Odd incidents in 1st class

[YorkshireBear]

Does catching two passengers 'at it' count? :P

Weve all been there.

 

[GodAtum]

Why should I? I've paid my fare just like the rest of the passengers, why should I have to 'dress up'? TOCs don't have a dress code (well beyond wearing clothes I suppose ) so why should I or anyone else have to behave as if there is one? Forgive me but I don't see that it's any of anyone else's business how I decide to dress when I'm going about my travels and happen to be using first class.

Playing the devils advocate, if you went to an upmarket restaurant you pay just like everyone else. Going about your own business and having dinner in a restaurant with a dress code is the same surely?

 

[Eagle]

We've all been there.

Catching or being caught?

Metre-high club, indeed...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Playing the devils advocate, if you went to an upmarket restaurant you pay just like everyone else. Going about your own business and having dinner in a restaurant with a dress code is the same surely?

Therein lies the fundamental flaw in that analogy. There is no dress code, ergo I can wear whatever I damn well like, be it a baggy t-shirt or a morning suit or a wedding dress or a cumbersome cosplay getup. And to hell with anyone who thinks ill of it.

 

[90019]

I got the same as you, the only occasions I've travelled first class I've been wearing Jeans, and a hoody with trainers

Same, except adding on the word teenager

You've been wearing a teenager?

 

[ainsworth74]

Playing the devils advocate, if you went to an upmarket restaurant you pay just like everyone else. Going about your own business and having dinner in a restaurant with a dress code is the same surely?

As Eagle mentioned there is a problem with that analogy in that trains don't have dress codes. Further I'm also not sure I even accept a fancy restaurant as being analogous with first class on trains.

 

[34D]

I'm not suggesting a suit, that may be taking things a tad too far unless you actually are wearing it to work or to a meeting! Just a long smart'ish shirt and some smart trousers, nothing wrong with that!

I agree fully with urban gateline and for one would support a minimum dress standard for first class, just as gentlemans clubs etc have stipulations. If anyone has ever been in the Lansdowne Club for instance, you'll know that you must wear a suit jacket at all times.

 

[ainsworth74]

I agree fully with urban gateline and for one would support a minimum dress standard for first class, just as gentlemans clubs etc have stipulations.

Well unless your minimum dress standard is, 'must wear clothes', I think you'll lose a good chunk of the leisure market...

If anyone has ever been in the Lansdowne Club for instance, you'll know that you must wear a suit jacket at all times.

I don't think first class which is open to anyone with enough money (and not even that much in many cases) is comparable with to a private member's Club.

 

[MCR247]

You've been wearing a teenager?

 

[wintonian]

Well unless your minimum dress standard is, 'must wear clothes', I think you'll lose a good chunk of the leisure market...



I don't think first class which is open to anyone with enough money (and not even that much in many cases) is comparable with to a private member's Club.

Anyone who travels on a morning peak train into London will know that unless you are very clever, only those who have their measurements stored in Savile Row can afford to travel in this exclusive club, where on routes the seats are barley better than those in standard.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

Once on a weekend Saturday London Bash, I used one of my First Class upgrade vouchers (remember the scheme FGW had running? I forget what it was called now).

Anyway I rode my scooter up to Chippenham and took FC to London in coach H, behind the power car. Most Saturdays I used it on the way back but I did it to London for a change.
Anyway, two smartly dressed people, a couple I think, were sat at the table across from me. Though she whispered a bit too loud, I overheard 'he's wearing jeans, he shouldn't be in First Class' well I could have thrown her out the window but I just ignored it.

Sorry, no dress code for me, I go out on a bash in jeans and old jumpers not in a suit, and I ain't riding no 125cc scooter with thin suit trousers and shoes!!

 

[ainsworth74]

Anyone who travels on a morning peak train into London will know that unless you are very clever, only those who have their measurements stored in Savile Row can afford to travel in this exclusive club, where on routes the seats are barley better than those in standard.

Well I didn't say everywhere, but on routes that offer First Advances it's possible to travel first class at very reasonable fares. East Coast often have advances on trains arriving into London for around 0900-1000 at £40-50, which, whilst not pocket change ain't exactly expensive either.

First Class on many routes and many services isn't some exclusive club that's only open to the rich and famous.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I agree fully with urban gateline and for one would support a minimum dress standard for first class, just as gentlemans clubs etc have stipulations. If anyone has ever been in the Lansdowne Club for instance, you'll know that you must wear a suit jacket at all times.

