Trivia: unwritten etiquette as a railway passenger

[Huntergreed]

Again, fair enough on a busy services where there is a shortage of seats, but totally absurd when the carriage is half empty.

Agreed.

Indeed I'd go as far to say it's inconsiderate to choose to sit next to someone when there's an empty pair of seats anywhere in the coach/train (I often walk the full length of a 390, finding coach U rammed and coach A half empty - although I wouldn't expect everyone to walk the whole length of the train of course!)

 

[43066]

Indeed I'd go as far to say it's inconsiderate to choose to sit next to someone when there's an empty pair of seats

In this day and age, I’d question the motives of anyone choosing to sit next to someone when there are many free pairs of seats available.

Someone doing this on a reasonably empty train would come across as downright threatening; a reasonably burly guy sitting in the outside of a pair can effectively trap someone in very easily.

 

[bramling]

In this day and age, I’d question the motives of anyone choosing to sit next to someone when there are many free pairs of seats available.

People do odd things. Some people just literally go for the first seat which they see, almost like putting a bowl of food down in front of hungry dog, whilst others have all sorts of weird preferences for a particular seat.

 

[43066]

People do odd things. Some people just literally go for the first seat which they see, almost like putting a bowl of food down in front of hungry dog, whilst others have all sorts of weird preferences for a particular seat.

There’s certainly some utterly peculiar behaviour out there at the moment, as this thread is testament to.

I was just on a train where someone had left a pair of stiletto shoes in one of the vestibules. The TM made an announcement inviting the owner to come and retrieve them. The mind boggles! Unfortunately aggressive and anti social behaviour is also up, alongside light hearted examples like that. This kind of thing surely has to be down to the effects of lockdowns, which seem to have stunted the social skills of many.

 

[trainophile]

People do odd things. Some people just literally go for the first seat which they see, almost like putting a bowl of food down in front of hungry dog, whilst others have all sorts of weird preferences for a particular seat.

Still no excuse for stalking someone from seat to seat solely to prevent them having the audacity to put a bag down next to them.

So much for "please keep your luggage in sight at all times".

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Sep 2022 ==

There’s certainly some utterly peculiar behaviour out there at the moment, as this thread is testament to.

I was just a train where someone had left a pair of stiletto shoes in one of the vestibules. The TM made an announcement inviting the owner to come and retrieve them. The mind boggles! Unfortunately aggressive and anti social behaviour is also up, alongside light hearted examples like that. This kind of thing surely has to be down to the effects of lockdowns, which seem to have stunted the social skills of many.

I can understand that. Probably couldn't walk another step in them!

 

[43066]

I can understand that. Probably couldn't walk another step in them!

Perhaps that was it.

Another incident I witnessed the aftermath of at my London terminal recently was where a young woman (who was clearly under the influence of something) decided to head-butt the side of a train so hard that she knocked herself out and paramedics had to attend. I know delays can be annoying, but even the fiddliest delay repay claim is surely preferable to that…

 

[43096]

In this day and age, I’d question the motives of anyone choosing to sit next to someone when there are many free pairs of seats available.

Someone doing this on a reasonably empty train would come across as downright threatening; a reasonably burly guy sitting in the outside of a pair can effectively trap someone in very easily.

Agreed. Such behaviour is just plain weird.

 

[Gloster]

Strange behaviour is hardly new. While I was walking along platform 1 at Paddington around 1987 I saw a couple squabbling as they walked towards me. The chap stopped, turned a circle and a quarter anti-clockwise and then tried to fly kick the rake of Mark 1s at the platform. He took off too early so that his foot never came into contact with the train, before landing on his back with a howl. First aid and then an ambulance had to be called. His companion, if such she was, just looked back and then kept walking.

I have also been told of someone who tried to fly kick a train that he had just missed and was now pulling out. He failed to realise that the movement of the train would upset his balance when his foot made contact with it and ended up face down on the platform with expensive dental work in prospect.

 

[bramling]

This kind of thing surely has to be down to the effects of lockdowns, which seem to have stunted the social skills of many.

100%.

 

[Mikey C]

Perhaps that was it.

Another incident I witnessed the aftermath of at my London terminal recently was where a young woman (who was clearly under the influence of something) decided to head-butt the side of a train so hard that she knocked herself out and paramedics had to attend. I know delays can be annoying, but even the fiddliest delay repay claim is surely preferable to that…

Perhaps she was really angry after a journey where someone had sat next to her (despite there being lots of empty seats), played music without headphones and ate egg sandwiches

 

[ThameslinkUser]

a journey where someone had sat next to her (despite there being lots of empty seats),

Perhaps she shouldn't have had the ego to place a bag blocking the seat whilst everyone else in the immediate vicinity had placed bags and coats in the overhead racks?

