# Queue vs line up



## stanakin

What is the difference between queue and line up?


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## Copyright

In general, you queue if you're British and you line up if you're American.


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## Gwan

And if you're from New Zealand, you frequently use them interchangeably.

_However_, I would use 'queue' only if you're waiting in line for something, whereas I might use 'line up' without the sense of waiting. For example "line up over there and I'll take your photo" would mean "arrange yourself in a line and I'll take a photo of you".


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## Copyright

Very true, Gwan. It might have been better for me to speak of forming a *queue *or a *line *... as in a taxi rank or bank.


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## natkretep

For me, _queues_ are formed when you're wanting to be served such as at a counter, or for admission - so queues are formed in the post office, or at the bus stop. I can use _lines_ too in this context. We can say _queue up_ or _form a queue_.

If you are just making a line formation, then I would say _line_. Schoolchildren might be asked for form lines at assembly. _Queue_ is not possible here.

Very similar to what Gwan said.


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## Fabulist

I think many Americans would not even know what a "queue" is, or how to spell it if they heard it.


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## EdisonBhola

Is there any difference between "queue" and "queue up"? As in:

Please queue (up) over there.

Many thanks.


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## natkretep

I would definitely say _queue up_ over there. I think if the sentence only refers to the act of joining a queue without further information about what the queue is for, or the length of time someone queued for, etc., I'd add the _up_. It it contains that further information, the _up_ might be optional (_we queued for hours on end, we queued for food_).


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## andrewg927

Fabulist said:


> I think many Americans would not even know what a "queue" is, or how to spell it if they heard it.



No. "queue" is a British term. At first I thought of cue but that is just bad spelling. 
I think you use it like "in queue" instead of "in line"


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## natkretep

andrewg927 said:


> No. "queue" is a British term. At first I thought of cue but that is just bad spelling.
> I think you use it like "in queue" instead of "in line"


Only that we'd need an article there: we stand in *a* queue.


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## zaffy

"Are you quys in line?"  I guess that's what the lady with a box asked the cameramen. It wasn't really audible.  It's correct in AE, right?

Anyway, what would a BE speaker ask before joining a queue? "Are you in a queue?"


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## kentix

That would be a normal AE question.


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## zaffy

kentix said:


> That would be a normal AE question.



When there is a line/queue here in Poland and you can't really see who the last person in line is, we ask "Who is last?". Would that work?


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## kentix

We normally say, "Is this the end of the line?" or "Where is the end of the line?" if it's less obvious.


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## zaffy

That lady in #11 could have also asked "Are you guys waiting?" in Polish. Would that work?


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## Egmont

zaffy said:


> That lady in #11 could have also asked "Are you guys waiting?" in Polish. Would that work?


Yes, if it's clear what one would be waiting for. You could ask "Are you waiting to get into the store?" or whatever else applied. (I probably wouldn't say "guys" unless the line had no women in it.)


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## zaffy

And do these four work? 

I needed to *line* for two hours to get into the post office. 
I needed to *line up* for two hours to get into the post office.
I needed to *stand in line* for two hours to get into the post office. 
I needed to *stand in a line* for two hours to get into the post office.


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## kentix

I had to stand in line for two hours...


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## zaffy

Could a BE speaker share their thoughts about these? Do they all work?


1. I had to queue for two hours to get into the post office.
2. I had to queue up for two hours to get into the post office.
3. I had to stand in a queue for two hours to get into the post office.
4. Excuse me, are you standing in the queue?
5. Excuse me, is this the end of the queue?
6. Excuse me, where is the end of the queue?


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## DonnyB

zaffy said:


> Could a BE speaker share their thoughts about these? Do they all work?
> 
> 
> 1. I had to queue for two hours to get into the post office.
> 2. I had to queue up for two hours to get into the post office.
> 3. I had to stand in a queue for two hours to get into the post office.
> 4. Excuse me, are you standing in the queue?
> 5. Excuse me, is this the end of the queue?
> 6. Excuse me, where is the end of the queue?


I'd do (4) as just "Excuse me, are you in the queue?" but the others all look natural enough to me.


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## heypresto

I agree with DonnyB.


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## zaffy

And if you, Brits, got asked "Excuse me, are you in line?", would you raise your eyebrows? Would you consider that person non-native or perhaps infulenced by AE?


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## Tegs

I would expect an American accent with that question.


