Somebody once told me that when London Underground announce that Tube trains are delayed because of a "passenger taken ill", this is code for "somebody has thrown him or herself under a train".
I have no idea whether this is true or not, but this was inspiration for a song that I co-wrote eleven years ago:
Huw Edwards, a lucky man in many respects
5 hours ago
5 comments:
No, a passenger ill generally means they've collapsed or vomited. If someone has jumped they usually say 'under a train' outright (at least after the news is passed to the other stations)
Anon, interesting. In a decade of commuting by Tube, I've never heard them say "under a train" a single time. So either suicides only happens very seldom or..?
No, I hear it every other week.
I take the Cuntral, Pakidilly and Derelict lines. There was one at Mile End last week.
The chances of me getting a 'Bingo!' are enhanced because some of my stops are junctions for more than one line.
The really mysterious one is 'customer incident'.
An unofficial tally, last updated 26th November, made it 35 one-unders since the beginning of the year. I can't remember if they count unsuccessful attempts!
"customer incident" is best understood as "someone is being a prat" and will cover such things as violence occurring on a platform/train, fight kicking off, someone threatening to jump, etc.
>"someone is being a prat"
I thought that was a condition of entry for the Tube :-)
That's what I expected, I can well understand a vigilante mob forming when some twat pulls the emergency handle for no good reason. I saw someone do this because her friends were going to miss the train.
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