There is a dress code for the VSOE, though, isn't there?

 

[SteamPower]

Personally I don't think how one dresses when travelling in first class matters so much these days. As it has been pointed out the train isn't necessarily the occasion, it's a means of getting to the occasion. As long as basic hygiene standards are met and one acts in a civilised manner and is respectful of those around them then why should it matter.

 

[jon0844]

two smartly dressed people, a couple I think, were sat at the table across from me. Though she whispered a bit too loud, I overheard 'he's wearing jeans, he shouldn't be in First Class' well I could have thrown her out the window but I just ignored it.

I've worn jeans loads of times (including flying Virgin Upper Class) and if the woman above thought you couldn't be in first class with jeans, perhaps you should have told her that they shouldn't let women in there (as a joke!).

 

[Tomonthetrain]

I've worn jeans loads of times (including flying Virgin Upper Class) and if the woman above thought you couldn't be in first class with jeans, perhaps you should have told her that they shouldn't let women in there (as a joke!).

I agree with the honourable gentleman

 

[12CSVT]

Wonder how long before I'm called a pleb?

That'll only happen if you're wearing police uniform.

 

[Harbon 1]

There is a dress code for the VSOE, though, isn't there?

But if you can afford £800+ on a day out, per person, you'd probably expect to have to have a dress code (thinking about it, you'd probably not even own a pair of trackies if you could afford that). There's no dress code for Pizza Express, but there is for the Ritz

Im not too fussed about what people wear in first class; I consider jeans to be smart anyway, and my idea of casual is a shirt and jeans. We're quite fortunate in the fact that my dad gets his travel paid for from Doncaster to Glasgow (lots of EC points ) so we sometimes go with two adult free firsts, and two standard paid, and swap on the way back.

For stories of first class, we got some funny looks on a certain forum loophole trip back in April

 

[richw]

Same, except adding on the word teenager

The FC passengers probably aren't even expecting me to have a SC ticket never mind about first

I'm only just above teenager, I'm 24, but was 22 i believe when i used first class looking like a scruff. I had just stayed in the Hilton, Euston as well, so was rather mixing with social circles where jeans and hoodies dont combine!

 

[NSE]

All great and hugely funny until the point you get refused travel under Byelaw 5 - "No person shall enter or remain on the railway if, in the reasonable opinion of
an authorised person, he is in an unfit or improper condition or his clothing
may soil or damage any part of the railway or the property or clothing of any
person on the railway."

Whether fair or not, much more likely to be enforced in first class than standard!

Ahh but my clothes wouldn't soil or damage at all. Cheap Primark tshirts with pen on (been wearing it for days, ink was more than dry) and trackies and wellies. If it had said clothing that could offend, well, Joey Barton is a popular figure :P I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Mind you today I was travelling London dressed as a Power Ranger with 60 other people. Best dress code I've ever had on a train

 

[richw]

Mind you today I was travelling London dressed as a Power Ranger with 60 other people. Best dress code I've ever had on a train

I once saw scooby doo on a saturday evening Falmouth- Truro class 150

 

[sprinterguy]

Perhaps the bar is lower on East Coast first class, as I never wear a suit when I travel FC and never get any funny looks! Although I do have my netbook so I probably look businessmanlike still...

Indeed: I would imagine that, since the demise of Wrexham & Shropshire anyway, I travel first class with East Coast more than with any other train operator and I have never received any "funny looks". Many of the posts on this thread make first class sound like a far more judgemental environment than I have found it to be, and, indeed more than one should expect it to be! And the concept of stipulating a minimum dress code for travelling in first class, even if it is only a personally enforced one, is quite laughable!

Speaking of travelling with Wrexham & Shropshire first class, that is the one time that I have experienced incredulity directed at me for my selected class of travel, when, boarding the first class carriage in readiness to take my booked seat, a train crew member said to me "Umm, excuse me, but standard class is the other way..."
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Weve all been there.

Despite having travelled on a number of late night trains, and more than once within the confines and privacy of the exclusive "cupboard" that the designers of several modern multiple unit designs consider to suffice for first class accommodation these days, I have never actually witnessed such behaviour.

 

[Polarbear]

Years ago, (early 1980's) I was at Manchester Piccadilly & on the same platform as the erstwhile Manchester Pullman service (16:43 to London).

