Tube breaks down, so does platform announcer at Farringdon
December 9th, 2009 • 23 Comments
There were big problems on the London Underground this morning, after multiple signal and train failures conspired to cause major disruption to the Circle line. That said, nobody could accuse TfL staff of not going the extra mile in terms of customer service. The platform announcer at Farringdon refused to stop talking for nearly half an hour, giving a blow-by-blow account of what was occurring. Such gems included:
“For those eastbound passengers who are frustrated… and let’s be honest passengers, who wouldn’t be?”
“Is this what having a nervous breakdown feels like?”
And our favourite:
“You’ve got two options – apart from shooting yourself, and who could blame you?”
And he kept going, on and on and on, seemingly to prove a point to his manager that he was more than capable of communicating to passengers:
An admirable effort, and far more entertaining than threatening to sling the passengers under the trains.
ahhh! its ascottishbloke from hukd i think he had a wee dram too many last night at the hukd piss up
Does he still have a job this afternoon?
I have to admit it was my fault, I was meant to be going round the circular to get to London Victoria but ended up going east of the line. So hopped back on a westbound train and sabotaged the signals so it went to Victoria instead of along the top which saved me changing trains!
Hilarious – thanks for posting.
The guy at Farringdon is an alky and has been spoutin random shite for years now.
I heard the exact same guy yesterday morning at Farringdon going on about sharing over the P.A system..I thought it was quite funny.
I also like the guy at Bank northbound Northern Line who sounds like a 90s drum n bass mc.
Awesome. He deserves a medal
what a legend
it’s Francis Begbie
he should be a radio DJ
Top effort! Agree about the guy at Bank, Robin. He always makes me chuckle!
Tube announcer advises passengers to consider shooting themselves « Dickiebo
From what I could hear, he said “You could put your iPod on…and who could blame you?” . Nothing about killing themselves. But would’ve been funny if he had said that.
FARRINGDON TUBE AUDIO
Sounds to me like he says something about ‘walkman’ or ‘iPod’ and ‘who could blame you’. I can’t make out the ’shooting yourself’ part.
A little British Humor won’t do harm…makes life more interesting..like if the train suddenly terminates at Charing Cross (CX) …the driver normally say..sorry guys…trains ain’t going nowhere….due to some problem at the idiots’ side…ain’t my fault. Must be the lines men gone to get a cuppa tea.
best regards
azrin @ http://www.azrin.info
Simple solution, Frankie Boyle has got a job with London Underground!
We need more of this. It’s a marked improvement to the churlish, monosyllabic Africans shuffling about the place in a permanent state of sullen resentment.
Top notch.
I was on the platform; it was amusing and past the time while we waited. I didn’t hear anything about shooting yourself.
This was probably the same guy I heard saying “Passengers on platform X…. as you can see it’s pointless to wait for the train. Take the national rail to King’s X and change for other tube lines.” This was during normal service (read: “no service for 3 hours”) on the Metropolitan, District and Circle lines at Farringdon. This was this past winter when I was on my way home during one of my numerous stopovers in LON. Thankfully, I didn’t cut it too close (had 2 hrs before my flight).
I have heard things like this before I doubt that he would have said anything like that it would put him right in it! Frustration at your job can make you do things like that I think it is good to get it out of your system. It just makes him more human than most of the announcers can be a bit repetitive and boring. It makes the journey where you are going more interesting. Perhaps reciting poetry would have been also interesting.
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I love Faringdon – worked there for about a year in 2002 on saffron hill. The tubes always messed up and the tannoy generally remained quiet.
Good on the guard for speaking up – makes life alot easier for us commuters!