Along with feet on seats
Things that really annoy my on trains - people who spread themselves over two seats - I feel like getting up and is sitting in their ‘other’ seat. Only slightly worse than having “private” phone calls in public.
Very topical subject. I’m travelling back from London to Glasgow, Virgin first class, nice table of 4 all to myself, since me seat is the only one reserved, until a couple arrive with a hairy dog and proceed to take up the 3 seats at my table, yes the dog gets a seat too! The wife sits beside me, the dog is opposite me and the husband sits opposite the wife until we start and he then parks himself on a single seat opposite, leaving me with the wife and shaggy dog!
I decide I need to move, as my wife has a severe allergy to dog hair, so I move to the next table of 4. The the ticket man arrives, only to discover that they don’t have first class tickets!
You couldn’t make it up!
I certainly don’t miss my former daily commute to Waterloo. If the train was busy and I knew I would end up sitting next to someone, my tactic was to select one of the bag on seat merchants, even if at that point there were other available seats.
As to the phone call brigade, I always found the “loud important business call” ones particularly annoying. They were trying to convey how important they were, whereas to me it conveyed an employee at their bosses beck and call.
Japan: No phone calls allowed on the train. You want to make one, go to the toilet area in between the cars. Bliss.....
We really need that kind of thing here. As for feet on seats.....
A couple of weeks back a man was in the papers and on social media as he was riding in a train without his top on. The picture went viral.
Bags on seats get right on my wick. On trains but more so in airports. Since when does a bag need to be on a chair next to you in this busy departure gate? On your lap or on the floor numpty.
Virgin Trains? Luxury!
Try the Tube. Youtube videos at full volume, conversations on speakerphone like the Kardashians, manspreaders, kebab eaters, drunks, druggies, rotating rucksack wearers, feral kids swinging from the handrails, women powdering and creaming themselves (and whoever is sitting next to them), screeching tracks so loud they are illegal and the worst of all, cheery, ‘character’ platform announcers who think that ‘mind the closing doors’ is their chance to audition for X-Factor.
Then you do it all again in the evening.
As it’s transpires, they paid for 1 upgrade and he went and sat in a standard coach, while the wife (and dog) remained ensconced in their ever expanding empire, now taking up all 4 seats!
None of the Virgin Trains staff made any reference to said mutt, other than it was “a lovely dog”.
I'll put my bag on the seat next to me if it's unoccupied. Other travellers are more than welcome to ask to sit down, and I'll move my bag. Since when did we become scared of asking if seat is taken?
On the flip side, a few years ago I had two seats booked and my brother failed to turn up. I had every right to use the second seat and had my bag on it, and a lady asked if the seat was taken so I let her have it even though I'd paid for it.
What are you doing on a train?! Chauffeur got the night off?
Are they not?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37177261
Lucky you didn't try and charge her.You are allowed to sit in reserved seats that are not occupied. If you speak to a conductor on a busy train they will tell you to do this. It's usually obvious a few minutes after departure that the person who made the reservation is not coming.
That is clearly talking about seats where the ticket owner is not present.
"You can sit in reserved seats on inter-city trains if the person who made the reservation doesn't turn up"
I made the reservations, I turned up.
Do find me the rules stating I can't book two seats for myself though :) these reserved seats were occupied, by the ticket holder and his belongings. Why you feel the need to try and argue over this is beyond me.
Last edited by hafle; 14th August 2019 at 21:09.
It's talking about an unoccupied seat where the ticket holder is not present. I quoted from the link you provided... The ticket holder was present, ergo they're my seats to use.
And it was pointing out that all people have to do is ask, manners still do exist. Just because someone is using two seats doesn't mean that seat is unavailable to other passengers. You seemed to prefer to try and create an argument for no good reason.
You were breaking terms and conditions by not sitting in reserved seats.
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times...pes/46546.aspx
Where applicable, you must travel in the Class and reserved seat(s) shown on the ticket(s).
I hate rude, selfish people. When I get the train I to London I have my bag on the seat next to me for about 4 or 5 stops then put it on my lap when the carriage is at about 25% seated capacity and I wouldn't dream of putting my feet on the seats.
I saw a group of 4 skinny white yoofs ( early teens probably ) get on the tube a few weeks ago, baggy jeans, no tops, mirror sunglasses, plenty of swagger, they then played some shit noise from a phone and then tried to mumble some rap over the top of the noise whilst gesticulating like they were practicing semaphore. I can only presume they were hoping to be discovered as the next 50cent style crew but just came off as looking ridiculous.
Shout out to the East side Piccadilly line massive.
If a bag is on a seat, I assume that the person has an -ism and doesn’t want anyone to sit next to them. I help them overcome this by dumping the bag in their lap and sitting next to them.
I have improved my social skills from a time when I used to make a move which appeared I was just going to sit on their bag. That gets it moved rapidly.
One day a yoof was sitting diagonally one one seat with one of his thighs across the seat next to him. I sat in the partially empty seat and put my thigh over the top of his. He moved rather quickly.
I like to reflect the politeness and ignorance of my fellow passengers.
