KEY POINTS:
LONDON - The woman behind the gentle, even voice which warns London's subway commuters to "mind the gap" was fired after telling a newspaper she thought the transit network was dreadful.
Emma Clarke, 36, has been recording messages for London's sprawling subway network, popularly known as The Tube,
since 1999.
In addition to warning passengers to mind the gap between subway cars and the platform, she also reads off the trains' stops, tells Londoners how long they have to wait until their next ride, and delivers service updates.
Transport for London (TfL), the body responsible for running the subway, said on Monday that Clarke was fired for telling The Mail on Sunday she avoided using the subway whenever possible.
"The thought of being stuck in The Tube with strangers for minutes on end and having to listen to endless repeated messages of my own voice fills me with horror," she told the paper.
She said using the service every day had been "dreadful."
The paper also featured Clarke's website, which hosts a series of spoof Tube announcements, including:
* "We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly."
* "Would the passenger in the red shirt pretending to read the paper but who is actually staring at that woman's chest please stop. You are not fooling anyone, you filthy pervert."
* "Would passengers filling in answers on their Sudokus please accept that they are just crosswords for the unimaginative and are not in any way more impressive just because they contain numbers."
* "Here we are crammed again into a sweaty Tube carriage ... If you're female smile at the bloke next to you and make his day. He's probably not had sex for months."
Clarke said it was "just a bit of a laugh". But TfL failed to see the funny side and dropped her.
"London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Miss Clarke are experiencing severe delays," a TfL spokesman told the Evening Standard on Monday.
Transport for London said it was relaxed about the spoof announcements, noting that some of them were quite funny. But spokesman Dan Hodges said Clarke's attack on the subway itself had crossed the line.
"We wouldn't employ somebody to promote our services who simultaneously criticises those services," Hodges said.
But Clarke's voice will continue to fill London's subway cars until a replacement is needed, Hodges said.
- AP, REUTERS
