Smoking on station platform

[102 fan]

I've always thought it a bit surreal when there's a steam special on a platform and passengers 'are reminded that smoking is forbidden'!

Bit too Monty Python for me.

 

[David Goddard]

Yeah but coal smoke is good for you, and as it is transport emissions they cant ban it!
Just like you are not obliged to pick up horse poo but you are from your dog.

 

[LateThanNever]

I've always thought it a bit surreal when there's a steam special on a platform and passengers 'are reminded that smoking is forbidden'!

Bit too Monty Python for me.

Perhaps they should say "Smoking more than the train is forbidden"!?

Which would take a really enormous group of Monty Python smoking enthusiasts!

 

[Darren R]

It's not half as surreal as standing on the platform of a completely covered station, surrounded by diesel fumes trapped beneath the train shed, and being told that you can't smoke. Presumably tiny wasp breaths of nicotine anyone passing by might accidentally inhale is bad for you, whereas the noxious diesel fumes are perfectly healthy!

 

[Tim R-T-C]

I studiously avoid cigarette smoke, then walk around the paddock at drag racing events inhaling copious amounts of vile yellow, eye watering, nitro fumes.

Such is life.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

They filled the local swimming pool with chlorine yet they won't let me urinate in it?

 

[Darren R]

They filled the local swimming pool with chlorine yet they won't let me urinate in it?

I think the trick is not to ask permission beforehand!

 

[Cherry_Picker]

I think the trick is not to ask permission beforehand!

They tend to see it coming when I attempt to do it from the top diving board.

 

[westv]

They filled the local swimming pool with chlorine yet they won't let me urinate in it?

Because mixing chlorine and ammonia can kill you.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Yeah but coal smoke is good for you, and as it is transport emissions they cant ban it!
Just like you are not obliged to pick up horse poo but you are from your dog.

And why is putting horse manure on your garden good but your neighbours complain when your cat craps on their flower bed?

 

[LowLevel]

And why is putting horse manure on your garden good but your neighbours complain when your cat craps on their flower bed?

Having owned cats all my life, there is nowt as evil as cat droppings! The stench is unreal and it doesn't seem to have the same properties of herbivore manure!

 

[FQ]

I would say that a 'smoke' should be fine on the end of a station platform away from passengers. I don't know about other people.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I don't agree. Even if it is away from passengers, it still has the potential to be as it's an area where they can go and I, for one, would not wish to passively smoke.

 

[dk1]

I would say that a 'smoke' should be fine on the end of a station platform away from passengers. I don't know about other people.

I pay no attention to passengers smoking out of the canopy at stations. Many try & hide when they see me in uniform but it's so obvious. If they do make eye contact all I say is watch out for the BTP.

 

[ExRes]

And why is putting horse manure on your garden good but your neighbours complain when your cat craps on their flower bed?

Probably because horses don't eat meat, although there may be some that have swallowed a finger or two thinking they were carrots

 

[theshillito]

Sounds like some of you lot would love Merseyrail. Smoking is, for some reason, perfectly acceptable on outside platforms (not allowed on underground/indoor platforms of course).

 

[LowLevel]

As a member of traincrew I actively want smoking back on platforms. All it does is encourage people to chance it in the loos which is a fire risk and even more unpleasant as desperate people need a fix after a number of hours on trains - many places it's so far to walk there's not even chance to go legally on connections on many journeys. Staff and passengers are united on that issue which is why you still get drivers and guards lighting up in cabs and with the electric cigarette bans incoming I for one I have no interest in enforcing them as there is no legal basis to do so except for the principal of private property.

I'm a non smoker by the way.

 

[infobleep]

I don't agree. Even if it is away from passengers, it still has the potential to be as it's an area where they can go and I, for one, would not wish to passively smoke.

You sometimes get people smoking at the back entrance of Guildford railway station. I'm not keen on it but no one does anything about it. I don't know where the nearest no smoking sign is.

I've seen people light up at Kingham and either Godalming or Farncombe. Both on Sundays or late at night. Not sure how they deal with smokers at unmanned railway stations. I guess they could have random BTP checks to catch people out. Would be a rather expensive water of money and resources of course.