 

[Requeststop]

Would shutting up and suffering when a passenger such as I had to travel with from Paddington to Cornwall yesterday, is an insufferable member of the public, considered Etiquette? Or do you tell them what you think of their behaviour?

This woman flounced onto the train at Paddington and marched straight up to a four seat table in Second class, putting her suitcase on one seat opposite her, dumped her coat on the seat next to her which were reserved, from Reading to Plymouth. Thus she was occupying four seats. At Reading she made no attempt to move from the seats that the young couple had booked and pointed out to her that it was their reserved seats, and then when they decided that arguing was not going to make the stubborn mule move they sat next to me as she regaled the whole carriage with tales of her disastrous marriage and divorce with a voice as loud as the foghorn at Start Point! She was so loud that I could still hear here with my noise reduction headphones on full blast!

What do you do with such behaviour. Sit and suffer or in turn, tell the bitch, (it's what I thought of her by the time we got to St Austell) exactly what you think of her and her rudeness. I wanted to ask if she had paid for four seats!

Just what is the etiquette for that situation?

 

[WizCastro197]

Maybe @JamieL is correct. Therefore I propose the following fines/custodial sentences for the following offences :

Fines :
Eating smelly food (subject to OAS testing) - £23.99
Grooming - (Nail clipping, makeup etc) - £100
Not having ticket ready - (double the ticket price)
Loud telephone calls (> 80 dB) - Means tested by phone price
Single seat occupation on table set - (average ticket per journey per unoccupied seat) or £50 minimum fine
Sitting next to someone you don't know - £10
Sniffing - £2 per sniff, £1 per sneeze, £5 per cough
Leaving seat tables down - £150
Using the wrong ticket gate - £38

Community service :
Leaky headphones
Media audio (>90dB)
Feet on chairs


Custodial :
Crying babies
Bad parenting
Sounds (>10dB) emitted whilst in the quiet coach

This is a joke right? Why would someone be fined for using wrong ticket gate? Nothing wrong with doing make-up on train. It isn't harming anyone. The more I read this the more I think it is a joke

Seconded.

Generally confused by the anti-children attitude? What is wrong with children on trains at all?

Those who have met me will know that I am in no position to be misogynistic!

And mobile phones hadn’t been invented when I was in the age group I’m referring to.

I have just realised


I don't mind 'women' as referred or anyone for that matter no matter age, gender etc, talking to each other. Let them be them it doesn't hurt anyone. Although it does spruce up the normal isolated tube journey quite a bit

 

[Techniquest]

Perhaps she was really angry after a journey where someone had sat next to her (despite there being lots of empty seats), played music without headphones and ate egg sandwiches

That made me smile quite a bit, not a good time to be drinking coffee Enjoyed that post quite a bit!

Out of absolutely everything, feet on seats is my biggest etiquette issue. I've others, but most of them are only petty. This thread has been rather interesting, some very interesting opinions mentioned!

That situation recently posted about the awful woman in First Class, I don't actually know what I'd have done myself.

 

[Darandio]

This is a joke right? Why would someone be fined for using wrong ticket gate? Nothing wrong with doing make-up on train. It isn't harming anyone. The more I read this the more I think it is a joke

Well yeah, it's a trivia thread......

 

[43066]

I don't mind 'women' as referred or anyone for that matter no matter age, gender etc, talking to each other.

Even in 2022 I would hope ‘women’ can still be referred to simply as women, with no need for quotation marks!

 

[WizCastro197]

Even in 2022 ‘women’ can still be referred to as women, with no need for quotation marks!

Sorry yes, I had written something else but hadn't removed the quotation marks. woman can be absolutely anything and I don't mind as it doesn't affect me. But somehow even using the words Men or Women will somehow affect someone int he world somewhere?

 

[zwk500]

Would shutting up and suffering when a passenger such as I had to travel with from Paddington to Cornwall yesterday, is an insufferable member of the public, considered Etiquette? Or do you tell them what you think of their behaviour?

Just what is the etiquette for that situation?

I think after she had bullied the rightful occupants away the appropriate response would have been to tell her to shut up and find the guard.

 

[WizCastro197]

I think after she had bullied the rightful occupants away the appropriate response would have been to tell her to shut up and find the guard.

Yes I seem to have a fear of reserved seats lately as I always seem to find someone in it despite the blatant signs not to sit in it. I ask all these guards and all but they never seem to do anything that's why I love Southern, nothing to worry about when boarding train!

