On the first day of the new year I’m in London Underground’s Bethnal Green Station waiting to catch a train to walk around Oxford Street.
And this is the announcement everyone hears over the public address system:
“Due to a person UNDER THE TRAIN, there are delays on the Central line.”
Just like that.
Now in New York we would say
“incident”
“police action”
“medical emergency”
Something to leave you wondering what exactly was going on.
Leave it to the Brits to be completely real about it…
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Man, I think that’s just how it is in Europe. When I was at the airport in Amsterdam a few years ago, every now and then, you’d hear a message on the PA:
“John Doe, John Doe, please report to Gate 13. You’re holding up the flight.”
Hopefully the person under the train was fortunate like that dude in the NY Subway who saved someone on the tracks by laying on him and letting the train pass over them.
You have to understand that the British public has had to endure decades of delays and breakdowns on a daily basis because modernisation of the once glorious transport system is looooong overdue. Hence, the public will not be satisfied ‘left wondering’, they want to know THE REASON behind YET ANOTHER delay, and the authorities know this!! I hope that shed some light : )
Those crazy Londoners [kidding]. You should try and make it out to stonehenge if you get a chance. There are a lot of tour companies that do day trips outside of London. I used Evan Evans when I was there, it was a good time
@ScottFro
I was looking in the papers the next day to see if I saw any stories about it, but I didn’t. Don’t know what happened to him/her.
@Keeb
That does shed light. Thanks!
@Living the Dream
Stonehenge. Great idea. I’ll check it out!
Usually it means that the person’s (most likely but not only) suicide attempt was successful. The ‘person under train’ announcement is a relatively new one. It used to be ‘due to passenger action’, but for some reason ‘the Powers That Be’thought that they should be more specific.