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Clank · August 17th 17, 07:32 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On 16.08.2017 6:23 PM, wrote:
On 16.08.17 16:00, Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
wrote:
In article , Anna Noyd-Dryver
wrote:
The front of a stationary train is the end towards which it will next be
moving, surely? If it's a through station, or you enter at the middle of
the platform, I can understand the confusion - but surely walking onto
the platform past the end of the track and a huge set of stop blocks
should help you know which way the train will move?

When I worked at Victoria I was often asked, by someone standing right by
the stop blocks, which way would the train be going.

Indeed. It's a staple amusement on the 'railway staff laugh at stuff
passengers say' groups/forums.

My personal favourite is being asked, at a terminal platform (passenger had
walked past the buffer stops), which of the two trains would be going
first. (Yes sir this one's going to grow legs, climb onto the platform,
walk around the other one and jump back down). The fact that the two trains
were going to totally different destinations didn't seem to matter...

Anna Noyd-Dryver

I was on a first-generation M-series train out of Grand Central
Terminal, on the Hudson Line. Those trains are the ones with the
half-width cabs, giving passengers a full forward view.

Anyway, I am standing there and a yuppie approaches me and demands that
I move as it wanted to use the toilet. It was only after explained that
the toilet was actually a cab and that this was the train's front that
it realised the mistake.

Talk about oblivious to one's surroundings.

It? Really?

We're into dangerous sociopath territory here...