Tube Door Etiquette

Of course the Japanese have a better sign trying to stop last minute door diving (door swimming) than we do. Jon Justice sent the picture below to me and also has a cautionary tale for people who try to barge their way onto London Underground trains before others have had a chance to get off.


This new sign blogged at Japanprobe compares favourably to our similar action but rather staid "Please don't hold the doors open" sign below.


Onto the cautionary tale, Jon emailed me about his Tube journey on Friday:

"I was on the Central Line at rush hour. We were all crammed in and rather hot and sweaty. As the doors opened at Bank station, a rather agressive woman pushed her way on as soon as the doors opened. A girl was trying to get off and despite a loud "excuse me", had to push past the aggressive woman.

After she managed to extricate herself from said woman, la aggressivo exclaimed loudly "Oh just f**k off, you f**king c**t." Nice.

In doing so, she jabbed her finger at the poor girl who was just trying to get off.

Unfortunately, she held her Oyster card in her jabbing hand. The poor girl just looked at her for a second and then seized the Oyster card and threw it onto the platform then turned on her heel and disappeared.

The aggressive lady was dumbstruck for a second or two and then jumped off the train in pursuit of her card. Too late she found it and turned in time to see the doors close and the train move off. My fellow passengers and I shared many amused glances and a few chuckles. It very much raised our wilting spirits.

It was one of those moments where everyone was thinking "I wish I was that quick-thinking." It's the kind of thing that normally occurs to you after you've walked away, having backed down. It was nice to see everyone in the carriage united in the same thought."

I certainly would have thought the same, wouldn't you?!