all talk and no action
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The train's a pain
My train journey home last night was brightened by an announcer who, after his welcome and run-down of stations, continued with the usual recommendation that passengers read the safety cards in the front of their seats. He added:
"I know what they say, but do you? Let's hope we don't have to find out."
After planting the mental image of a horrendous train crash in my mind, he followed up by requesting that people don't listen to their personal stereos too loud, explaining that "if you do, you might be on the end of some train rage and you do not want to experience that".
As I slipped on my MP3 player and settled down for a seemingly inevitable train wreck or a punch in the face for playing my music too loud, I pondered that at least the run-up to that moment would have been brightened by someone who decided to take their own approach to their job instead of following the rulebook. I also wondered how long it would be before he was fired after someone complained.
Hopefully he won't be. There have been various reports about London Tube announcer Emma Clarke being sacked for her spoof announcements which included "Would passengers filling in answers on their Sudokus please accept that they are just crosswords for the unimaginative and are not in any way more impressive just because they contain numbers."
Apparently, though, she was actually fired for a misunderstanding over a quote where she said that the Tube was "dreadful". So there's hope for Mr Train Announcer yet -- as long as he doesn't speak the truth and finish his announcement by saying "And sorry that our trains are a bit crap and you don't have a seat despite paying full price for a ticket."
"I know what they say, but do you? Let's hope we don't have to find out."
After planting the mental image of a horrendous train crash in my mind, he followed up by requesting that people don't listen to their personal stereos too loud, explaining that "if you do, you might be on the end of some train rage and you do not want to experience that".
As I slipped on my MP3 player and settled down for a seemingly inevitable train wreck or a punch in the face for playing my music too loud, I pondered that at least the run-up to that moment would have been brightened by someone who decided to take their own approach to their job instead of following the rulebook. I also wondered how long it would be before he was fired after someone complained.
Hopefully he won't be. There have been various reports about London Tube announcer Emma Clarke being sacked for her spoof announcements which included "Would passengers filling in answers on their Sudokus please accept that they are just crosswords for the unimaginative and are not in any way more impressive just because they contain numbers."
Apparently, though, she was actually fired for a misunderstanding over a quote where she said that the Tube was "dreadful". So there's hope for Mr Train Announcer yet -- as long as he doesn't speak the truth and finish his announcement by saying "And sorry that our trains are a bit crap and you don't have a seat despite paying full price for a ticket."
