Klarinet Archive - Posting 000440.txt from 2004/03

From: "Matthew Lloyd" <Matthew@------.f9.co.uk>
Subj: RE: [kl] Minding the gap - and the Tube - oh and the Big Railway too.....
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 13:45:34 -0500

It isn't only Bank and Waterloo that have this problem. I'm not in a
position to deal with every station (try www.google.co.uk if you do - I
bet someone has it on the internet somewhere!) but it is more widespread
than that.

These days - and certainly in the rush hour - every platform has a train
dispatcher who has a hand held link to the speakers on that sole
platform and it is him (or her) who tells you to both mind the gap and
to stand clear of the doors. It isn't a recording these days. But it is
on the trains - and a dreadful one at that. As for the accent - you can
get almost anything these days!

On the big railway the same applies. On a station such as Market
Harborough one is still asked to mind the gap (although "between the
train and the platform edge) as well as the station is on a very
significant curve, so that the cant of the rails causes the train to
tilt to a significant degree. The announcements are usually a little
clearer though!

Matthew

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Davenport [mailto:bob@------.freeserve.co.uk]
Sent: 07 March 2004 17:46
To: klarinet@------.org
Subject: [kl] Minding the gap

>The point is that ['Mind the Gap'] has no cultural basis in the States.
It
>is a logical
>use of words, to be sure. No reason I know of exists why it is funny or
>wrong. But since it is not used in the State, and is ubiquitous in
England
>it takes some getting used to.

I doubt that it is ubiquitous in England, actually. Though most
Englishmen/women would understand what the words mean, I think the
phrase
is probably significant only to people who use or have used a particular
few stations on the London underground (perhaps only Bank and Waterloo)
where the curvature of the platform creates gaps between platform and
train
that make a warning desirable. And to my mind the phrase is memorable
only
because of the accent that the warning is pronounced in - like something
out of Brief Encounter - so that it sounds like 'Meind the Gep'. (I'd
always assumed that this was because the recording used is several
decades
old. However, following the introduction of station announcements in
Northern Line trains a few years back, the announcement for Highgate is
the
similarly Celia Johnson-ish: 'Highgit'. Most odd.)

Bob D.

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