Phone usage on public transport

Hope have not done the wrong thing posting this. What would you say constitutes an acceptable level of phone usage by passengers on board public transport.

Obviously nothing can be done to stop people holding conversations or using their phones onboard the bus but nonetheless there can be times where it can get a bit too much, particularly on a long journey. As an example I recently went on an NX journey where the passenger sat by me immediatley got their phone out and started talking loudly on it for virtually the whole journey.

Is there a point where a passenger would be in their right to complain to the driver if phone usage by other passengers gets excessive or is there a point where the driver is within their right to tell a passenger to stop using their phone?

I've been on an overnight Megabus service where someone was talking on their phone for hours, I also remember another occasion with a child watching a tablet at fairly high volume without headphones.

It's difficult. I remember travelling from Stonehouse to Cheltenham on a Stagecoach decker and a very loud local girl was on the phone for the entire journey. During this she discussed her pregnancy, vomiting, how the doctor had said her symptoms were morning sickness (but she'd not tested herself with Clearblue??). She said she was looking forward to a roll up when she got off. It was dreadful so put my earphones in.

I guess I could've asked her to be quieter but I'm British.....

TheGrandWazoo said:

It's difficult. I remember travelling from Stonehouse to Cheltenham on a Stagecoach decker and a very loud local girl was on the phone for the entire journey. During this she discussed her pregnancy, vomiting, how the doctor had said her symptoms were morning sickness (but she'd not tested herself with Clearblue??). She said she was looking forward to a roll up when she got off. It was dreadful so put my earphones in.

I guess I could've asked her to be quieter but I'm British.....

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I was on a Blyth / Newcastle 308, one of those me fangled electric hybrid buses on boxing day a couple of years ago, I was interested because I wanted to know what the bus was like ( terrible).

Lass behind me spent the whole journey either coughing on my neck or talking loudly about a murder that had happened the day before and speculating as to which of her friends who had been arrested were guilty.

I don;t mind people who use the phone on the buses if its like for a couple of mins, and its nothing overly important but if it goes of for 10-60mins, and you hear all the crap of the day then no.

I remember one times Overnight Megabus, there were two people there hads lights on playing music and driver made it VERY CLEAR stop it all of else there would be kick off...

TheGrandWazoo said:

It's difficult. I remember travelling from Stonehouse to Cheltenham on a Stagecoach decker and a very loud local girl was on the phone for the entire journey. During this she discussed her pregnancy, vomiting, how the doctor had said her symptoms were morning sickness (but she'd not tested herself with Clearblue??). She said she was looking forward to a roll up when she got off. It was dreadful so put my earphones in.

I guess I could've asked her to be quieter but I'm British.....

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On the buses where I am, I think regardless of nationality, I would have not said anything, just to avoid the risk of being put into a week's sleep and a bed in a hospital being where I wake up.

A few years ago when I was travelling on a TGV service from Lille to Lyon. A chap sat in the middle of the carriage answered his phone and proceeded to have a conversation (loudly, but not excessively loud). Within a minute of this two other passengers, independently from each other, who were sat different parts of the carriage (who both seemed to be reading books) began remonstrating with him and forced him to carry on his conversation in the vestibule. It was superb...

It amazes me that people find so much drivel to prattle on about on the phone !

For me train travel is an extension of the working day so am often on the phone. I try and keep my voice down, not swear (hard, very hard) to minimise disruption. Trains tend to have quiet coaches but otherwise low volume phone conversation is no worse than passengers chatting to each other. It is about showing a reasonable amount of respect to fellow passengers.

I have been on trains where passengers have been chatting loudly on the phone and frankly we are too polite and just tut away to ourselves but also take ourselves too seriously (I have had similar experiences to Winthorpe on the Eurostar and TGV where the French don't tolerate loud phone conversations). It is also in our gift to move as I did once on the Eurostar, 6.50 in the morning I get on the train to Lille, load of lads on a stag do (20 of them) crank on a radio, get the beers out and having a laugh. I just smiled and moved down the coach, carried on with my work. By the time we got to Lille they were 4 points down, a bit tipsy but not harming anyone and you are only young once. They were going to Marseille so probably needed carrying off the train....

yorksrob said:

It amazes me that people find so much drivel to prattle on about on the phone !

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There was a student on a bus I was on back in August who was delighted her friend made it onto the Dutch Love Island. Quite how she managed a 20 minute conversation with her Mum about it I don’t know!

Temple Meads said:

I've been on an overnight Megabus service where someone was talking on their phone for hours, I also remember another occasion with a child watching a tablet at fairly high volume without headphones.

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The latter is the big "electronic antisocial behaviour" thing now. I find relatively few people talk on the phone now, they text, Whatsapp or whatever.

Bletchleyite said:

The latter is the big "electronic antisocial behaviour" thing now. I

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If I can get my 3 year old to use his headphones (took a bit of persuasion, admittedly), then there's little excuse for others not to.

As a bus driver I hate when people sit in the front seat and talk on their phone. It’s very distracting and don’t want to listen to their conversation.

Far worse on the train when you enter a tunnel

'Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Think I've lost you Mike!'

No s**t Sherlock!

This has reminded me of last week when I was travelling on the Hamburg S Bahn. New Year's Day, circa 9:30am.

A rather hungover man was asleep with his phone alarm blasting every few minutes. Clearly he'd been shuttling up and down for a while.

Eventually, a rather well dressed bloke has had enough, goes up to him, and starts slapping his leg until he wakes up and tells him to shut it up