(With thanks to Betapolitics for finding the article that made me think more about this!)
I was on the tube this morning, listening to the usual never-ending cascade of scratchy announcements from the tannoy. There were 8 during the time I waited to change; only one of them had anything to do with any tubes that were coming soon (the Circle line was, just for a change, having problems) but didn’t actually give any information about when the next one was due.
The other seven were all about the gap, the change from a circle to a loop, and MOST maddeningly, moving right down inside the carriage.
There have already been plenty of complaints about the endless announcements, from David Willetts, or from the residents of Sydenham. But other than the annoyance, there is a wider point.
Moving down inside the carriage is what should happen naturally. People should look around and notice that the carriage is filling up. They should consider others without being told to. It is damaging to our sense of independence, adventure, and basic decency to be told to do something that is so obviously a necessity of mass travel.
The Economist article makes a similar point. It is not healthy for someone else to always make decisions for us. It is healthy for us to have as much control over our own lives as possible. And that includes deciding where to stand in a busy Tube carriage.
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Such announcements have been going on for decades. They seem to have nothing whatsoever to do with the London Mayor and are purely operational matters for London Underground.
I don’t much like those particular announcements, especially the ones about moving down the carriage (or platform), but people don’t behave in a sensible manner and never have in my experience. Therefore the announcements come from necessity. If folk behaved differently there would no longer be the need for the specific announcements.
I rarely travel up to London nowadays, but did last Friday, and noticed that nothing had changed in this regard since the days (many years ago) when I was a regular traveller on the Underground…
I do agree that the constant barrage of announcements is incredibly annoying. It is even worse on long-distance mainline trains when there is not a minute’s peace from being told that the “Quiet Coach is Coach B” or that “the Buffet will be Closing in 10 Minutes”.
However – unfortunately people being people, they tend NOT to move down the carriage and the more crowded the carriage, the more intransigent they get. I think it stems from a primeval fear that they will get stuck on the train and swept on to the next station…
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