Most irritating (small) things on trains...

[DanTrain]

When the display which shows the stations etc inside the carriage shows a totally different service.
I got on the Leicester-Birmingham New Street train last Sunday but according to the display we were going from Nottingham to Cardiff Central!

Or when you get on a train and the PIS announces the wrong calling pattern on a skip-stop line...at which point half the train alights, checks that it really is the right train and gets back on again .

 

[37047]

People who think it is socially acceptable to have electronic devices that are not muted.

This. Keypad tones and constant notification pings drive me mad (yes, my own phone is permanently on silent), let alone anyone who feels the need to sodcast.

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

I’m finding myself getting disproportionately irritated about small annoyances on trains. For example, I find my trip is completely ruined if any of the following occur:

1) Closest toilets not working
2) No buffet car
3) Reservations not downloaded
4) Air conditioning not working
5) Train is in reverse formation
6) No knobbly things on the top of chairs to hold onto
7) No tea trolley
8) Stopping seemingly randomly
9) Job titles: ‘train manager’ instead of ‘conductor’. ‘Host’ instead of ‘barman’ or ‘shop keeper’
10) Overfamiliarity, I don’t want my journey to be ‘awesome’. I don’t care that your name is Tim.
11) Speakers for train announcements being impossible to hear or crackly
12) Incessant announcements

Have I missed anything? Am I being wholly unreasonable and unBritish in being vexed by these trivial annoyances. Or do they genuinely matter? Rail Travel is meant to be a high end service as well as being a public good.

You're not being unreasonable at all! I'm off on the 08:58 from Didcot Parkway to Liskeard for 4 to 5 hours. As I've had only 4 cases when my booked seat was forward facing on the IET's (1st time on the 09/01/19 from Didcot to Paddington when both sets of 5 coaches were in reverse formation), I'm more concerned as to whether the 3 trains I catch run On Time or not too late. If the 08:58 has a trolley service then I'll be surprised - no catering available on this service (08:59 on the 30/09/18) and the 16:31 from Liskeard to Reading (8-coach HST) on the 30/09/18.

1 thing I find irritating myself is that some trains will run a full route over an hour late but some will terminate early just to get back on time.

With XC, on Twitter people might mention
someone standing on one of their trains after an operation, having a panic attack or an epileptic person falling over. Looking at the comments on XC's Twitter page rather suggests, dare I say, that as long as people have the right ticket and get from A to B on time or near enough then they're happy.

If I was manning the XC Twitter feed and someone tweeted this to me, I'd have asked if the person needed medical assistance. I'm sure East Midlands Trains would have shown more sympathy.

XC do have their positive points but when something goes wrong then I feel they don't acknowledge it properly.

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

You're not being unreasonable at all! I'm off on the 08:58 from Didcot Parkway to Liskeard for 4 to 5 hours. As I've had only 4 cases when my booked seat was forward facing on the IET's (1st time on the 09/01/19 from Didcot to Paddington when both sets of 5 coaches were in reverse formation), I'm more concerned as to whether the 3 trains I catch run On Time or not too late. If the 08:58 has a trolley service then I'll be surprised - no catering available on this service (08:59 on the 30/09/18) and the 16:31 from Liskeard to Reading (8-coach HST) on the 30/09/18.

1 thing I find irritating myself is that some trains will run a full route over an hour late but some will terminate early just to get back on time.

With XC, on Twitter people might mention
someone standing on one of their trains after an operation, having a panic attack or an epileptic person falling over. Looking at the comments on XC's Twitter page rather suggests, dare I say, that as long as people have the right ticket and get from A to B on time or near enough then they're happy.

If I was manning the XC Twitter feed and someone tweeted this to me, I'd have asked if the person needed medical assistance. I'm sure East Midlands Trains would have shown more sympathy.

XC do have their positive points but when something goes wrong then I feel they don't acknowledge it properly.

Liskeard being today!