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## DonnyB

zaffy said:


> And if you, Brits, got asked "Excuse me, are in line?", would you raise your eyebrows? Would you consider that person non-native or perhaps infulenced by AE?


It suggests to me that you were all required to stand in a straight line for some reason.  Short of pupils being told to line up in the playground at school, I can't readily think of another context in which anyone would say that in BE.


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## heypresto

I wouldn't know what it meant.

If, however, you asked me  "Excuse me, are in _the _line?" I would understand it, and assume you were American, or had learnt AE.


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## natkretep

The point to note that in BrE you can refer to a line when it's not a queue. A group of people might be told to line up according to height, and at school we were often told to line up according to your class. The people would be _in line_ but not in a queue.


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## kentix

heypresto said:


> If, however, you asked me "Excuse me, are in _the _line?" I would understand it, and assume you were American, or had learnt AE.


I wouldn't normally expect to see "the" there in American English. "Are you in line?" is standard.

"You need to get in line."
"He's in line."
"They shouldn't have to wait in line."
"If you are in line before five o'clock you are guaranteed to be served."


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## zaffy

And what do I call this when people wait but no line is formed? I guess American "line" loses its sense here, doesn't it? How about the British "queue"?

AmE: _There were tens of skiers waiting in line at the ski lifts._
BrE: _There were tens of skiers waiting in the queue at the ski lifts._


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## heypresto

zaffy said:


> BrE: _There were tens of skiers waiting in the queue at the ski lifts._


 Or ' . . . in queue*s* . . .'

And more likely 'dozens', 'scores' or 'hundreds'. I don't think we'd say 'tens.'


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## CaptainZero

zaffy said:


> And what do I call this when people wait but no line is formed? I guess American "line" loses its sense here, doesn't it? How about the British "queue"?
> 
> AmE: _There were tens of skiers waiting in line at the ski lifts._
> BrE: _There were tens of skiers waiting in the queue at the ski lifts._


But it seems you've contradicted yourself, zaffy. First you say no line is formed (it certainly looks that way in the photo). But then you suggest sentences with "waiting in line" / waiting in the queue". 

I'd just say there were dozens of skiers waiting for the ski lifts, or there was a crowd of people waiting.


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## zaffy

CaptainZero said:


> But then you suggest sentences with "waiting in line" / waiting in the queue"


I gave those two examples, asking you to share your opinions 

I've got the impression BE works better in this regard. You could say "There were endless queues at the ski lifts", couldn't you? While "There were endless lines at the ski lifts." doesn't work in that scenario, does it?


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## CaptainZero

But the point is that there are no lines / queues at all in your photo. So you can't use those words.


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## ewie

heypresto said:


> And more likely 'dozens', 'scores' or 'hundreds'. I don't think we'd say 'tens.'



_Herds _is the word I'd automatically go for, but then I use _herds_ for large numbers of pretty much everything ... except cows, which form _bunches_


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## CaptainZero

Bunches of cows... hmm   And herds of flowers in your vases, I imagine. 

It'd be common here to say there were heaps of people waiting, but I'm not sure if that'd go down well in BrE.


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## zaffy

CaptainZero said:


> But the point is that there are no lines / queues at all in your photo. So you can't use those words.



I thought this would work. We could say that in Polish. 

_I hate that ski resort. There are always hundreds of people in queues at the ski lifts. _


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## CaptainZero

OK. In English we can't say there are queues if there are no queues.


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## zaffy

CaptainZero said:


> OK. In English we can't say there are queues if there are no queues.


Actually, I'm confused. Aren't these people waiting in a queue? I don't think a queue needs to be a clear line of people like the one below.


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## CaptainZero

A queue is generally understood to be an orderly line of people, like in the bottom photo. The top photo could be a messy queue, perhaps, with some people queuing and others just standing or walking around. It's a bit hard to tell.


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## ewie

The top picture in #37 certainly looks like a queue to me, albeit a rather untidy one 

(The bottom picture is what I call _cattle (going to slaughter)_  )


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## Andygc

CaptainZero said:


> But the point is that there are no lines / queues at all in your photo. So you can't use those words


zaffy. Your picture of skiers shows two queues, one for each ski lift. They are perfectly normal queues, to be seen in dozens of ski resorts across Europe (except in Germany and Austria). The one nearer the camera is demarcated by a tape. It would be pointless forming a single line for a chair lift, which would commonly be 2 to 6 seats across, sometimes more. The queue would wind up the slope!


zaffy said:


> Aren't these people waiting in a queue?


