Loud conversation on a train.

[Harlesden]

If two people sitting in a nearby seat were engaged in a lengthy loud conversation, would it make any difference to your reaction if they were conversing in English or in another language?
Two Polish guys on a FCC service yesterday were conversing rather loudly in their own language when a young female executive type suddenly came out with
"Will you shut the f*** up please?"
The whole carriage fell silent.
I had my nose in an Adrian Vaughan book, but still found the loud conversation extremely irritating.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Did they stay quiet after the outburst? If so, huge success!

 

[Hydro]

Legend I am amused. Commuter rage!

 

[Mutant Lemming]

It's why I think we should have more 'on-board separation'. Designating carriages where people can be loud, others where people can eat and drink, one for people with children and a quiet carriage. I am not sure what you would do on the Crewe-Derby service though.

 

[GearJammer]

Sorry i know its a bit off topic but this reminded me of something i stumbled accross on Youtube the other day......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV_gdLLZPj0

Hope you find it as amuseing as i did, and fair play to the woman on the train.

 

[AlterEgo]

Brilliant!

I really abhor loud conversations on trains. Worst of all was witnessing, for twenty minutes, a butch lesbian shout down the phone to her (apparently ex) girlfriend about her bedroom habits. This was on a full Pendolino between Coventry and Birmingham New Street....

 

[cambsy]

i had indian lady with two screaming kids yesterday on 10.59 cross country from Glasgow to Penzance,was on until Exeter St Davids,she got on Edinburgh till Derby,bloody screamed the who;e way,told het to shut the kids up several times,

 

[graham43404]

Legend I am amused. Commuter rage!

Me too, that's an absolute classic and she had the balls to do something most of us could only dream of doing. Mind you if I said that I would most likely get smacked in the face.

 

[Ferret]

i had indian lady with two screaming kids yesterday on 10.59 cross country from Glasgow to Penzance,was on until Exeter St Davids,she got on Edinburgh till Derby,bloody screamed the who;e way,told het to shut the kids up several times,

Flew Phoenix-Philadelphia on a US(eless) Airways 757 a few weeks back. Kid of about 2 screamed for the entire flight, clueless parents did naff all. It took a flight attendant to get it to hush by talking to it, but as soon as he went, screams again. Nightmare!!!!

 

[4SRKT]

For those of us with kids, it's not pleasant for us either when they play up on public transport, but it's something that just happens sometimes. It's embarrassing and stressful, and the stress is only made worse by po-faced strangers assuming that parents are 'clueless'. If anyone told me to shut my kids up I would do what I could (and take it as read I would already be doing it without the 'helpful' strangers bringing it to my attention), but if it didn't work and he did it again he would get a right earful. What would the armchair parents on here suggest as a means to 'shut them up'? Take them to the toilet and beat the living daylights out of them perhaps? Or maybe not travel in the first place? Believe me, travelling with a young family is so stressful and expensive that you can be sure that the second of these options has been explored thoroughly before any journeys were made. It's only as my kids have got older that I've taken them, usually individually, on longer journeys by rail or air rather than use the car. The fact that my 9 year son is becoming an enthusiast helps greatly with this

 

[Oswyntail]

Flew Phoenix-Philadelphia on a US(eless) Airways 757 a few weeks back. Kid of about 2 screamed for the entire flight, clueless parents did naff all. It took a flight attendant to get it to hush by talking to it, but as soon as he went, screams again. Nightmare!!!!

OK, I assume that you have children yourself, so are an expert on this. You can tell that the child was screaming for some simple reason that parents could address (rather than, eg, an attack of colic for which there is no genuine remedy). You are, of course, aware that children will be temporarily distracted by strangers. You will have checked with the parents that their flight was important, or costly to postpone. So, come on, as you are obviously not "clueless" what would you do?

For those of us with kids, it's not pleasant for us either when they play up on public transport,...

