48-424: " Mind the gap " or sometimes " watch the gap " is an audible or visual warning phrase issued to rail passengers to take caution while crossing the horizontal, and in some cases vertical, spatial gap between the train doorway and the station platform edge. The phrase was first introduced in 1968 on the London Underground in the United Kingdom . It is popularly associated with the UK among tourists because of
96-677: A core objective" for any operators and that it is "not acceptable" for passengers to have to worry whether there will be an attendant with a ramp at their destination. He criticised London's Crossrail project's "poor decision making" which set new inner-city station floor heights on the Elizabeth line at train floor level, while outer suburban platforms remained at their pre-existing height, about 200mm lower: "This brand-new railway has cornered itself into perpetually offering an inaccessible service." An incident once occurred involving Robert Todd Lincoln (son of American president Abraham Lincoln ) and
144-802: A gap of no more than 3” horizontal and 5/8" vertical between platform edge and entrance to the rail car. However, currently no passenger rail system in the U.S. has been able to achieve this without the use of manually operated 'bridge plates'.” As of 2007 , the US Federal Railway Administration recommended platform gap maximum limits of 7–10 inches (18–25 cm), and 10–13 inches (25–33 cm) on curves. Physical measures to reduce platform gaps may include realigning trackbeds, realigning platform slabs, and extending platform edges with wooden boards. Operational measures may include "zoning off" some railcars (not opening certain doors at problematic stations), relocating where trains stop along
192-624: A half-hexagonal canopy of glass and metal suspended by elegant metal ties, leaded light first floor windows, dentil cornice, two ornamental lamp brackets and a frieze bearing moulded lettering and the Metropolitan Railway monogram. Aldgate became the terminus of the Metropolitan line in 1941. Before that, Metropolitan trains had continued on to the southern termini of the East London Line . In 2005, one of four suicide bombers involved in
240-425: A lengthy platform, and temporarily deploying "platform conductor" personnel to assist passengers. On systems where the floor level of the vehicle and the platform height closely match, an extendible platform can be installed below the doors of the vehicle, to deploy when the doors are opened. This significantly decreases the gap and thus the risks when boarding and alighting vehicles at stations or stops. This method
288-673: A moving train across snowy mountain peaks. It was a prominent utterance by the subterranean cannibal killer of the 1972 movie Death Line . The phrase is also featured in the soundtrack of the game Timesplitters: Future Perfect in the Subway level. It is also the title of a Noisettes song on their album What's the Time Mr. Wolf? . The phrase is used in the songs "Deadwing" by Porcupine Tree , "Bingo" by Madness , " Someone in London " by Godsmack , Metal Airplanes by Matthew Good and " New Frontier " by
336-506: A news service in Mumbai , India reported several serious platform gap mutilation incidents and a death within a few months, mostly attributed to crowded conditions. In 2015, Singapore had at least two platform gap incidents which were eventually resolved, but caused significant disruptions in rush-hour service. In 2014 in Perth, Australia , an accident occurred when a man fell between the platform and
384-584: A platform gap in Jersey City, New Jersey during the American Civil War . While waiting on a crowded train platform, Robert Lincoln was pushed against the train, and the train started to move, dropping his feet into the gap. He was saved from possible serious injury or death by the prompt actions of well-known actor Edwin Booth , whose brother John Wilkes Booth later assassinated President Lincoln ). In 2014,
432-405: A train car (or other mass transit vehicle ) and the edge of the station platform , often created by geometric constraints, historic legacies, or use of partially compatible equipment. Many high-quality bus rapid transit (BRT) systems also use high platforms at station stops to allow fast and efficient level boarding and alighting, but potentially leaving hazardous gaps between the platforms and
480-454: A utilitarian safety warning, "Mind the gap" has become a stock phrase and is used in many other contexts having little to do with subway safety. It has been used as the title of at least two music albums by Scooter and Tristan Psionic , a film , and a novel , as the name of a movie production company , a theatre company, and a board game . It was also the title of a regional daytime quiz show on ITV , hosted by Paul Ross . The phrase
528-448: Is super-elevation , deliberate tilting of the railbed to allow faster travel around curves. This factor is especially relevant on systems where some express trains (such as long-distance Amtrak trains) operate non-stop through local stations located on curves. Higher pass-through speeds also increase railcar sway, requiring even larger physical clearances to avoid platform strikes. In the US,
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#1732863306834576-501: Is that of Keith Wilson, their industrial sales manager (May 1990). It can still be heard at Paddington for example. Keith Wilson's voice can be heard in the background of a scene in the Bond film Skyfall . In March 2013, an old "Mind the gap" recording by Oswald Laurence was restored to the curved northbound platform at Embankment station on the Northern line 's Charing Cross branch so that
