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Most irritating (small) things on trains...

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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.
 
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yorksrob

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The only toilet not working.
Hand dryers.
Hard seats.
Lack of tables.
Lack of opening windows.
 

Ken H

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11 Nov 2018
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6,271
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N Yorks
Stuff that rattles and buzzes. Like opening windows and badly fitted panels.
trains full of rubbish (Yes, thats you, Metro newspaper)

Berlin S-bahn trains have a little arrow on the interior destination display that tells you what side the doors will open next station. Why cant we do that here? If its a complicated station and the platform isnt known, then dont display the arrow.

Edit:-
and destination displays that tell me what stations the train has already called at. (Dont be smug bus people - you are as bad)
 

hexagon789

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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.

1) only if it's the only toilet.
2-7)not as such
8) usually a good reason for that
9) just a job title
10-12) I agree with you on these, they get to me after a while.

I think it depends on the person, somethings bother certain people more than others. I would say the thing that annoys me most on train journeys is the behaviour of other passengers rather than anything to do with the train or staff themselves.
 

underbank

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Here in Northern land, the annoyances are last minute cancellations, short-forming finding a Pacer on your 2 hour journey! We rejoice if a "proper" train turns up on time and that means any other "small" annoyances don't matter.
 

yorksrob

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Yorks
Here in Northern land, the annoyances are last minute cancellations, short-forming finding a Pacer on your 2 hour journey! We rejoice if a "proper" train turns up on time and that means any other "small" annoyances don't matter.

And very tight/unofficial connections between hourly services.
 

47271

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2,983
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.
All 12 of those things were not uncommon under VTEC.

Well, maybe the seat top grab handles were always there to be fair.

I'd add recently refurbed trains without power points - the majority of Scotrail 170s I'm thinking of you.
 
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92
Not knowing if the next train is 4/8/12 carriages so don’t know where it stops.

Solution: all trains should be 12 cars for commuter and metro lines.
 

Darandio

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24 Feb 2007
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10,672
Location
Redcar
And it only took twelve posts for the "take everything literally and not understand the joke" brigade to appear. Don't think that's a record though

And thats the thing, many on here don't joke about it. Children should be banned.
 

EssexGonzo

Member
Joined
9 May 2012
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636
You're clearly not a commuter. And I'm wondering if you should consider whether your tolerance levels need work? No 8, for example. I dunno, perhaps, maybe a red signal?

Virtually none of the things on your list even remotely apply to the 10 journeys per week I have to take. Maybe no. 11 at a push.

Instead:
  • Short forms. Big time, especially when standing in the summer on non-aircon stock is a nightmare.
  • The new timetable increasing gaps in the peak and pointlessly pushing services closer together.
  • GA's weaselly way of displaying the time of the next departure as minutes until arrival rather than the expected time + x minutes late.
 

aye2beeviasea

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28 Feb 2017
Messages
119
When it takes less time to get to the station and then to the platform than you anticipated, so you could have had an extra 135 seconds snoozing or shopping or whatever it was you were doing beforehand.
 

DarloRich

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Location
Fenny Stratford
Perhaps it might be easier to just relax and go with the flow instead of getting your knickers in a twist over inconsequential things.
 

Megafuss

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Joined
5 May 2018
Messages
639
The Thameslink onboard automated announcement with the geeky guy telling you to "please mind the gap between the platform and the train" quickly followed by the Theresa May soundalike telling me the next station is "xyz". It's the contrast in accent between the two that really annoys me for no reason.
 

Meerkat

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7,415
Standing on a SWR train, looking through the door at the platform and wondering why the bloody doors aren’t released yet!
 

Meerkat

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Enough people complaining can lead to changes, so ignoring such things isn’t always the best option
 

61653 HTAFC

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Another planet...
Leaky Pacers.
Boozed-up Lager-trailers.
Euro-dance being pumped at full volume by some scrote who thinks he's too good for headphones.
People who crowd round the doors, not letting people off the train first.
People who don't move down the carriage from the vestibule despite a dozen people being behind them. Often these last two are the same people!
 
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