Edward Cowling London UK wrote:
In message .com,
writes
* My personal favourite being loud platform announcement "This train is
going to CHARING CROSS", combined with in-train sign "CHARING CROSS",
plus in-train announcement "This train is going to CHARING CROSS",
followed by passenger asking of fellow passengers, "Is this train going
to Charing Cross?".
You get this at Moorgate. A sign comes up saying the train on Platform 9
is for Letchworth. Then one of the staff clearly announces the train on
platform 9 is for Letchworth, several times in a loud clear voice.
Yet nearly every night someone will come up to me and ask if the train
is for Letchworth ??? No wonder people who deal with the public all day
go a bit weird :-)
The passenger may be deaf, and needs to lip-read. In-train signs have
a nasty habit of being either broken or incorrect, as I have found to
my irritation on the Piccadilly Line - get on train in central London
advertising Heathrow as destination (both on the header and the
platform display), to find it merrily goes up the Uxbridge branch
*WITHOUT* announcements of a change of destination, or anything special
being said at Acton Town. The first time this happened to me, I
chalked it up to me being dozy, but the second time, having been
sensitised to the situation, I was Not Happy when Ealing Common hove
into view.
Trains on the Hounslow loop have similar problems, and as for
destination indicators on buses, there have been times in the past when
it would be more accurate to toss a coin than rely on the destination
indicator to tell you if the bus will terminate short on a route (as
50% are timetabled to do on one route I use).
People on the conveyance in question will frequently have a better idea
of the reality of the situation, so asking is a good idea, and not as
silly as it first appears. If I recall correctly, at one time Charing
Cross to Hastings trains actually all carried on to Ore, but you had to
'know' this, as it was not mentioned on announcements. Similarly, at
times if disruption, the train displays and auto-annoncmenets may say
the train is going to Charing Cross, but actually it is being diverted
to Cannon Street - and Digital Doris + the in-train displays are not
flexible enough to give out this information.
Things have improved radically from unintelligble sounds coming from PA
systems that are too soft or so loud they are emitting square waves, in
accents varying wildly from RP, and I applaud the improvement in
available information. However, I would not say the situation as
present is unimprovable.
Sid