Train Etiquette

[Bohemian]

Does it really have to take some people on a London bound Virgin Pendolino the time it takes to travel from Birmingham New Street - Birmingham International stations to actually sit down, put their luggage away and just get out of the way? Why did one senior gentleman have to take the entire journey to Coventry folding coats, unzipping bags and basically being henpecked by his wife before he eventually sat down?

Is it me, or is this just a West Coast Main Line long haul situation? Have any of you noticed any other annoying things that people using trains tend to do? I can think of a few others.

• 
  People all pushing to get in one carriage when most of the train further down the platform is empty.

• 
  The older generation panicking and blocking automatic ticket barriers.

• 
  People getting off a train and just stopping in front of everyone else.

• 
  Luggage with long handles and a user with bad spatial awareness.

• 
  People riding the lifts at New Street station all day trying to find the way out while always coming out at platform level.

I'm sure you can think of many others. Is it just region specific, or is it like this all over the United Kingdom?

 

[142094]

I can assure you that this is all over the UK. Normally a quick 'excuse me' does the trick but of course there are the hard of hearing/stubborn/ignorant ones who don't move.

 

[wintonian]

How about people who wheel their luggage down the train instead of carrying it and wonder why it keeps hitting the seats. Those that stop right in front of the barriers and then proceed to look for their ticket. And people who manage to take up a whole table with 1 laptop leaving you nowhere to put your coffee.

Plus there is always the usual; luggage on seat, in the isle and phones in the quite carriage to moan about.

 

[The Barlow Boy]

Does it really have to take some people on a London bound Virgin Pendolino the time it takes to travel from Birmingham New Street - Birmingham International stations to actually sit down, put their luggage away and just get out of the way? Why did one senior gentleman have to take the entire journey to Coventry folding coats, unzipping bags and basically being henpecked by his wife before he eventually sat down?

Is it me, or is this just a West Coast Main Line long haul situation? Have any of you noticed any other annoying things that people using trains tend to do? I can think of a few others.

• People all pushing to get in one carriage when most of the train further down the platform is empty.
  You'll find this particularly on a late running train. people pile on in the first door because they don't want to be left behind whilst they hurtlwe up and down looking for an empty coach. I got left behind at East Croydon a few years ago doing exactly that.Not that it mattered much, there's plenty plenty London trains off East Croydon.

• The older generation panicking and blocking automatic ticket barriers.
  
  Don't knock 'em, you'll be old one day, it happens to us all.

• People getting off a train and just stopping in front of everyone else.
  
  Human nature I'm afraid. They're looking for an information screen/way out sign.

• Luggage with long handles and a user with bad spatial awareness.

Long handles/short handles/no handles, it'll always be in the way.

• People riding the lifts at New Street station all day trying to find the way out while always coming out at platform level.
  
  New Street station is like a tight jumper. Easy to get in, a b**ger to get out.

I'm sure you can think of many others. Is it just region specific, or is it like this all over the United Kingdom?

Yeah, Reading station dispatch staff. You'd think they were launching an Apollo mission not sending a train out. Whistle whistle, wave wave, whistle whistle. Meanwhile the Conductor's doing the same. it's little wonder that so many trains run late when Reading's involved.
And yes, the passenger thing is nationwide, it's all human nature.



..........

 

[GodAtum]

• 
  People all pushing to get in one carriage when most of the train further down the platform is empty.

• 
  The older generation panicking and blocking automatic ticket barriers.

• 
  People getting off a train and just stopping in front of everyone else.

I've seen lots of gatwick express trains that are full in the first few carriages and empty in the rear!

It's not just the older generation, I've seen someone tring to fit their Oyster into the card slot and someone using a ticket on the Oyster reader :roll:

Yes that happens a lot especially when people do not know whether to turn left or right!

 

[route:oxford]

Luggage with long handles and a user with bad spatial awareness.

Absolutely lethal!

With so many things that cannot be done due to "health 'n safety" issues... How come this kind of luggage is permitted in busy areas without being manufactured in high-visibily fluorescent colours with stobing warning light?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

And people who manage to take up a whole table with 1 laptop leaving you nowhere to put your coffee.

Drop keys on table, and allow them to penetrate a usb port... It usually, but not always causes a short-out and reboot.