Best response I have ever seen to this.
I would wager a considerable sum that everyone on this forum had at least one episode of uncontrollable "screaming" when they were small, and that a sizeable proportion did so in public. The major point being that such episodes are involuntary and uncontrollable, unlike some of the obnoxious behaviour we see from some football fans, drinkers, loudmouths....and rail enthusiasts.

 

[ReverendFozz]

It's why I think we should have more 'on-board apartheid'. Designating carriages where people can be loud, others where people can eat and drink, one for people with children and a quiet carriage. I am not sure what you would do on the Crewe-Derby service though.

I like this idea of designated carriages, quiet carriage, loud carriage etc, in the days of GNER and Virgin on the ECML the smokers carriage always seemed to be what I called the Party Carriage, normally coach a on a 225 and coach b on an HST, I have done a bit heavy drinking on those journeys, we even got an impromptu performance by a group of people who were singers, street performers and comedians on there way to Edinburgh one year

 

[4SRKT]

I like this idea of designated carriages, quiet carriage, loud carriage etc, in the days of GNER and Virgin on the ECML the smokers carriage always seemed to be what I called the Party Carriage, normally coach a on a 225 and coach b on an HST, I have done a bit heavy drinking on those journeys, we even got an impromptu performance by a group of people who were singers, street performers and comedians on there way to Edinburgh one year

It's a bit like this on diesel railtours, with First Class dining full of M&S cardigan and driving gloves-wearing normals at one end, and the 'rowdy' coach full of middle aged cranks blocked out of their skulls and playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the stewards when it comes to window hanging at the other. It's a kind of gradual change from one end to the other, with a coach of veg two down from the cranks, and the one in between a sort of transistion zone between the sound of pencils scratching numbers on pads and the sound of beer cans being cracked open and loud shouts of 'My lords!'.

 

[callum112233]

Two Polish guys on a FCC service yesterday were conversing rather loudly in their own language when a young female executive type suddenly came out with
"Will you shut the f*** up please?

Thats quite rude, I bet she wouldn't have said that if they were english people having a loud conversation.
I would have said to her 'get f****d' and carried on with the conversation.

 

[martinsh]

Two Polish guys on a FCC service yesterday were conversing rather loudly in their own language

Just wondering how you knew they were Polish ? Do you speak the language ?

 

[ReverendFozz]

Two Polish guys on a FCC service yesterday were conversing rather loudly in their own language when a young female executive type suddenly came out with
"Will you shut the f*** up please?

Thats quite rude, I bet she wouldn't have said that if they were english people having a loud conversation.
I would have said to her 'get f****d' and carried on with the conversation.

I think the choice of words is rather shocking, telling someone to 'shut the f**k up', but we dont know whether they had to be told more than once, if it was me I would ask nicely, and if they ignored me then I would start using abrupt language to get my point across

 

[graham43404]

Thats quite rude, I bet she wouldn't have said that if they were english people having a loud conversation.
I would have said to her 'get f****d' and carried on with the conversation.

She did say please though

 

[merlodlliw]

Thats quite rude, I bet she wouldn't have said that if they were english people having a loud conversation.
I would have said to her 'get f****d' and carried on with the conversation.

So what makes you think she would not have said the same to English speaking passengers?

I welcome the day mobile phones are banned on trains,

 

[graham43404]

I welcome the day mobile phones are banned on trains,

I did a topic a few weeks ago on here about the lack of respect people have for others in quiet coaches by chatting away above full volume and cackling away and in most cases someone on there mobile wouldn't have made as much noise. That said I agree they are a pest at times but I have seen much worse noise pollution, especially at the weekends.

I just think its a society problem, nobody seems to give a damn about other people outside of there own little selfish world these days.

 

[Harlesden]

Just wondering how you knew they were Polish ? Do you speak the language ?

The copy of Dziennik Polski one of the gentleman was carrying.
No.

