On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 19:20:45 +0000 (UTC), "mocha"
wrote:

I was in leicester square tube station today on the northern line waiting
for a tbe a guy appeared to have droped something on the tracks on the first
ledge I think it was. My heart skipped a beat when I saw him jump down on
the track to get it. A tube was soon coming in 2 mins. He jumped back up and
said its ok the first track is not live! after scaring many people.

He's right - the 3rd (outer electric) rail can switch from side to
side, and is normally placed on the opposite side from the platform at
stations. In other words, the rail nearest the platform is normally
not live. The exception is at stations (such as Arnos Grove) where one
track is served by 2 platform faces, where of course this is
impossible.

On a related note, on the episode of "The Tube" that just finished,
there was a shot of a track worker setting up a temporary speed
restriction sign on the track somewhere on the Met. He stood astride
one of the juice rails, bent over, and put a metal frame thing right
next to the rail! This appeared to be done (though the editing may
have been deceptive) while trains were running, in between trains, so
presumably the rails were live. How close do you have to get to the
rail for there to be a danger of arcing? What if he'd stumbled or
fainted?