The London Underground's Fake Station



There's a London Underground station that never moves a single passenger. That's because it's a mock-up built to train new employees. The station, located in West Kensington, is designed to be as realistic as possible:

The tube station is probably the highlight for any visitor and in addition to looking like a tube station, it also behaves a bit like one. When a train is due to arrive, although no physical train appears, the platform rumbles, speakers drown out conversations and there is even a fan in the corner blowing to simulate the wind blast that heralds the arrival of the train.


What would you add to make the simulator truly realistic?

Link via The Presurfer | Photo: Ian Visits

My experience in the Tube tells me that just one speaker blaring "MIND THE GAP" isn't enough.

At least two are needed, and, most importantly, the announcments must be slightly offset from one another, so that travelers are subject to a overlapping barrage of polite reminders, like so:

MIND THE GAP.

MUH-MIND THE-UH GAP-AP.

MIND-IND UHTHE AP-GAP.
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I was going to say some panhandlers/street performers. Maybe a cellist? We have a barbershop quartet that performs at the MAX/streetcar intersection in Portland every day at a certain time.
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Maybe they're not a barbershop quartet, but it's like four or so guys standing around singing. You can hear them for blocks, which is saying something, since there's a lot of traffic in that area.
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Pretty neat. I was a commercial painter for 9 years. This reminds me of the Best Buy headquarters that I helped paint in Richfield MN. There's an entire Best Buy store mock-up below ground for training purposes.
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I wonder if it has giant businessman who has no respect for anyone else whatsoever and just walks in to young and old, and the Chinese woman who never holds her mouth when she coughs, or my favourite some 14 year old playing some obscenely bad music the tinny speakers, whilst pretending to be all 'rude' listening to Akon...grrrrr!
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- We seem to forget sticky chewing gum and old fags on the floor

And then on the human side:
- Some pickpockets to keep everyone on their toes
- At least a few druggies and/or alcoholics that beg and smell really bad and who are generally completely lost on their trip
- The odd kissing or fighting couple
- A few backpackers that have no idea how big their backpack really is
- Some cops who only bother the wrong people to give them a false sence of security
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