I was on a train going home from Liverpool Street in I’m guessing the early 90’s and there was a stupidly loud guy having a ‘Yah, I spoke to Hugo and he agrees that Gucci’s PR were totally right about the upgrade for Hermione’ type conversation - until a stocky, suited passenger to my right picked the phone out of his hand and threw it out the window of the moving train to loud applause! I can’t imagine anyone having the guts to do that nowadays, and it’s such a common occurrence to sit next to someone shouting into their phone it probably wouldn’t even elicit a shrug. But back then mobiles were new, and manners still existed
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I have a few:
1. People that get on the tube in front of you, then take a long time scanning the carriage to decide which seat they want to seat in. Of course, by the time they've made up their mind, every single seat is taken by passengers that got in through the other doors. Just sit down you pillock.
2. People that don't move inside the carriage, making everyone huddle up next to the doors.
3. People that rush into the train as soon as the doors open, even though it's clearly stated that you need to allow passengers off the train first.
The next two are about tube stations, but still relevant:
1. Large groups of tourists, all standing at the bottom of the stairs trying to decide which platform they need to be on. You don't ALL need to stand there.
2. Tourists again, that think that just because they don't have to be anywhere, no one else does either and as such walk extremely slowly, usually in a large group next to each other. Either pick up the pace or walk in a single file.
Regarding bags, I'll put my bag on the seat next to me if the carriage is largely empty, but I'll put it in my lap or on the floor between my legs when it starts to fill up.
I can generally forgive teens pratting about, on the basis that in the late 70s I was just as much of a prat in public from time to time. As long as they are harmless.
The MAMIL standing with his foldup bike and his crotch a foot from my face this morning on the other hand... You don’t need to dress like Chris Froome to ride your Brompton or whatever 2 miles to the station, and none of the girls in their gym kit are looking at you, you’re old enough to be their Dad.
The York to KX train that I get a few times a week is an extension of the office. Many people making work calls, myself included.
Calls made/work done on the train is work that doesn’t need to be done at home. So it’s a great opportunity to claw back some time with the family.
If anyone is so self involved that they believe these calls are being made with some other motivation, i.e. looking important to strangers in the carriage, then they’re enough of a crank that their opinion doesn’t matter.
My actual train moan is bag’s under the table seat obstructing the foot space of the person sat opposite. That irritates me quite a lot but not so much that I can’t politely ask them to move it or let me.
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Pre-secure mobile phones you used to be able to listen to both sides of the call on a frequency scanner. “A friend” heard the following conversation:
Hello
Hi John, I’m in the pub, on the mobile
OK Dave, how’s it going?
OK John, just ringing to see how much milk we have in the fridge
There's a 2 litre container Dave
Thanks John, how much as it got in it.
About half full Dave
Is it nearer half a litre or a litre and a half.
I won't bore you with the rest of the conversation, but it did go on somewhat. Mobile phones were considerably less ubiquitous then, but call costs were about 35p a minute. The call went on for long enough that he could have not bothered with the call, bought 2 litres of milk, and thrown it away if they had too much at home already. He would have still been ahead financially, but of course he wouldn’t have got to whip his phone out in the pub and impress everyone.
Hah, indeed. For a while earlier this century I had to commute between Kingston and Waterloo. After a while, I felt that the roof was beginning to look appealing!
A taxi to Wimbledon sometimes helped, albeit at an unhealthy cost. It was all silly since I worked for an ISP and I could have done by job from home perfectly well. We even sold home working kits to corporates!
I was on a train quite late at night, there was another fella opposite me dozing. I had my i pod on. A woman got in our carriage and sat in seats backing onto ours. I was dropping off when the fella sitting opposite me gives me a gentle kick. I take my ear phones out. He smiles and whispers have a listen.
The woman is describing to a friend on the phone how she had sex with her lover in the office, in an alleyway outside the pub. She goes into graphic detail. We are all ears. She then say's her ass of a husband, is picking her up at Shenfield Station. She then says some pretty dirty stuff, not for this forum. She then starts stating who next in the office is going to sample her charms ...when we get to Shenfield and she gets off!
The fella opposite me shakes his head and says 'man we'll never know what's going to happened?' Still it spiced up a usually boring journey. She was oblivious of us being there or just did not care.
Last edited by wildheart; 15th August 2019 at 13:43.
One of my pet hates is the idiots who get on the train while I’m still getting off.
I encountered one such idiot on the Tube who put his large bag in the doorway blocking the exit then looked blank when I suggested things would go more smoothly if he took it out of the way so I could leave the train. I ended up hoofing his bag onto the platform.
Another clown did the same to me once with a pushchair. Said clown’s crotch-fruit was still on board so no kick but a silent stand-off until they removed the obstruction.
I was on the train with my wife after enjoying a weekend away and a woman sat on the other side with her colleague and spoke at full volume for nearly our entire journey. I thought she might get tired at some point or require a break but no. Only the last 20 minutes or so was peaceful.
I drive trains for a living.....
Some of the sights Ive seen............................jeez!