The majority of passengers boarding the service were middle aged blokes in 2 & 3 piece suits, all of which boarded the train without fuss. However, on this day, one woman, dressed in jeans & a t-shirt walked up to board the train & was promptly stopped by one of the on board stewards whose first statement was to say that the train was 1st class only! :roll:

The woman promptly produces her 1st class Open Return & pre-purchased Pullman supplement & then firmly (but politely) wipes the floor with the steward, then boards just before departure.

Under BR, I personally felt that 1st class was more elitist & is much less so nowadays.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

Years ago, (early 1980's) I was at Manchester Piccadilly & on the same platform as the erstwhile Manchester Pullman service (16:43 to London).

The majority of passengers boarding the service were middle aged blokes in 2 & 3 piece suits, all of which boarded the train without fuss. However, on this day, one woman, dressed in jeans & a t-shirt walked up to board the train & was promptly stopped by one of the on board stewards whose first statement was to say that the train was 1st class only! :roll:

The woman promptly produces her 1st class Open Return & pre-purchased Pullman supplement & then firmly (but politely) wipes the floor with the steward, then boards just before departure.

Under BR, I personally felt that 1st class was more elitist & is much less so nowadays.

Indeed, I can understand it may have been expected for that sort of thing back then, but now who wants to dress smart just to board a Class 377 cupboard FC compartment that has the same seating and sideway seats anyway!

Thinking about it, when walking down from Standard to First Class after boarding a FGW HST (refurb set) I do remember the crew in the buffet looking at me odd when I cross through to reach the first class coach. I didn't have the same thing on an East Coast set though when I walked all the way from the loco end at Darlington (I wanted to see what 91 I had for haulage, but I couldn't run to First Class all the way up the other end!)

Another one that comes to memory is back in the early/mid 2000's when me and a couple of others joined 317666 at Stratford for a run to Tottenham Hale, to scratch off the freight route that runs off Carpenters Road and Temple Mills junctions. In the timetable it is a de-classified service as there was no '1' header, but some passenger joined and told us we should leave FC otherwise we'd get fined.
Trying to explain what a de-classified service is to a normal proved a difficult 5 minutes but he just gave up and walked off!

 

[ainsworth74]

a train crew member said to me "Umm, excuse me, but standard class is the other way..."

I assume said crew member was left looking like this shortly afterwards

 

[Captain Chaos]

I have never encountered problems travelling 1st class either in a suit or in a hoddie, jeans and trainers. Even on peak-time services. Most people are intelligent enough these days to know about cheap advance tickets and the like but I think most are also sensible enough not to judge a book by it's cover.

Strangely though, the only time I have ever encountered such elitist behaviour is when I am the Guard of the service! Though if you ask me, anyone who judges someone purely based on how they are dressed is probably not worth the time of day really.

 

[jaigee]

Of course one can wear anything in 1st class, apart from obviously filthy clothes, but that applies anywhere.

What I do detect here however is a hint that some posters deliberately "dress down" for travelling 1st class purely to provoke some of the reactions described. A similar action is people deliberately dressing scruffy before going into an upmarket car sales showroom with the intention of buying a car, again to create a reaction.

Still, whatever turns you on. :roll:

 

[sprinterguy]

I assume said crew member was left looking like this shortly afterwards

A quick flash of my ticket soon rectified the situation It's just as well I'm not one to take comments to heart!

 

[Tomonthetrain]

i went on east coast suited and everything in first class, opened laptop up then got accused by a fellow passenger of being a snob!

 

[Goatboy]

Gosh you guys don't half have some random comments in First. I often use it when I can get decent advance tickets (and infact never really used anything else when heading to London on a Y-P) and nobody ever really says anything despite the fact I'm also an atypical first class passenger. Do you guys all board wearing fancy dress or something?!

I find it particularly hard to imagine a scenario whereby a complete stranger accuses another complete stranger of being a 'snob' because he has a suit and a laptop. How odd.

 

[deltic1989]

When I was in the Navy. I travelled from Lincoln to Plymouth and to treat myself I traveled 1st class. I was in uniform as I was expected on duty when I arrived I was a Leading Seaman at the time. Anyway an FT weilding toff, tried in his most hauhty tone of voice that only 'OFFICERS' could travel in first. I politely explained I had a FC ticket and sat down.