Yes, of course. That looks like a queue for a sale in a large store.


zaffy said:


> I thought this would work. We could say that in Polish.
> 
> _I hate that ski resort. There are always hundreds of people in queues at the ski lifts. _


It works perfectly well in English - I can think of a few places where that would work.


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## CaptainZero

Andygc said:


> Your picture of skiers shows two queues, one for each ski lift. They are perfectly normal queues...


Andygc, where you see queues in that ski-lift photo (post #28), others have seen only crowds of people. And despite blowing the photo up to a larger size, I still see only crowds of people!


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## Myridon

Frankly, I can't tell what those people are doing or if there are any ski lifts at all.  Even if they seem disorganized, I'm betting those people have a good idea of "I was here before that guy", "I'm getting on before her.",  etc. and the person farthest away has no expectation of getting on next.


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## Roxxxannne

I think of a line as having order; it's clear who is first and who is second and pretty clear who is 376th.  In the photo in #28, the people look as though they have just filled up all the possible available space. It's more of a long, narrow, disorganized crowd than a line. It's possible that the people in that group have a good idea of who is ahead of them and behind them in terms of who gets on the ski lifts, but there's also the potential for some elbowing and jockeying for position, which is not so likely in a line.
 The people in the top photo in #37 are in a rather messy line (as CaptainZero says in #38) but it is not a disorganized crowd; there is space on the sidewalk for the people in back to move up and compete for the front of the line, but they are not doing so. The people in the bottom photo in #37 are in a line, but the line is produced, apparently, by barriers that force the people to form a line where it is clear who has priority over whom.


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## CaptainZero

Going by post #40, it seems that in BrE a queue can be just a crowd of people all waiting their turn (with some idea of who precedes whom), and doesn't have to involve any actual lining up at all. I've never known "queue" to be used that way, myself.


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## heypresto

One way to look at it may be that if they are queuing, they are in a queue. 

This doesn't, of course, work for 'line'.


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## Roxxxannne

CaptainZero said:


> Going by post #40, it seems that in BrE a queue can be just a crowd of people all waiting their turn (with some idea of who precedes whom), and doesn't have to involve any actual lining up at all. I've never known "queue" to be used that way, myself.


I've seen that in the US but only at counters in stores where people take a numbered slip of paper and the person behind the counter calls out the numbers in order so as to determine who is served next.  But I wouldn't call the people standing around the deli counter with their slips of paper a line.  It's a group/crowd/bunch of people waiting their turn.


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## CaptainZero

heypresto said:


> One way to look at it may be that if they are queuing, they are in a queue.


Are those people in the skiing photo (post #28) queuing, then, in your book? I'd say they're just waiting their turns.


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## Myridon

Roxxxannne said:


> I've seen that in the US but only at counters in stores where people take a numbered slip of paper and the person behind the counter calls out the numbers in order so as to determine who is served next.  But I wouldn't call the people standing around the deli counter with their slips of paper a line.  It's a group/crowd/bunch of people waiting their turn.


Where I shop, they don't have numbers.  The people shuffling around looking at the cheeses and deli meats know who got there first.  The clerk just calls "Next!"


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## kentix

heypresto said:


> One way to look at it may be that if they are queuing, they are in a queue.
> 
> This doesn't, of course, work for 'line'.


_One way to look at it may be that if they are lining up, they are in a line._

It works pretty well.

Edit: typo corrected


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## zaffy

kentix said:


> One way to look at it may be that if they are lining up, they are in a line.


So you have no problem saying those skiers are lining up at ski lifts, right?


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## kentix

Like others have said, I have no idea what's going on in that picture.

This picture is captioned as people lining up for the new iPhone. Lining up around the block is a common description when a line becomes long enough to reach the corner and turn 90 degrees and continue down the sidewalk of the closest cross street.


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## Andygc

CaptainZero said:


> Andygc, where you see queues in that ski-lift photo (post #28), others have seen only crowds of people. And despite blowing the photo up to a larger size, I still see only crowds of people!


Frankly, I don't much care what other people have seen in that picture. I have skied for many years in several European countries. Those are absolutely typical queues for a ski lift. They aren't crowds, they are two columns of people wearing skis, shuffling their way along towards the ski lift, and on their way they will gradually organise themselves into a column that is two, three, four, six or eight across, depending on the design of the lift. There may be the occasional teenager pushing his way in front of an older skier, and snow boarders may create disorder, but people are generally content to take their turn (except in Austria and Germany).


