Meaningless apologies FTL
Back when I used to live in a small town in the London area and commute to and from work every day, I had the choice of taking the slow train from London or taking the fast one and changing at East Croydon. Unless I was extremely knackered the fast one usually won the day, so most evenings I found myself loitering at East Croydon station (probably the South's chavscum mother lode). My connecting train was always late. Now, when people say "always late", they're usually exaggerating a little bit, to give an idea of their general frustration with the situation. This train was always late. Every single day.

This meant I got to listen to the automated station announcer gnome run through his stock phrases.

"The 22:17 train to xxx will be 5 minutes late. We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause."

"The 22:17 train to xxx will by 10 minutes late. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this may cause."

"The 22:17 train to xxx will be 20 minutes late. We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this may cause."

then, on bad days, :

"The 22:17 train to xxx has been cancelled. Blah-Blah Shit Train Company asks passengers to accept its sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused."

Heart-unfelt apologies are not what you want to hear when you're freezing your nads off but don't dare to jump up and down to keep warm in case you get knifed.
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Mon 4 Apr 2011, 19:32, 1 reply)

or the even worse announcements at birmingham
where the automated voice says *I* am really sorry for the inconvenience.

so they're shifting the entire blame onto the automated announcing machine. can i shout at that? can i write it a letter? who do i address it to?
( Spunky McPunk not dead yet, Mon 4 Apr 2011, 20:19, closed)

agreed, that is fucking grating...every single day.
Who is "I"? I want to know. I know it's both a he and a she, but who are they?
(shanterbabs, Tue 5 Apr 2011, 1:18, closed)