624-666: Is used by the German BR423 EMU 's and its derivatives, including the Dutch variant SLT . A public awareness campaign may be used, employing visually distinct platform edge markings, posters, signs, public safety announcements, and web videos to increase safety awareness. The MTA Long Island Rail Road website lists some precautions passengers should observe regarding platform gaps. An article in The Guardian conceded that some passengers who have fallen into platform gaps were drunk at
672-504: Is used in many video games, including Portal , Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 , Halo , Where's My Water , Temple Run , Quantum Conundrum , Killing Floor , Amazing Alex , Armadillo Run and BioShock Infinite , and in animated series such as The Clone Wars , usually in an ironic context. A soldier in Captain America: The First Avenger says it humorously before they descend via zip-line onto
720-399: The 7 July terrorist attacks detonated a device on a C-stock Circle line train from Liverpool Street as it was approaching Aldgate. Seven passengers were killed in the bombing. Of the stations affected by the bombings, Aldgate was the first to be reopened, once police had handed back control of the site to London Underground following an extensive search for evidence. After the damaged tunnel
768-579: The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that platforms be “readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs (49 CFR Part 37, Appendix A, 10.3.1 (9))”. However, this rule only applies to new construction or major renovations of stations. A 2009 report to the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) observes that ADA rules specify that "At stations with high level platforms, there may be
816-707: The Counting Crows . Emma Clarke , one of the voices of the London Underground, has released a Mind The Gap single. It features spoof London Underground announcements. The name of the Portuguese hip hop group Mind Da Gap was also inspired by this stock phrase. The phrase was used as the name for a campaign in December 2010 to lobby the UK Government to allow Gap Year students to defer their university place and not pay
864-465: The Northern line northbound platform at Embankment , and the Bakerloo line platforms at Piccadilly Circus . The markings on the platform edge usually line up with the doors on the cars. While the message is sometimes played over the platform's public address system on some lines, usually it is an arrival message inside the train itself: "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform". During
912-556: The Circle (line). Services from Aldgate originally ran further west than they do now, reaching as far as Richmond . The train shed of 1876 survives, hidden from the street by the later station frontage building erected in 1926. This was designed by Charles Walter Clark the Metropolitan Railway's chief architect between 1911 and 1933. The station building has a six-bay façade clad in white faïence with original features including 1920s shopfronts with green marble and pink granite stallrisers,
960-668: The United Kingdom. The phrase "mind the gap" can be heard at each station along Dublin 's DART and at all stations in the city centre. The message can be seen in some train stations in the rest of Ireland. On Commuter and InterCity trains, the phrase "Please mind the gap" is accompanied by the Irish " Seachain an Bhearna le do thoil " when pulling into stations. Equivalents of "Mind the gap" are used by transit systems worldwide, particularly when stations curve, but most new systems tend to avoid these types of stations. Despite its origin as
1008-520: The acting president of the Long Island Rail Road cited the need to interoperate with freight service and other passenger services such as New Jersey Transit and Amtrak , in addition to its own diverse rolling stock, as complicating and slowing efforts to deal with platform gap hazards. Other variables that can increase platform gaps include rail wear, wheel wear, condition of the railcar suspension, and passenger load. A further complication
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#17328633068341056-507: The actor insisted on royalties and the phrases had to be re-recorded. Lodge read the phrases to line up the recording equipment for level, and those were used. While Lodge's recording is still in use, some lines use other recordings. From 2005, the voice of Phil Sayer was heard on the Jubilee , Northern , and Piccadilly lines. When he died in 2016, The New York Times , one of many newspapers worldwide to report his death, said, "Mr. Sayer's
1104-503: The actor's widow , Dr Margaret McCollum, could hear his voice. Because some platforms on the London Underground are curved, and the rolling stock that use them are straight, an unsafe gap is created when a train stops at a curved platform. In the absence of a device to fill the gap , some form of visual and auditory warning is needed to advise passengers of the risk of being caught unaware and sustaining injury by stepping into
1152-447: The buses. Alignment setups such as Kassel curbs help to reduce platform gaps without requiring time-consuming manual alignment at each BRT station stop. A platform gap has two component measurements: The ideal platform would be straight and align perfectly with a train or other large vehicle. Even in this case, a small gap between the conveyances and the platform is necessary to allow the vehicles to move freely without rubbing against