 

[zwk500]

Yes I seem to have a fear of reserved seats lately as I always seem to find someone in it despite the blatant signs not to sit in it. I ask all these guards and all but they never seem to do anything that's why I love Southern, nothing to worry about when boarding train!

I've actually had it the other way round, where I booked a seat from MKC to Euston because I thought the trains would be busy. Indeed they were - so busy that, unbeknownst to me, reservations had been pulled. I did get in my seat, but only after having stopped somebody sitting in it (who had also boarded at MKC). The people already sitting at the table waited until she'd moved away before mentioning the reservations had been removed, which was rather generous of them.

 

[43066]

Sorry yes, I had written something else but hadn't removed the quotation marks. woman can be absolutely anything and I don't mind as it doesn't affect me. But somehow even using the words Men or Women will somehow affect someone int he world somewhere?

I don’t think using the terms men and women should affect anyone unduly - they are very well understood terms. I also think trying to gloss over them will affect far, far more people and is ultimately futile. However I suspect this thread of conversation is leading us off topic and is perhaps one to park!

 

[Wolfie]

"Would you mind moving your bag please? Can I help you?

Wonderful. So you put their bag up in the rack and then you get off before them. How do they get it down?

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Again, fair enough on a busy services where there is a shortage of seats, but totally absurd when the carriage is half empty.

Absolutely. To be frank if it is empty and l got that question the response would end with "off".

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Sep 2022 ==

I agree. I've had someone do that to me so I just moved to an empty pair. He then kept stalking me as I put my bag on the seat. As a lone person this was very scary.

"See it, say it, sorted" - time to contact BTP on the stalker for harassment.

 

[WizCastro197]

Wonderful. So you put their bag up in the rack and then you get off before them. How do they get it down?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Sep 2022 ==


Absolutely. To be frank if it is empty and l got that question the response would end with "off".

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"See it, say it, sorted" - time to contact BTP on the stalker for harassment.

You get charged for that number.
If there is no guard on train and BTP can’t reach you straight away
Get off at next station where someone can help you hopefully.

 

[LRV3004]

Passengers not locking toilet doors and getting annoyed with you when you walk in on them grinds my gears.
Referring to the subject of people sitting next to you when there are plenty of empty seats elsewhere, simply stare straight ahead when the person sits next to you and say “did you bring the money”?

 

[NewClee153]

Don’t eat smelly food on a voyager or pendolino - they smell enough as it is
Don’t put your bag on the seat if the train is busy
If you have to stand, spread out along the train
Close the disabled toilet door after using it
Put rubbish in the bin
If you’re on a train with reservations, and it’s a busy train, wait at least a few minutes before taking a reserved seat - if you really need to
If the train has a long dwell at a station, and it’s a cold day, close the doors
If you see the ticket conductor, get your ticket/railcard ready in advance
Let passengers who were standing by the doors first get on/off before you
Give up your seat for elderly/disabled/pregnant person

 

[Wolfie]

You get charged for that number.
If there is no guard on train and BTP can’t reach you straight away
Get off at next station where someone can help you hopefully.

Really? What the hell!

 

[Bletchleyite]

You get charged for that number.
If there is no guard on train and BTP can’t reach you straight away
Get off at next station where someone can help you hopefully.

If a crime is in progress, 999 is the number you want, and there is no charge for it.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Sep 2022 ==

We don't know the person's circumstances. Perhaps they can't manage to get their bag or case into the overhead racks, or are worried they won't be able to get it down again. If the luggage racks are full what are they supposed to do?

I can assure you that the vast majority are bone idle.

 

[ComUtoR]

This is a joke right?

Sort of. It was a sarcastic reaction to a more serious post about punishing anti-social behaviour.

Why would someone be fined for using wrong ticket gate?

Because using the wrong gate was an example of "anti-social" behaviour.

Nothing wrong with doing make-up on train. It isn't harming anyone.

Neither is eating an egg sandwich or any smelly food. However, its a judgement cal based on the level of tolerance and acceptance of the person taking offence and judging others based on their social construct.

The more I read this the more I think it is a joke

A satirical one

 

[MCSHF007]

If the consensus is that it's socially acceptable for a lady to spend several minutes applying make-up on a reasonably well loaded train then it's surely even more clearly acceptable for a gent to produce and use an electric shaver for his morning shave. Two examples of personal grooming both better carried out by getting up 10-15 or so minutes earlier to "do it at home".

 

[XAM2175]

Depends if someone is blocking a seat with their bag or not. I'll go out of my way to sit where that bag was, even if there are 20 other spare seats, to make a point.

And if they don't move their bag?