Commute Update & Train Announcements

BART was doing pretty well last week… until Friday evening. It was raining on Friday, as it had been most days last week here in the bay area, but on Friday the rain was causing a 5-10 minute delay on BART according to the indicator board. Just as I was wondering how the rain on Friday could be that different, the train came flying into San Bruno… and overshot the platform by about two thirds of a car!

OK, not a big deal really, but the doors did not open for about 5 minutes, explaining the delays. Eventually, they worked out how to open the doors, even though they were not aligned with the little black sections of the platform, and the ride from there to Powell was normal.

At Powell though we had another delay… this time because somebody had dropped something in front of the train (guess it didn’t overshoot that one). After the announcement that the driver needed to clear whatever it was that had been dropped in front of the train, the lights drop to the emergency lighting. Once power was restored, the doors had some problems closing, then finally we were on our way again. I did make the connection with my ferry, but only just.

Today, while catching up on some blogs, I noticed a link in Annie Mole’s Going Underground blog to a page collecting amusing announcements from the London Underground. I wonder if any of the BART announcements ever contain any of this humour… I’ll have to listen more and see if any are worth reporting! A few of my favourites:

also, I would like to apologise for the delay to your SO CALLED Victoria line service, this was due to … errr the wrong kind of rain!!

Hello this is xxx speaking, I am the captain of your train, and we will be departing shortly, we will be cruising at an altitude of approximately zero feet, and our scheduled arrival time in Morden is 3:15pm. The temperature in Morden is approximately 15 degrees celsius, and Morden is in the same time zone as Mill Hill east, so there’s no need to adjust your watches.

This is Knightsbridge Station… All change here for Mr Fayed’s little corner shop…

[ed. for those not familiar with the area, that little corner store would be Harrods 🙂 ]

Next time, you might find it easier to wait until the doors are open before trying to get on the train.

Ladies and gentlemen we will shortly be arriving at Waterloo, then I think we will carry right on through the channel tunnel and spend the weekend in Paris.

This is a customer announcement, please note that the big slidy things are the doors, the big slidy things are the doors.

Ladies and gentlemen this train has 22 doors on each side, please feel free to use all of them, not just the two in the middle.

[ed. I hope he just meant people to use all the ones on the side facing the platform 😉 ]

Welcome aboard the Flintstones railway, once I get my feet on the floor and start running we should be on our way.

May I remind all passengers that there is strictly no smoking allowed on any part of the Underground. However, if you are smoking a joint it is only fair that you pass it round the rest of the carriage.

Ladies and gentlemen, upon departing the train may I remind you to take your rubbish with you. Despite the fact that you are in something that is metal, fairly round, filthy and smells, this is a tube train and not a bin on wheels.

Please allow the doors to close. Try not to confuse this with ‘Please hold the doors open’. The two are distinct and separate instructions.

[ed. I’ve heard tales of BART trains being taken out of service because somebody held the doors open, thereby breaking them. Don’t know if it is true though.]

Finally, I noticed that my “Sign Out of Order” photo, from the third total BART shutdown, had been picked up by the Daily Irrelevant last week too.

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