've always understood these to be in code. The statement "good service
on the X line" means that lines Y & Z are truly buggered but we're going
to ignore that and put emphasis on the positive aspects of the service.

On a good few occasions the "good service" announcement has flown in the
face of the self-evident delays or a broken down/out-of-service tube
being detrained at the platform.

ESB

On Jul 9, 7:56 pm, Ernst S Blofeld
wrote:
alex_t wrote:
Today at Stratford station I heard an expanded version - "Ladies and
gentleman! There is a good service on the Central line from this
station. I repeat, there is a good service on the Central line".

I've always understood these to be in code. The statement "good service
on the X line" means that lines Y & Z are truly buggered but we're going
to ignore that and put emphasis on the positive aspects of the service.

On a good few occasions the "good service" announcement has flown in the
face of the self-evident delays or a broken down/out-of-service tube
being detrained at the platform.

ESB

When the Olympic Committee visited London, LUL had to keep everything
out as a Good service to make it look good! Even though on some lines
there were waits of 15-20 minutes,

On Jul 9, 6:49 pm, "Paul Scott"
wrote:
"alex_t" wrote in message

ups.com...





I think London Underground is the only major underground system in the
world that actually tells passengers when their service is good
(probably to celebrate this rate occasion?).
Today at Stratford station I heard an expanded version - "Ladies and
gentleman! There is a good service on the Central line from this
station. I repeat, there is a good service on the Central line". Now
aside from the questionable need for such announcement at all I see at
least three unneeded parts in the announcement:
1. "Ladies and gentleman" (pretending to be polite is even worse then
being impolite)
2. "from this station" (because, God forbid, there will be no Central
line service from all other stations???)
3. "I repeat, there is a good service on the Central line" (is there
any need to repeat that???)

And don't get me started on the constant announcements for the stupid:
"Ladies and gentleman! Be careful when using the platforms of the
Stratford station today - the floors has become slippery. This is due
to adverse weather conditions." ("adverse weather conditions" - wtf?
was it hard to say that it is raining???)
"Ladies and gentleman! Be careful when using the stairs and platforms
on the Docklands Light Railway. Take special care of the
children." (aka "watch your steps"?)

And more from the status updates:
"Ladies and gentleman! This is your status update from the control
room at Liverpool Street. We have a good service on all underground
lines. There are no reported station closures." (I don't care where
this update comes from - this is not a radio station, dammit! And if
there is not closed stations, or if the service is fine - then there
is no need to say anything!)

The DLR scrolling announcements are even funnier: for more then a year
now they constantly show the message that "No lift service at
Shadwell". I'm sure that 99,9% of DLR passengers never used this lift
and would prefer to see the time when their train will arrive instead!
It is actually hard to see between constant reminders to change at
Poplar for other destinations (don't the already have the signs and
the maps to show this?) or keep my belongings with me at all times.

I remember not so long ago when the bottom line of those platform indicators
on the main lines used to helpfully alternate between the destination of the
2nd and 3rd trains to arrive. Now they seem to alternate between the No
Smoking or else, and Fast Trains regularly pass this platform. Progress?

Paul-


The other day, all the platform indicators on the Lewisham extension
of the DLR were continuously scrolling with information about a
service disruption at the far end of the Beckton branch, and nothing
else.

It's possible that some people were planning to continue their journey
in that direction, but very likely to be a minority, and even they
might have liked some information about the time and destination of
trains approaching the station they were currently waiting at.

On Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:42:45 -0700, alex_t
wrote:

The DLR scrolling announcements are even funnier: for more then a year
now they constantly show the message that "No lift service at
Shadwell".

Regardless of who does or doesn't use it, isn't it a bit of a disgrace
that it has been out of service for that long? Surely it could have
been replaced if not repairable in that time.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

Last week I saw the opposite side of the coin on the Amsterdam metro.
Lightening over 2 nights had knackered the 54 Wed morn, and everything
Thurs morn in the central zone (that'd be 5700 for geeks).

The signs? All normal. The end stations rotated as per a normal day
but with no times. The 54 was stopping short northbound in an outer
station but the signs promised a Centraal Station that it would not
reach that day, while shunting back south on the n/b platform.

In other words, LU can handle a crisis better probably due to more
experience sadly. The A'dam GVB could have done with some whiteboards
last week.

That didn't prevent a Heathrow 4 sign promising next train "1 in
7min", train "2 in 7 min" for over 20 minutes last Friday. And as for
the random different clock times in HattonX...
--
Old anti-spam address cmylod at despammed dot com appears broke
So back to cmylod at bigfoot dot com

On Jul 9, 6:42 pm, alex_t wrote:
1. "Ladies and gentleman" (pretending to be polite is even worse then
being impolite)


The opening bits of an announcement should always be "disposable", as
it give a moment for people to register that ther's an announcement,
and start listening. For some people, including you, this can be
annoying, but some need that extra moment. By launching straight into
the important bit of the announcement, a lot of people will miss it
completely because they won't "tune in" quickly enough.

I appreciate that with constant announcements nowadays this probably
doesn't matter too much overall, but that is the intention.

That said, even using "Tell them you're going to tell them something;
tell them; then tell them what you said", some people still miss it!

PhilD

--

On Jul 10, 9:59 am, PhilD wrote:
On Jul 9, 6:42 pm, alex_t wrote:

1. "Ladies and gentleman" (pretending to be polite is even worse then
being impolite)

The opening bits of an announcement should always be "disposable", as
it give a moment for people to register that ther's an announcement,
and start listening. For some people, including you, this can be
annoying, but some need that extra moment. By launching straight into
the important bit of the announcement, a lot of people will miss it
completely because they won't "tune in" quickly enough.

I appreciate that with constant announcements nowadays this probably
doesn't matter too much overall, but that is the intention.

That said, even using "Tell them you're going to tell them something;
tell them; then tell them what you said", some people still miss it!




The trouble is that the preambles aren't true. If you hear "Your
attention please; here is a special announcement ..." you can
guarantee that there will be absolutely nothing special about the
announcement.

If the announcement is special and important, it will probably be
garbled.

Also lately I've been hearing "Here is a customer announcement", which
I would have expected to be for someone specific, like "Frank Bowman,
please go to the office where you lost daughter is waiting" or
something, but this precedes "Please keep your personal belongings
with you ..." etc.