1200-430: The cars and the platform edge. These spaces are caused by the geometric gap between a curve ( circular arc or otherwise) and the straight-line chord or tangent formed by a railcar or bus in proximity to a platform. These types of gaps are geometrically intrinsic, and cannot be eliminated as long as the platform is located on a curved or banked segment of track or guideway. When passenger car doors are located only at
1248-705: The concave side is at Lansdowne station in Boston , where side platforms for both the inbound and outbound directions are located to reduce platform gaps to commuter rail trains of the Framingham/Worcester Line . Concave and convex gaps also exist in several MTR stations in Hong Kong, particularly on the East Rail line , which was built on the historic Kowloon–Canton Railway line. Mechanical platform edge extensions known as platform gap fillers may be used to bridge
1296-488: The coronation weekend of King Charles III in 2023, the message was voiced by the King himself and his wife Camilla . The King says, "My wife and I wish you and your families a wonderful coronation weekend," followed by Camilla, who says, "Wherever you are travelling, we hope you have a safe and pleasant journey," which is ended with the King saying "And remember, please mind the gap." It was played throughout every railway station in
1344-474: The desirability of the line for local traffic and greatly increasing the cost of construction due to high prices in the City of London. Construction was also delayed because the station was on the site of a plague pit behind St Botolph's Aldgate which contains an estimated 1,000 bodies. Aldgate station was opened on 18 November 1876, with a southbound extension to Tower Hill opening on 25 September 1882, completing
1392-590: The door operating mechanism. They may be found on modern trainsets, like various versions of the Stadler GTW and the British Rail Class 555 for the Tyne and Wear Metro . Train-mounted gap fillers eliminate the need for careful alignment and, as the driver only gets the signal that the doors have closed when the fillers have fully retracted, require no special synchronization on departure. Moving all active components of
1440-442: The ends of each car (a common design for commuter rail and long-distance trains), platform access from a concave platform is preferred, since this brings the car ends in closest proximity to the platform edge. By contrast, a convex platform would leave the largest possible gaps between the car ends and the platform edge, making this design undesirable and thus rarely implemented. An example of platforms designed for access from
1488-410: The gap between platform and vehicle. These stopgaps require careful alignment of the vehicle upon arrival, and careful synchronization to avoid serious damage caused by departure of the vehicle before the extenders are fully retracted. They increase station dwell time , and introduce safety and maintenance concerns of their own. Alternatively, the gap fillers may be mounted on the train, and linked to
Mind the gap - Misplaced Pages Continue
1536-512: The gap. The phrase "Mind the gap" was chosen for this purpose and can be found painted along the edges of curved platforms and heard on recorded announcements when a train arrives at many Underground stations. The recording is also used where platforms are non-standard height. Deep-level tube trains have a floor height around 20 cm (8 inches) less than sub-surface stock trains. Where trains share platforms, for example, some Piccadilly line (deep-tube) and District line (sub-surface) stations,
1584-453: The higher tuition fees in September 2012. The phrase has been used to name a combinatorial optimization problem. The original Oswald Laurence "Mind the gap" announcement and the current voice-over announcements are also used in electronic music. Platform gap A platform gap (also known technically as the platform train interface or PTI in some countries) is the space between
1632-724: The level of the flooring of the carriages, and that a dangerous space between the platform and the carriages ought not to exist'. A 2009 American report identified platform gap injury risk factors, including "mobility, being elderly, having disabilities (visual impairment), being accompanied by small children or incidents occurring to small children, behavior of other passengers such as pushing or jostling, carry luggage and other articles, alcohol, degraded platform conditions such as crowding, wet platforms or uneven platforms, and stepping distances". In 2023, British transport systems lecturer and co-founder of UK-based Campaign for Level Boarding Gareth Dennis said achieving level boarding "should be
1680-548: The particularly British word choice (this meaning of the verb mind has largely fallen into disuse in American English , where the term "watch your step" is more commonly used). The phrase "Mind the gap" was coined in around 1968 for a planned automated announcement , after it had become impractical for drivers and station attendants to warn passengers. London Underground chose digital recording using solid state equipment with no moving parts. As data storage capacity
1728-605: The platform and rush her to the hospital. Injuries to her internal organs led to her death within a day. Aldgate tube station Aldgate is a London Underground station near Aldgate in the City of London . The station is on the Circle line between Tower Hill and Liverpool Street , and is the eastern terminus of the Metropolitan line . It is in Travelcard Zone 1 . Aldgate
