Always thought these would be a good idea…

I wrote a few days ago about Emma Clarke, the woman who does the voice for the London Undergound tube announcements. She had created a set of spoof announcements which were doing the rounds on the web. Some of them were quite funny.

Well, it seems that Transport for London weren’t so amused and Emma has been dropped as the voice of the tube as a result. A shining star of the TfL PR department said:

“London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Ms Clarke are experiencing severe delays.”

She was in all the papers today, so we did get to see what she looked like…

Also found this article about other iconic British voices…

Emma Clarke is the voice of the London Underground tube announcements. She’s the calm and collected voice of every single delay, nightmarish late arrival to work, relentless tourist scrum and late night bleary eyed stumble home for all us Londoners. Despite being oh so very helpful and sincere, (She IS sorry for your delay you know) she also appears to have a sense of humour.

Check out these spoof announcements she has recorded. My personal favourites being:

“I may look nothing like you imagine”

“Passengers filling in their sudokus”

and…

“A reminder for American tourists”

Found through Going Underground

Yes, they certainly will. If you have forgotten to bring the latest Harry Potter book with you this morning, didn’t have time to buy a newspaper and came off second best in the mad scrabble for a copy of Metro, then you’re left stood in the packed carriage, nestled under an armpit, reading the horoscopes over someone else’s shoulder or comitting all the stops on the current line to memory. Someone else is reading a novel, although they keep turning the pages before you’ve finished them – It won’t be long before you turn to the adverts throughout the carriage, travel insurance, property investments, Paul McKenna can make you rich, something on at the O2 etc etc, then this one which I saw the other morning: Even posters this dull get read. It’s funny ’cause it’s true.

Leaves you wondering why they need graphic designers to make them look nice as well…

we want in…, originally uploaded by chutney bannister.

Just the sort of thing I love, and the perfect antidote to those mind-numbing commutes, I’ll let the amusingly named Chutney Bannister explain:

Like most users of the tube, I have my own little ritual to get through the journey. Whilst most scuffle around for a stray copy of one of the freesheets, dig into the latest best seller, switch on their iPods, or switch off completely, I’m keeping my eyes peeled for a route onto the Surreal Line.

Read the full post at Going Underground and be sure to check out the Flickr set…

The London Underground has been down for the last couple of days due to industrial action. I’m not going to get into the details of it, if I did I could get quite annoyed, but I wanted to focus on a slightly unexpected result it has had for me, namely how much I enjoyed walking to work yesterday and taking the bus home to see a bit more of the city than usual.

I guess it has a large amount to do with the fact the weather was nice, but I’ve been quite enjoying the new sights and streets I’ve encountered just by changing my route to work. I certainly haven’t arrived at work quite so depressed after another arduous tube journey – I think I’ll walk more often from now on…