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"Please Hold on While the Bus Is Moving" Replaces "Please Hold On, the Bus Is About to Move" on London Buses

A few weeks ago, Bleeding Cool, outside of our usual remit, reported that London buses had a new tannoy announcement, "please hold on, the bus is about to move." Repeated between every bus stop. And usually halfway between each bus stop… you know, when the bus was already moving.

Which meant the background annoyance became a joke, "the bus is already moving, you moron" was underneath everyone's breath. And above everyone's breath when the nightbus kicked in.

The story became a major thing in  the UK, covered by all media – well, media staffed by people who took buses in London anyway.

The apologies came thick and fast, there was a problem with the timing, the buses were leaving the bus stops quicker than Transport for London expected, there were plans to align the timing better, maybe tie it in to the time the doors closed, all sorts of suggestions but it would be fixed.

And it has. Instead of saying "please hold on, the bus is about to move", it now just says "please hold on while the bus is moving". Which is, I guess, a little less annoying… and means they just had to have a new recording session rather than write a better algorithm.

But it's still very annoying. But will it, in time, become as accepted as "Mind The Gap"?

Here's how the original sounded…

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