CaptainZero said:


> I'd say they're just waiting their turns


Otherwise known as queueing.


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## Roxxxannne

Myridon said:


> Where I shop, they don't have numbers.  The people shuffling around looking at the cheeses and deli meats know who got there first.  The clerk just calls "Next!"


That's true for me too, in places where there are only three or four people shuffling around, as you put it.  

But when there are three guys behind the counter and 15 customers, twelve of whom are paying no attention to who is around them because they are busy weighing   the merits of six different kinds of ham, it's a whole nother thing.


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## Tegs

Roxxxannne said:


> I wouldn't call the people standing around the deli counter with their slips of paper a line. It's a group/crowd/bunch of people waiting their turn.


I agree, that's not a queue to me either. If you're sitting down with a number on a piece of paper you're "waiting" you're not "queueing". If someone came in and asked "Is there a queue here?" You'd say "No, you need to get a number from that machine over there and wait to be called". 

You can have tidy queues, and you can have very messy queues, like at the airport when sometimes the queue is 4 people across and you're angrily glaring around because people are elbowing in and trying to jump the queue. It looks a mess from the outside, but when you're in it, you know you're in a queue and you know who's in front of you and who's being a cheeky sod.


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## Roxxxannne

Whether something is a line or a crowd depends on what the people do when they get to the front. I've been in crowds waiting to board intercity trains in the US that are basically shaped like triangles (the crowds, not the trains) with the apex at the gate where your ticket is checked. But everyone moves along in a nice, orderly fashion without resorting to fisticuffs.


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## Myridon

Tegs said:


> I agree, that's not a queue to me either. If you're sitting down with a number on a piece of paper you're "waiting" you're not "queueing". If someone came in and asked "Is there a queue here?" You'd say "No, you need to get a number from that machine over there and wait to be called".


If someone asks that in my example, you say "you're after her".  There's no physical queue or numbers but the set is ordered.


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## LVRBC

zaffy said:


> So you have no problem saying those skiers are lining up at ski lifts, right?


No problem at all, since that's exactly what they are doing in US-English.  In fact, I've done it often myself for lifts, and you can line up two by two, or three by three depending on how many the lift seats.


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## ewie

CaptainZero said:


> Going by post #40, it seems that in BrE a queue can be just a crowd of people all waiting their turn (with some idea of who precedes whom), and doesn't have to involve any actual lining up at all. I've never known "queue" to be used that way, myself.


Neither have I. If there's no order at all, it's just people waiting around.


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## Tegs

CaptainZero said:


> Going by post #40, it seems that in BrE a queue can be just a crowd of people all waiting their turn (with some idea of who precedes whom), and doesn't have to involve any actual lining up at all. I've never known "queue" to be used that way, myself.


 No, that's not the case. You need to be in a vaguely line-like formation and you need to have people in front of you or behind you (or both) for it to be a "queue".


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## Andygc

Denver Post. February 12, 2020
"Vail Resorts offers apology, explanation for enormous lift lines last week"





I call that a queue.


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## zaffy

This video uses "line" in its title as well


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## ewie

That looks like an invading army!


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## CaptainZero

ewie said:


> That looks like an invading army!


Could well be!

The above images are good representations of "queue" and "line".

The thing about this image (from #28) ...



....it looks like just two crowds of people. The photo's cut off on the right, so if we saw the scene panned out, I imagine it would look something like one of the images above, and we wouldn't have had to go through all this kerfuffle.


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## zaffy

CaptainZero said:


> The above images are good representations of "queue" and "line". .....it looks like just two crowds of people.


OK, I see what your issue was. The angle of the shot didn't show the thing clearly enough, but the people in #28 form exactly the same thing as in #61, just way shorter.


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## CaptainZero

Exactly. There's also a cultural consideration here. Queues the size of those in #60 and #61 are unheard of in Australia. We just don't have the population base. As well as that, our snowfields are miniscule compared to those of Europe and North America. I have no experience at all of ... er ... invading armies ... at such a colossal scale. A single straggly line is more my thing.


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## Tegs

I should add a caveat to my comment in #59 that this is obviously not the case if you are in a queue on the phone, where you cannot form any sort of line.


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## Andygc

CaptainZero said:


> ....it looks like just two crowds of people.





zaffy said:


> The angle of the shot didn't show the thing clearly enough



You could not have shown the bottom station of a chairlift much more clearly than that - the control building, the canopy, the bottom pylon (with an orange buffer at its base), an approaching chair just to the left of the pylon, and a couple of people standing waiting at the pick-up point.