 

[Matt_pool]

Drunk people. The younger pissed guys can be annoying, but they tend to keep to themselves;
but it's the older blokes in their late 40's/early 50's of a certain demographic that are most irritating.

No, the rest of the train doesn't want to hear you sing, shout obscenities or make sexist remarks towards the nearest female!

Grow up!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Drunk people. The younger pissed guys can be annoying, but they tend to keep to themselves;
but it's the older blokes in their late 40's/early 50's of a certain demographic that are most irritating.

I'm sure I've heard staff say the same. Drunk students and teenagers will generally be boisterous but keep themselves to themselves and do as they are told if told to stop doing something.

OTOH, drunk self-entitled middle-aged businessmen are allegedly the worst - by far the most likely to assault staff, for instance.

 

[Camden]

If they're at that age and still getting bladdered like they're teenagers, it stands to reason they'd be the worst as they are defective on a deeper level than just their alcohol intake.

 

[Bletchleyite]

If they're at that age and still getting bladdered like they're teenagers, it stands to reason they'd be the worst as they are defective on a deeper level than just their alcohol intake.

There must be a lot of defective middle-aged blokes in London, then. Try the trains between about 2100 and 2300 off Euston on a Friday if you'd like to meet them...

 

[Camden]

There are indeed, I think it's a growing problem. Defective is becoming normalised.

 

[Matt_pool]

I'm sure I've heard staff say the same. Drunk students and teenagers will generally be boisterous but keep themselves to themselves and do as they are told if told to stop doing something.

OTOH, drunk self-entitled middle-aged businessmen are allegedly the worst - by far the most likely to assault staff, for instance.

I was thinking more along the lines of working class blokes who somehow earn a lot of money from their dodgy building/roofing/garage etc businesses who tend to live in the smaller, less salubrious towns around Liverpool and Manchester. They can usually be found on the last trains of the evening out of Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Oxford Road on a Friday and Saturday night!

 

[Ken H]

I was thinking more along the lines of working class blokes who somehow earn a lot of money from their dodgy building/roofing/garage etc businesses who tend to live in the smaller, less salubrious towns around Liverpool and Manchester. They can usually be found on the last trains of the evening out of Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Oxford Road on a Friday and Saturday night!

I thought being drunk on railway property was against by-laws.
I have heard police shove drunks on trains so they cease to be their problem.

 

[Master29]

People all cramming into a carriage with a virtually empty one next door.

 

[marks87]

I'm sure I've heard staff say the same. Drunk students and teenagers will generally be boisterous but keep themselves to themselves and do as they are told if told to stop doing something.

OTOH, drunk self-entitled middle-aged businessmen are allegedly the worst - by far the most likely to assault staff, for instance.

The worst I’ve had to share a carriage with was a bunch of middle-aged women downing Prosecco at 9am.

I think in life in general some of the worst groups of people are drunken women, hen parties especially.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I'm afraid it does, and has done for a year or so now.

That's bad enough, but does anyone know if the Virgin potty mouth is the same voice that they use for 'Amanda' on M&S self service tills? They sound very, very similar.

I don't want to scan my dinner past a train toilet.

Edit - I've just done a search on the M&S horror and learned that the voice there is that of Amanda Holden, and she's getting the chop there on Monday. Thank goodness for that. So the Virgin toilet sounds like Amanda Holden. About right.

That's the first time in a long time that "Amanda Holden" and "Virgin" have belonged in the same sentence...

 

[Meerkat]

I think in life in general some of the worst groups of people are drunken women, hen parties especially.

The shrieking!!
Oh and the sexual harassment of young male staff etc. But it’s just a giggle innit.....

 

[Saperstein]

Or when you get on a train and the PIS announces the wrong calling pattern on a skip-stop line...at which point half the train alights, checks that it really is the right train and gets back on again .

Yep, I had this the other day on a LNW 350 out of Euston, service was packed, about 5 mins before departure. Automated announcement “This train is not in service, please return to the platform”.