 

[Intermodal]

Regardling luggage on seat: if there is plenty of other "equal quality" seats, non-reserved, is this a real issue if someone just wants to have a bit more space to themselves? Same with the laptop on table issue.

 

[mrcheek]

My own personal hates:

People who board at London terminals in First Class and then walk through the train to standard.
THIS IS FIRST CLASS. ME AND A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE PAID EXTRA JUST TO GET AWAY FROM YOU LOT. GET OUT OF MY CARRIAGE.
Of course, the worst are those who then stay in 1st class and pretend they didnt realise when their ticket is checked. These people should be thrown off the train. Whilst it is still moving.

Also, people who go to the attendant at the ticket barrier, and dont use the automatic barriers, even if they have normal tickets. If I have an ALR, it wont open most of the barriers. So I have to see the guy at the end. BUT YOU DONT NEED TO YOU IDIOT, GET OUT OF MY WAY.

And worse than those who take 20 minutes just to sit down, are those who take an equally long time to get up, subsequently blocking the aisle fiddling with their coats and luggage, whilst blocking other people from getting off the train.

 

[Jordy]

A couple of other things that annoy me - people who crowd round doors at stations preventing you from alighting, and people who queue to board through a certain door when there is another right next to them (I'm talking about the likes of MK4 sets here) which no one is using!

 

[bnm]

My pet hate: Intolerant folk who moan on internet forums about every little thing their fellow passengers do or don't do.

Let he who is without sin......

 

[Bohemian]

... moan about things loudest?

 

[MikeWh]

... people who crowd round doors at stations preventing you from alighting, ...

Worse than that are the people who are so paranoid that they might miss the train that they think they have a god-given right to board before the people getting off have allighted.

 

[wintonian]

Worse than that are the people who are so paranoid that they might miss the train that they think they have a god-given right to board before the people getting off have allighted.

And those that seem to wait for everyone else to alight before standing up, picking up their luggage and then leaving the train, by which time those on the platform have started boarding.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

People who get on board before you alight - that is the most unbelivably annoying thing possible;
People, with luggage etc, get on, find a table, unpack, then ask 'Is this the 1243 to Leeds?' etc;
Will go with all others said bewfore, epspecially mrcheek, that happens quite a bit on VT, they shouldn't be thrown out, they should have American flags tatooed all over them and be sent to Vietnam! As with Jordy i think, people, literally 40 or 50, who crowd around the one door on any train, and leave another five doors empty;
People at a terminal station whio think that if they all use the front door to alight, it'll be quicker, some have to wait one minute + to alight...

Loads more later!

 

[Bohemian]

What about staff attitude? I showed my season ticket to a member of staff on the gates at New Street station a few months ago, and after walking away for some distance he shouted me back in no uncertain terms. He just wanted another look at my ticket. I brushed the experience off as just a job worth trying to find his targets, but do you think shouting at a member of public is professional for anyone in a supposed position of authority?

 

[cuccir]

My pet hate: Intolerant folk who moan on internet forums about every little thing their fellow passengers do or don't do.

Let he who is without sin......

Here here. I'm fed up of these threads that are obsessed with the behaviour of others that they know nothing about. On public transport, other people will sometimes get in your way. Here's a heads up - you might get in other people's way at times as well. Its common curtsey to allow for the presence of others when you deign to leave your house.

 

[blackfive460]

What about staff attitude? I showed my season ticket to a member of staff on the gates at New Street station a few months ago, and after walking away for some distance he shouted me back in no uncertain terms.

I'd have kept on walking. No one would be rude enough to shout at me, surely?

As to people barging onto the train when I'm trying to get off; I find that the palm of the hand placed firmly in the centre of the chest usually has the desired effect.
Unless it's a woman, of course...

 

[Oliver]

My pet hate: Intolerant folk who moan on internet forums about every little thing their fellow passengers do or don't do.

Let he who is without sin......

As Jean-Paul Satre said, "Hell is the other people". (To be precise he said that in french. " L'infer, c'est les autres", I think it was.) Having to mingle with the great British public is one of the less attractive features of train travel, which is one of the reasons that people love their cars so much. However car drivers hate other drivers, and will behave to them in a way that they would never do face to face.

