Scotrail Alcohol Ban - Should it be permanent?

[najaB]

Scotland and England do appear to have a problem in the cities but as most have said, its the alcohol consumed before travel that seems to be the catalyst.

Which is a separate matter of enforcing the current Byelaw 4:

1. no person shall enter or remain on the railway where such person is unfit to enter or remain on the railway as a result of being in a state of intoxication
2. where reasonable notice is, or has been, given prohibiting intoxicating liquor on any train service, no person shall have any intoxicating liquor with him on it, or attempt to enter such a train with intoxicating liquor with him
3. where an authorised person reasonably believes that any person is unfit to enter or remain on the railway, or has with him intoxicating liquor contrary to byelaw 4(2), an authorised person may:
   • require him to leave the railway
   • prevent him entering or remaining on the railway until an authorised person is satisfied that he has no intoxicating liquor with him and/or is no longer in an unfit condition

Establishing the means of enforcement is left as an exercise for the reader.

 

[LowLevel]

I guess the reason for that is that generally speaking a man is more of a physical threat than a woman due to inescapable facts of physiology. But I find it strongly distasteful too, and do wish it would be treated, legally and morally, as seriously as the other way round rightly is.

There's little more unpleasant in the world of alcohol consumption than a boozed-up hen do group. I'd rather be thumped by a bloke, at least I could thump him back if I so chose.

It all depends on perspective. I'm not, of course, trying to put a shade on the fact that a proportion of men behave in a totally unacceptable manner. I do however find groups of drunken men easier to manage than groups of drunken women. There are endless age old tactics in the book of manipulating people to deal with men - appeal to the "alpha" to keep the others under control, bring the fact there are kids nearby to the table etc. It no doubt helps that I am myself a fairly large man who enjoys a drink so I find it easy to get into their heads pace.

In my experience they are far less effective with large groups of women, particularly if they start ripping each others hair out or trying to gouge eyes with stiletto heels.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Merseyrail have been known to enforce this using their "rent-a-thugs", particularly during the Grand National, but their situation is much simpler with a near-fully-staffed and quite small network than dealing with the pub-crawlers at rural unstaffed Yorkshire halts.

 

[greyman42]

I would welcome it on the Argyle and North Clyde lines, which suffer immensely from drunk and disorderly behaviour - especially around Queen Street. I see no reason for it to be permanent anywhere else in Scotland though.

Surely on these lines the passengers must be drunk before they board the trains?