Talk:Mind the gap

1. REDIRECT Template:Archives

In the News

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=113816&in_page_id=34

An news story about a guy who failed to mind the gap, and his parents wanting to remove the gap.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by SkippyUK (talk • contribs) 11:28, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Announcements

Hasn't the announcement changed from:

'Stand clear of the doors, please'

to:

'Stand clear of the closing doors'?

(Alternatively: sta clee of the clopthie doo)

Slightly less polite, but perhaps they felt the additional explanation was required?

Let's not also forget the 'Mind the gap between the train and the platform edge' announcement - obviously intended for those who couldn't work that out themselves!

Mauls 22:20, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Alot of the announcements vary between underground lines. Some of them have 'Stand clear, of the closing doors' whereas others have 'Stand clear of the doors, please'. MichaelKeefe 09:06, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

The Tyne and Wear Metro recently changed their announcement from "stand clear of the doors, please" to a more abrupt "doors closing". It was rumoured that this change was made as a political correctness measure to appease disability discrimination groups - after all, if you're confined to a wheelchair, you can't exactly *stand* clear of the doors... 217.155.20.163 03:03, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Isn't the New York Subway similar? Kilo-Lima|^(talk) 20:29, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

lt1967 the 1967 stock has an announcement is Stand clear of the closing doors. 218.102.110.210 01:43, 31 August 2007 (UTC) Victoria1967/2009

Subway?

Most of this article is about London Underground, in the UK - in which country "subway" does *not* usually mean an underground railway. Is this really the best link to use? 86.149.2.48 02:57, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

I agree, i've changed the text to 'public transit' as that's how it is described in the London Underground article. If anyone has any further suggestions, feel free to implement them as i think there's probably a better way to put this. MichaelKeefe 09:04, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

"Transit" is American too, and rarely used in the UK (except in other contexts such as "in transit"). Londoners would usually say "public transport" in preference to the American forms "public transit" or "public transportation". However, I can't think of an accurate British alternative for "rapid transit", so I'll leave it for now. I don't know how a professional transport planner in the UK would refer to the system. Mtford 01:25, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Related?

The American variant "Watch your step"? --Danielsan1701 14:02, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Diagram

It would be nice to have a diagram or photo of a strait car at a curved platform. Also, what is the maximum gap anywhere in the Tube system? —Ben FrantzDale 16:33, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

File:Yes check.svg Done — added photo at Bank Underground station. It's around 1 ft (30 cm). cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 15:16, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

Baroque Cycle

In the last line of p. 481 of The System of the World (novel), Neal Stephenson has a character (in 1714) warn "Mind the Gap" in disembarking from boat to pier. Could he know something, rather than just tweaking the reader's nose?
--Jerzy•t 21:49, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Star Wars connection

In the October 17 episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, "Destroy Malevolence," there's an Easter Egg connection to this article. Watch the episode yourself (it will be posted on the Internet in full soon), and/or read the video commentary. Should there be a pop culture section of this article that would include things like this? --Bassaf (talk) 13:23, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

hey guys i'm confused about something in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw-oYvlElv4 the voice sounds a bit differant to the video in the article now i think both of these are the 1968 versions so why the differance? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.164.173.171 (talk) 08:37, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Recording technology

The article claims that solid-state memory was used for audio recording in 1968, which is very dubious because solid-state memory was very expensive at that time, and economically infeasible for audio recordings. It is likely that a magnetic recording of some kind was initially used, and only replaced with solid-state memory a number of years later. Can anybody find WP:RS regarding the true history? Reify-tech (talk) 17:40, 25 May 2014 (UTC)

Solid-state is very, very unlikely for the time. Perhaps the confusion is over a continuous-tape system being employed? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 51.7.0.10 (talk) 23:07, 22 August 2016 (UTC)

No reliable sources but this reddit comment of all things suggests solid state wasn't until after the kings cross fire in 1987:

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/ecjvfz/til_that_a_man_named_oswald_can_be_heard_only_at/fbcwnr6/

After 87 it claims it was EEPROM.©Geni (talk) 13:30, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Which is impossible as EEPROM hadn't been invented in 1968. Notmewolve (talk) 11:20, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

Template:Replyto Geni wrote Template:Tq, and since 1987 is later than 1968, it's not impossible. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 12:39, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

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A recent variation seen on posters

"Watch your step when minding the gap." (They must think we are literal babies.) Equinox ◑ 10:26, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

Reasoning

Why is there even a gap to mind between the train and platform at all? 2001:2044:126E:E000:D8F0:DCCC:DD70:1777 (talk) 20:59, 1 April 2025 (UTC)

It doesn't happen everywhere; the principal locations are stations on a curve. The platforms are necessarily curved to suit the tracks, but the carriages can't be made curved, they must be straight; so there are two situations:

1. if the platform is on the inside of the curve, it can't be too close to the track, otherwise the middle of the carriage would scrape the platform edge. This means that there will be a gap between the carriage ends and the platform
2. if the platform is on the outside of the curve, it can't be too close to the track, otherwise the ends of the carriage would scrape the platform edge. This means that there will be a gap between the middle of the carriage and the platform

Whichever way you lay out the station, a gap must occur somewhere. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 17:29, 2 April 2025 (UTC)