 

[MCR247]

Things that annoy me most:

- People on the platform (normally two walking side by side) with massing suitcases dragging them along at a snails pace, and there is no room for you to go around them.
Thats why when I have a suitcase and I'm with someone else I'll always walk behind them/get them to walk behind me

- People who do the above, and then stop suddenly blocking the platform

or​

- Are standing in the middle of the platform waiting for their train with suitcases around them leaving no room for people to get by

- I also find it annoying when you are waiting to get on a train (with end doors) and everyone has alighted, you wait for a second or two to make sure, and then start boarding. Then there just has to be someone trying to get off then. AND THEN they start tutting at you as if its your fault :roll:

 

[Geezertronic]

Here here. I'm fed up of these threads that are obsessed with the behaviour of others that they know nothing about. On public transport, other people will sometimes get in your way. Here's a heads up - you might get in other people's way at times as well. Its common curtsey to allow for the presence of others when you deign to leave your house.

So it is acceptable for other people to ruin the journey of others then? If anyone disrupts my journey, I will always let them know and I would expect the same in return (although no one has ever told me so basically because I don't do anything that would)

My pet hate is people talking in the quiet coach, people using their mobile phone in the quiet coach, kids making a row in the quiet coach...

 

[MidnightFlyer]

My pet hate is people talking in the quiet coach, people using their mobile phone in the quiet coach, kids making a row in the quiet coach...

Parents who let their babies cry. LOUDLY. CONSTANTLY. It's all because 'Yes, he's a baby, babies cry'. My God it makes me want to murder people.

 

[Aictos]

A couple of other things that annoy me - people who crowd round doors at stations preventing you from alighting, and people who queue to board through a certain door when there is another right next to them (I'm talking about the likes of MK4 sets here) which no one is using!

Yep, that's a pet hate of mine although one guy I know found a way around it though I believe at the time he simply told them that unless they moved away and let him get off then they wouldn't be boarding the service!

I think it worked, I've had to use it time and time again especially at Stevenage when there's countless doors on the train and everyone wants to board the single door which I intend to use to get off!

 

[Bohemian]

... and then you are walking behind someone on the station concourse and they suddenly stop, turn around and walk into you.

 

[12CSVT]

My pet hate is people talking in the quiet coach, people using their mobile phone in the quiet coach, kids making a row in the quiet coach...

Totally agree with you there.

Also drunken football yobs in the quiet coach, who seem incapable of speaking at less than 200 decibels.

People in using mobile phones in the quiet coach who then turn nasty when you point out the notices which clearly state 'please refrain from using mobile phones / making unnecessary noise'.

And there's some people who pretend either to be illiterate or that they don't understand English when you point out the notices regarding not using phones in the quiet coach.

 

[Bohemian]

What about staff attitude? I showed my season ticket to a member of staff on the gates at New Street station a few months ago, and after walking away for some distance he shouted me back in no uncertain terms. He just wanted another look at my ticket. I brushed the experience off as just a job worth trying to find his targets, but do you think shouting at a member of public is professional for anyone in a supposed position of authority?

Some of the staff at the main ticket gates at Birmingham New Street are slouching and chatting to other members of staff with little or no regard for who is passing them.

:roll:

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Ticket gate staff are great, I got through London Waterloo barriers the other day with a Feltham-Staines single

 

[scotsman]

Parents who let their babies cry. LOUDLY. CONSTANTLY. It's all because 'Yes, he's a baby, babies cry'. My God it makes me want to murder people.

Hmm, and how do you suggest we solve that then?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Hmm, and how do you suggest we solve that then?

No, I mean the ones who leave them and think that everyone else can ignore it, they just let it cry, wail even, gets me very annoyed.

 

[Geezertronic]

Hmm, and how do you suggest we solve that then?

On the one instance that I was sat opposite a mother and baby in the quiet coach of a 390, she stopped the baby crying by breastfeeding it. I didn't know where to put my eyes, especially since it was dark so looking out of the window only gave a reflective view back into the carriage

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Why do people now feel it is fine to get on the train whilst people are still getting off? I was always told it is polite to let those off first, and that is what I do. Yet when I'm trying to get off, people barge on!