I was actually surprised how many stayed on.

 

[bringbackcrouc]

The difficulty comes when people on the platform insist on trying to get on when there *isn’t* room for people to move down, which is quite often the case. You will still get idiots standing in the platform saying “can you move down”, with the self-same idiot then being the one who is preventing the train from being dispatched and/or preventing the doors closing.

And why should someone move down if they know they’re going to be off at the next stop and moving down will cause them an almighty difficulty getting off?

Absolutely. I’m not smelling a complete stranger’s armpit for pleasure! I can’t think of a single time travelling in London when someone’s call to move down the carriage has made a joy of difference.

 

[yorksrob]

Absolutely. I’m not smelling a complete stranger’s armpit for pleasure! I can’t think of a single time travelling in London when someone’s call to move down the carriage has made a joy of difference.

Northern guards sometimes do this, trying to squash three carriages of people onto a two carriage pacer at Woodlesford. Rarely works.

Another one, harsh flourescent lighting. Light bulbs had a much nicer, warmer glow.

 

[Monarch010]

It's feet on seats that really gets me fuming.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yep, I had this the other day on a LNW 350 out of Euston, service was packed, about 5 mins before departure. Automated announcement “This train is not in service, please return to the platform”.

I was actually surprised how many stayed on.

Because it happens all the time. People just ignore Digital Doris and wait for a person to say something.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Northern guards sometimes do this, trying to squash three carriages of people onto a two carriage pacer at Woodlesford. Rarely works.

Another one, harsh flourescent lighting. Light bulbs had a much nicer, warmer glow.

You can do a nice glow with LEDs but TOCs all seem to have chosen a nasty cold white colour.

 

[Mag_seven]

Because it happens all the time. People just ignore Digital Doris and wait for a person to say something.

I thought Doris was a person.

 

[47271]

The worst I’ve had to share a carriage with was a bunch of middle-aged women downing Prosecco at 9am.

Were they from Aberdeen?

 

[Bletchleyite]

The shrieking!!
Oh and the sexual harassment of young male staff etc. But it’s just a giggle innit.....

I agree - there is little more unpleasant than a group of drunk women, and I do wish they would take all sexual harassment equally seriously.

 

[Ianno87]

I'll add "those people who get unneccesarily upset at small things irritating them on trains", e.g. petty squabbles over leg/table space, the quiet zone self-policers, or grown adults huffing and tuting (or muttering under breath) every time my son dares make a sound (not in the quiet zone).

 

[xotGD]

Why do guards wait until the train has set off before announcing where it is going? A bit late to find out you are on the wrong train!

And why can't TPE let us know which way round their services are?

 

[700007]

It's feet on seats that really gets me fuming.

This one really really gets me especially when the train is new or recently refurbished, in that mint fresh package condition and you can't just respect or appreciate the fact how nice it is without putting your dirty muddy shoes on the seat. Then next week same said person will go complain to the TOC 'oh you have some of the dirtiest trains ever, why am I paying thousands of pounds for this every year blah blah blah'. Really grinds my gears. Someone did this on the first day of the GN 717s entering service and it really did trigger me.

 

[700007]

The shrieking!!
Oh and the sexual harassment of young male staff etc. But it’s just a giggle innit.....

I agree - there is little more unpleasant than a group of drunk women, and I do wish they would take all sexual harassment equally seriously.

Unfortunately too many double standards. If they do it to the nearest man it's just a laugh but I am sure if someone did it back to them they would file a court case against them. I wish we would all respect the same rules and not pick and choose when we obey them.

 

[johntea]

I was on a TPE the other week heading to Liverpool, I travelled from Leeds to Huddersfield where along the way it was announced the on board toilet(s) were out of order but there would be a 5-10 minute break at Huddersfield so the station toilets could be used if required.

At Huddersfield it then emerged the station gents was out of order too! No idea what backup plan was in place after that sadly!

 

[LUYMun]

Trains seats not being "open compartment" style.