On taxis late at night there is usually a sign saying no food or drink and also a disclaimer that if a passenger vomits all over the car they pay a surcharge or something along those lines for the taxi to be cleaned.
Knowing the state trains arrive at the depots especially on a Friday and Saturday night were party goers have vomited all over the floor and left their half eaten Mcdonalds to be trampled into the floor, I think there should be a similar rule for trains as there is for taxis.
Reverting to the OP, a middle ground between the up-close-and-personal of a taxi and a free-for-all 8-coach DOO train is the urban bus.
For those towns and cities with late night and all-night buses, is there ever any attempt these days by drivers or security staff to prevent passengers boarding buses with hot food, booze or in a completely legless intoxicated state?
It's many years since I used the All-Night buses in Manchester, and binge drinking seems to have come a long way since then.
In the 1970s, up to deregulation in the mid-80s, all of GMT's Night Service buses in Manchester carried a two person crew, even after OPO had become almost universal in the city (it wasn't always 2-
Man crew either, I remember one particularly fierce Irish conductress on the 28 to Bolton).
At that time, late-night eating options were heavily biased towards chips and gravy in a polystyrene tray (McDonalds outlets were few & far between, and kebabs were still a bit exotic and foreign for many).
Some bus conductors & drivers would screen passengers boarding their bus at Piccadilly Gardens, resulting in crowds of passengers wolfing down their chips before being allowed onto the bus, and piles of stinking refuse on the bus station after departure.
I also saw some totally wasted, unable-to-stand passengers being denied boarding.
Not to say there wasn't frequent disorder, fighting and puking on the night buses at weekend, but I guess there could be some risk mitigation.
I guess none of this happens on the buses these days.