1776-519: The platform edge. In 2007, the Long Island Rail Road regarded an 8-inch (20 cm) platform gap as typical on its non-curved platforms. In real-world situations, stations are often constrained by limited space, legacy designs, and track geometry or roadway layout. Stations may have to use a compromise design, with a platform curved in a way that will allow a vehicle or train to arrive and depart without mechanical interference, but which leaves unavoidable horizontal and possibly vertical gaps between
1824-578: The platform gap were attached to Kleinprofil trains that ran on Großprofil lines at various times of rolling stock shortage. In some rail systems, significant platform gaps may also occur (both horizontally and vertically) because of equipment and platforms designed to different and somewhat incompatible height and width standards. This situation may occur especially when previously separate rail systems are consolidated, or start to interoperate , thus allowing equipment to be moved onto tracks where it had not been used before. In 2007, public testimony by
1872-484: The platform is a compromise. On London's Metropolitan line , a gap has been created between the train and the platform edge at Aldgate and Baker Street stations. This is due to the phasing out of the old "A" stock trains and their replacement with "S" stock trains, which have low floors to ease accessibility for disabled people. "Mind the gap" audible warnings are always played on the Central line platforms at Bank ,
1920-679: The route to and from Watford . London Buses day and night routes serve the station. Aldgate station plays a role in the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans (published in the anthology His Last Bow ). In the story, the body of a junior clerk named Cadogan West is found on the tracks outside Aldgate, with a number of stolen plans for the Bruce-Partington submarine in his pocket. It seems clear enough that "the man, dead or alive, either fell or
1968-498: The system to the train instead of the platform allows maintenance to be performed in a shop, rather than in the field. Singapore has committed to specifying its newer trains with gap fillers, to reduce the incidence of platform gap accidents in its crowded stations. On the Berlin U-Bahn , which has two different loading gauges ( Kleinprofil on U1-U4 and Großprofil on U5-U9), so-called Blumenbretter ("flower boards") bridging
Mind the gap - Misplaced Pages Continue
2016-518: The time, but pointed out other incidents when victims did not have that impairment. The writer complained specifically about gaps that measured from 46 to 51 centimetres (18 to 20 in) which posed safety threats to children and the elderly, and called for modification of dangerous platforms. In 1865 the Franklin Institute reported on 'the frequent loss of life that occurred on station platforms' and stated that 'platforms should be built up to
2064-515: The train, and could not release his leg because the gap was too small. Other passengers "rocked" the carriage sideways to increase the gap, allowing the victim to escape. In 2022 in Duvvada, India , a girl who was standing at the door for alighting was knocked down by the door due to a sudden jerk, and she fell into the gap between coach and the platform, In spite of immediate rescue efforts launched by authorities to free her, it took almost an hour to cut
2112-502: Was expensive, the phrase had to be short. A concise warning was also easier to paint onto the platform. The equipment was supplied by AEG Telefunken . According to the Independent on Sunday , sound engineer Peter Lodge, who owned Redan Recorders in Bayswater , working with a Scottish Telefunken engineer, recorded an actor reading "Mind the gap" and "Stand clear of the doors please", but
2160-481: Was not the only voice cautioning passengers to 'mind the gap', but it is arguably the most familiar one." For 15 years before that, the voice on the Piccadilly line was that of Archers actor Tim Bentinck , but is now Julie Berry's. Another announcement was recorded by voice artist Emma Clarke . At least ten stations were supplied with announcers manufactured by PA Communications Ltd. of Milton Keynes . The recorded voice
2208-562: Was opened in 1876 with its entrance on Aldgate High Street. A station named Aldgate East opened nearby eight years later and is served today by the District and Hammersmith & City lines . The route first proposed ran south from Moorgate to Cannon Street , but this was soon amended to the present alignment to allow connection with three additional termini: Liverpool Street, Broad Street , and Fenchurch Street . However, this change also forced an awkward doubling-back at Aldgate, reducing
2256-407: Was precipitated from a train." But why, wonders Holmes, did the dead man not have a ticket? It turns out that the body was placed on top of a train carriage before it reached Aldgate, via a window in a house on a cutting overlooking the Metropolitan line. Holmes realises that the body fell off the carriage roof only when the train was jolted by the dense concentration of points at Aldgate. Aldgate
2304-493: Was repaired by Metronet engineers, the lines were reopened. This allowed the Metropolitan line to be fully restored, since the closure had meant all trains had to be terminated two stations early, at Moorgate. On the Circle line the typical off-peak service measured in trains per hour (tph) is: On the Metropolitan line the typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: During peak hours there are also additional fast and semi-fast Metropolitan line services, with some following
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