Just when you thought that the noise of a busy Tube station could not get any worse, management have come up with a way to do it. Yes - they are planning to allow audio adverts to be broadcast over station PAs. It'll be like working in the midst of commercial radio hell, only without the occasional breaks for music and news.
On top of the boundless irritation, there are obvious risks to how we operate stations and maintain safety. Presumably advertisers are not going to take kindly to their broadcasts being interrupted by PAs about service disruption, lost children, last trains or moving along platforms. And while there will no doubt be provision for important safety announcements to override commercials, by then half the passengers will have tuned out from taking any notice of anything they are hearing. And who knows the ways in which passengers might misunderstand and react accordingly?
Meanwhile, management continually talk about world-class customer service and ask about how we can improve ambience and customer service. Not like this.
We can only assume that this ludicrous idea is driven by desperation. Faced with the government removing all of the Underground's operating subsidy, various bright sparks are casting around for ways to fill the funding gap. If this is the answer, it must have been a pretty daft question. We suggest that a better question would be: How can we fight the funding cut?