 

[Southern]

Train home last night had a couple of City types having a loud conversation from Stratford -Ashford, "c**t" and "f**k" flying about repeatedly, hassling anybody walking through the train and generally being complete prats.

 

[Badger]

The language doesn't bother me, what does bother me though is when they're speaking loudly in English until you sit opposite them and then they switch to another language. But that's their right; still makes it annoying - if they didn't want people hearing their conversations they shouldn't be shouting at the very top of their voice. (Welsh, the people in question).

The mere fact they are foreign doesn't bother me though.

If they're talking in the quiet coach I do get a bit annoyed. Never do anything about it though, maybe that's why my train journeys are horrible!

 

[AlterEgo]

The mere fact they are foreign doesn't bother me though.

Yeah, the Welsh are alright by me.



Seriously though anyone of any nationality talking loudly on a train (or anywhere enclosed in public!) needs telling. I've done it on trains several times.

 

[WestCoast]

Well, people do it all the time. Although, I thought speaking on tube/train services around London was banned anyway?

Strangers tend to talk to me (only 'oop north' though!!). Maybe I seem friendly! On my commute home from college, an older gent was telling me all about his holiday in Southport.

To be honest, people talking loudly doesn't really bother me on a short journey. However, I can remember trying to get some sleep on a late night Pendo heading north and some guys were literally shouting at each other. That was very annoying!

 

[Flywaver]

This is a bug bear of mine when driving a unit. 170s dont have good sound proofing.
I would rather hear the noise of the engine than some muppet behind me. I so long for the days we come full circle and TOCs realise that Multiple Units are crap and bring back Locos.... Its a rare occurance when i request the guard to tell them to shut up. Coming to a halt and shutting the engine down shuts them up....

 

[GodAtum]

Is there any difference between a loud mobile phone conversation and two people loudly talking? I find the mobile case more annoying.

 

[WestCoast]

Is there any difference between a loud mobile phone conversation and two people loudly talking? I find the mobile case more annoying.

It's probably because you hear just the one loud voice, which sounds as if they are talking to themselves!

 

[CosherB]

I think the choice of words is rather shocking, telling someone to 'shut the f**k up', but we dont know whether they had to be told more than once, if it was me I would ask nicely, and if they ignored me then I would start using abrupt language to get my point across

Absolutely disagree. If the situation is as the OP described, then she did exactly the right thing; if more people had the guts to do it, there wouldn't be such a problem.

If two people (of any nationality) are insensitive enough to talk at a volume which upsets felow passengers then they are self-absorbed twits and deserve a very sharp rebuke. Nice requests to quieten down a bit just bounce of the the like of them; it needs a sharp blast to penetrate their selfishness.

Well done her! Can the OP please tell us what happened next?

 

[Kernowfem]

About five years ago, i was returning from a day out to Derby. A gentleman sat opposite answered his mobile. It started meekly with "Hello Darling" and quickly became a shouting match with "I swear! i never touched her!" etc etc. In between i could hear his partner screaming down the phone.

Feeling slightly uncomfortable i moved seats. However i couldn't escape the scene as i and the gentleman got off at Chesterfield. As i got to my car, i heard yelling, and turned round to see "His darling" punch him in the face. It seems she was waiting for him at the station and had some energy to burn off.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Just wondering how you knew they were Polish ? Do you speak the language ?

Have you ever wondered why my username looks like it is? Yet you could not hope for anyone more quiet than I on a train journey. There were Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian (yes, I know we have a forum member with connections from there) and Ukranian nationals who were all been classified as "Polish" when I was at a business to business conference some years ago by people too lazy to understand the nuances in all these languages. You could use the generic term "Eastern European" in situations where you are unsure.

The loudest speaking rail passengers to my own personal knowledge using mobile telephones on both trains and buses are from the sub-Saharan nations...notice my usage of a generic term here, as I would not know if they were from Chad, Nigeria, Benin, Niger, Ivory Coast, etc.