 

[Qwerty133]

I would like to see EMT remove the ashtray at the only entrance to the platform at my local station, while people should have the choice whether to smoke, I shouldn't have to walk past a number of smokers to board a train.
If they want to smoke do it at the back of the small carpark or at a push at the top of the platform where no one stands.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Most of the time a blind eye is turned. I'm still of the opinion that the smoking ban isn't really about stopping smokers from smoking. It's more than that, it's playing the long game, it's about making smoking socially unacceptable so future generations don't even bother starting.

Just going by NHS stats the adult population who smoke has dropped from 40% to 20% in the past 40 years. It's dropped from 27% to 20% since the smoking ban was introduced in 2007. Heart attacks are down by about 10% since the ban. Childhood asthma has gone from rising year on year before than ban to declining year on year since the ban. Now obviously all of these trends aren't simply due to the smoking ban, lots of other factors are probably responsible too but it clearly is a step in the right direction. There will always be a group of people who choose to smoke but what if the percentage of smokers drops to 10% in another ten or twenty years? Surely that is a good thing for the health of the nation?

 

[Yew]

Having recently returned from austria, where smoking rooms are still allowed (and much better, with partitioning doors and good ventilation) and cigarettes are sold from outdoor vending machines. I think we do seem to be a little overzealous on our smoking laws.

 

[Lucky63]

Having recently returned from austria, where smoking rooms are still allowed (and much better, with partitioning doors and good ventilation) and cigarettes are sold from outdoor vending machines. I think we do seem to be a little overzealous on our smoking laws.

I couldn't agree more.

I am a non-smoker and want to see a more relaxed and common sense approach to smoking.
One example I can think of is a Wetherspoons pub close to where I live that enforces a ban on customers smoking/drinking outside after 9pm. Totally ridiculous! Playground rules!
I think E-cigarettes being banned on stations is a bit OTT too.

 

[ExRes]

Most of the time a blind eye is turned. I'm still of the opinion that the smoking ban isn't really about stopping smokers from smoking. It's more than that, it's playing the long game, it's about making smoking socially unacceptable so future generations don't even bother starting.

Just going by NHS stats the adult population who smoke has dropped from 40% to 20% in the past 40 years. It's dropped from 27% to 20% since the smoking ban was introduced in 2007. Heart attacks are down by about 10% since the ban. Childhood asthma has gone from rising year on year before than ban to declining year on year since the ban. Now obviously all of these trends aren't simply due to the smoking ban, lots of other factors are probably responsible too but it clearly is a step in the right direction. There will always be a group of people who choose to smoke but what if the percentage of smokers drops to 10% in another ten or twenty years? Surely that is a good thing for the health of the nation?

Excellent post, I'm 100% with you

 

[Hornet]

Fishguard Harbour Station still allows smoking as it is owned by Stena Line, which might be very useful in the future, as there are plans afoot in the ROI to ban smoking completely. Cue gangs of Irishmen and women lined up on the Platform puffing their fags on their weekly trip from smoke free Ireland!

 

[anme]

I don't agree. Even if it is away from passengers, it still has the potential to be as it's an area where they can go and I, for one, would not wish to passively smoke.

I don't wish to passively inhale car exhaust fumes, but bizarrely it's legal for others to force me to do so.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

One example I can think of is a Wetherspoons pub close to where I live that enforces a ban on customers smoking/drinking outside after 9pm.

The drinking bit.... is this branch in a designated public place with a 21.00 start time?

 

[Mojo]

The drinking bit.... is this branch in a designated public place with a 21.00 start time?

Or possibly a restriction in place to prevent local residents from being disturbed by the racket when they are trying to sleep?

 

[edwin_m]

I don't wish to passively inhale car exhaust fumes, but bizarrely it's legal for others to force me to do so.

Nor do I, but two wrongs don't make a right.

 

[Lucky63]

The drinking bit.... is this branch in a designated public place with a 21.00 start time?

There are two areas outside of this pub which do not allow smoking and/or drinking. The first area is located at the front of the pub which is situated on a main road with nothing but shops in sight.
The second area is at the side of the pub which is kind of like a raised decking area with outdoor heaters, canopies etc. behind this area is a small fabrication factory. The nearest residential area is approximately 200 yards away. It's a rather odd rule.

 

[infobleep]

Nor do I, but two wrongs don't make a right.

As long as we are doing something to try and right the car fumes wrong, I guess smokers can't complain to much.