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## Paris 157

zaffy said:


> And what do I call this when people wait but no line is formed? I guess American "line" loses its sense here, doesn't it? How about the British "queue"?
> 
> AmE: _There were tens of skiers waiting in line at the ski lifts._
> BrE: _There were tens of skiers waiting in the queue at the ski lifts._
> View attachment 67987


This picture looks like a bunch of spectators watching people ski. No line ups or queues.


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## Andygc

Paris 157 said:


> This picture looks like a bunch of spectators watching people ski. No line ups or queues.


So you haven't read the posts that explain that it shows two lift queues? Clearly you haven't been skiing in Europe.


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## Paris 157

Andygc said:


> So you haven't read the posts that explain that it shows two lift queues? Clearly you haven't been skiing in Europe.


No I have not been skiing there. I'm just saying what I personally see in the picture.


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## dojibear

zaffy said:


> And what do I call this when people wait but no line is formed? I guess American "line" loses its sense here, doesn't it? How about the British "queue"?


The words do not describe what you see. The words do not define a shape. Other words define that: "single file" or "three wide", etc.

The words "queue/line" describe the purpose. If people are waiting for something, with the person in front of them getting service before them, it is a "queue/line". It doesn't matter if the people are "in single file" or in a wider line (like in the picture).


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## dojibear

Forming a queue/line is a cultural thing. In different countries, it is different. In different situations, it is different.

For example, in New York, people waiting for a subway do not "queue up" ("form a line"). They just stand there in a crowd.
In some other countries, people might form a line, and when the subway arrives people enter in their order in line.


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## Roxxxannne

dojibear said:


> For example, in New York, people waiting for a subway do not "queue up" ("form a line"). They just stand there in a crowd.
> In some other countries, people might form a line, and when the subway arrives people enter in their order in line.


It would be impossible in New York to have one line per subway train per station at rush hour  Trains run every three or four minutes at rush hour and to accomplish that, the 30 entrances to each ten-car subway train are open for, I would guess, less than 30 seconds at each stop.  With one line at rush hour, it would take _much_ more than three minutes for everyone to board a train single file -- it takes more than three minutes for everyone to leave a station walking three or four abreast up the stairs when a lot of people are exiting a station at rush hour.  It would be impossible in real life to form 30 discrete lines at a station, given how narrow the platforms are.  I don't think forming a crowd rather than a line in a New York City subway station is a cultural thing.

People do get into line-like formations at bus stops in New York City, though, because there's only one or two entrances per bus.


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## dojibear

Roxxxannne said:


> It would be impossible in New York to have one line per subway train per station at rush hour Trains run every three or four minutes at rush hour and to accomplish that, the 30 entrances to each ten-car subway train are open for, I would guess, less than 30 seconds at each stop.


That is "why" there aren't lines in NYC suburbs. Makes perfect sense to me. But I _think_ _I've seen _lines in other countries, in equally crowded situations, with subway cars that arrive every 3-4 minutes.



Roxxxannne said:


> With one line at rush hour, it would take _much_ more than three minutes for everyone to board a train single file


Why not one line for each subway door? Oh wait, you mentioned that, and said subway platforms are too narrow. Maybe so in NYC. Maybe it isn't practical there.

I've seen subway systems where there are hard barriers everywhere except where the doors will open. If the train stops in the wrong spot, nobody can enter or exit. So people know where the doors will be, and "could" make a line.

I said "_think_ _I've seen_" above because I don't remember exact details. I only remember my surprise, at watching a video where the "queue or random" decision was different than what I expected. But I am not sure that was in a subway.


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## kentix

I would say it's door clumps here. No lines but people cluster around doors.


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## Roxxxannne

dojibear said:


> That is "why" there aren't lines in NYC suburbs. Makes perfect sense to me. But I _think_ _I've seen _lines in other countries, in equally crowded situations, with subway cars that arrive every 3-4 minutes.


That may well be. I've seen those barriers too, in places other than NYC, But there are no barriers in NYC subway stations (their absence is an issue right now).  My point was just that because of the physical situation, for NYC it's not completely a cultural issue.   Since it's impossible to form lines during rush hour, people are not likely to do it when the stations are relatively empty. But I have a feeling that people do sort of line up on either side of the doors when the door opens and when the station is not crowded.


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