• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Sitting with a person when a train is empty

TT-ONR-NRN

TT-ONR-NRN

Established Member
Joined
30 Dec 2016
Messages
10,480
Location
Farnham
I’m quite baffled by this. Empty train, except a couple of women at the front of the carriage, me towards the rear, and then the entire back carriage was empty!

Yet a couple boarding just decided to sit, of all places, at my table. Took out food and had a very loud conversation and meal while I was quite clearly trying to work on my laptop.

I’m trying to work out why anyone would sit at a table where someone was when they had the pick of the entire rest of the coach. Its just silly, unnecessary and annoying, and made me feel a bit weirded out to be honest. Has this happened to anyone else?

View attachment D967BE45-8A57-4AFF-A8F9-A6F0A5BB17A6.mp4
 
Last edited:
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

hexagon789

hexagon789

Veteran Member
Joined
2 Sep 2016
Messages
15,793
Location
Glasgow
TT-ONR-NRN said:
I’m quite baffled by this. Empty train, except a couple of women at the front of the carriage, me towards the rear, and then the entire back carriage was empty!

Yet a couple boarding just decided to sit, of all places, at my table. Took out food and had a very loud conversation and meal while I was quite clearly trying to work on my laptop.

I’m trying to work out why anyone would sit at a table where someone was when they had the pick of the entire rest of the coach. Its just silly, unnecessary and annoying, and made me feel a bit weirded out to be honest. Has this happened to anyone else?

View attachment 152524
Click to expand...
I suspect some kind of weird 'kick' out of it. Either because they felt like annoying some one or they are among those individuals that get off on intruding others space.

Certainly I would always pick and indeed prefer an empty table given the choice, as I would imagine the overwhelming majority of lone travellers would.

The fact they decided to converse loudly in an otherwise quiet environment further suggests to me my point about getting a 'kick' out of annoying others.

I don't think they'd have done it if you'd been travelling with someone.


We'll see what others interpretations are.
 
Merseysider

Merseysider

Established Member
Fares Advisor
Joined
22 Jan 2014
Messages
5,402
Location
Birmingham
That’s when you take out a beer and start slurping it very loudly ;)

Bonus points for a belch
 
trainophile

trainophile

Established Member
Joined
28 Oct 2010
Messages
6,215
Location
Wherever I lay my hat
Yes, I had this back in the days when I occasionally afforded 1st Class on Avanti. There were about three other people in the coach, and a bloke got on and strode past half a dozen empty tables to plonk himself right opposite me. I was spooked and got up and moved, mumbling something about "it'll give us all more space".
 
Last edited:
D

Deepgreen

Established Member
Joined
12 Jun 2013
Messages
6,393
Location
Betchworth, Surrey
Annoying, but, while there were plenty of other seats, were there any other tables free for their meal? If there were, then this is bizarre and i would have been tempted to ask politely why they chose to sit where they did. Edit - just played the clip and, yes, other tables were free. They also sat at two tables by the look of it. Pretty odd behaviour and showing an almost medical lack of social etiquette!
 
TT-ONR-NRN

TT-ONR-NRN

Established Member
Joined
30 Dec 2016
Messages
10,480
Location
Farnham
Deepgreen said:
Annoying, but, while there were plenty of other seats, were there any other tables free for their meal? If there were, then this is bizarre and i would have been tempted to ask politely why they chose to sit where they did. Edit - just played the clip and, yes, other tables were free. They also sat at two tables by the look of it. Pretty odd behaviour and showing an almost medical lack of social etiquette!
Click to expand...
The seats immediately behind were more tables! :lol:
It’s just the most annoying thing to do.
 
TT-ONR-NRN

TT-ONR-NRN

Established Member
Joined
30 Dec 2016
Messages
10,480
Location
Farnham
norbitonflyer said:
Did you move to another table?
Click to expand...
Yes, I moved to the rear coach where I was the only person. Told the guard, who commented something like “weren’t you in the other carriage?” what had happened who agreed it was very odd.

hexagon789 said:
I suspect some kind of weird 'kick' out of it. Either because they felt like annoying some one or they are among those individuals that get off on intruding others space.
Click to expand...
Rather a sadistic quality if true.

What I actually forgot to say, which makes it all the weirder, is when I moved, so did they!!! (To an airline seat.) So bizarre.
 
Last edited:
Nottingham59

Nottingham59

Established Member
Joined
10 Dec 2019
Messages
1,646
Location
Nottingham
TT-ONR-NRN said:
I’m quite baffled by this. Empty train, except a couple of women at the front of the carriage, me towards the rear, and then the entire back carriage was empty!

Yet a couple boarding just decided to sit, of all places, at my table. Took out food and had a very loud conversation and meal while I was quite clearly trying to work on my laptop.

I’m trying to work out why anyone would sit at a table where someone was when they had the pick of the entire rest of the coach. Its just silly, unnecessary and annoying, and made me feel a bit weirded out to be honest. Has this happened to anyone
Click to expand...

Happens all the time in places like Greece and some other Mediterranean countries. It would be odd for someone to board a bus and not sit next to/near any passengers already on board.

Just different cultural norms. Tends to really freak out Australians who have an even greater need for personal space than us Brits.
 
B

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,896
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
I've sat next to someone in a priority row in what was an almost empty train, because I knew full well it wouldn't be an empty train within 10 minutes. And indeed it wasn't, it was full and standing before leaving Euston.

That person (a man, I'd probably not have done it to a woman as it may have freaked her out) wasn't very impressed at the time but I think understood later.

But what the OP describes is just odd, and I guess it's TfW so they weren't their reserved seats?

Similar annoyance - why do people park next to you in an empty car park? Why would they want to make it harder to get out of their car?
 
TT-ONR-NRN

TT-ONR-NRN

Established Member
Joined
30 Dec 2016
Messages
10,480
Location
Farnham
Nottingham59 said:
Happens all the time in places like Greece and some other Mediterranean countries. It would be odd for someone to board a bus and not sit next to/near any passengers already on board.

Just different cultural norms. Tends to really freak out Australians who have an even greater need for personal space than us Brits.
Click to expand...
I wasn’t even in the first seats of the carriage though, they boarded and walked past four or five rows of empty seats before getting to me.
 
bramling

bramling

Veteran Member
Joined
5 Mar 2012
Messages
17,776
Location
Hertfordshire / Teesdale
TT-ONR-NRN said:
I’m quite baffled by this. Empty train, except a couple of women at the front of the carriage, me towards the rear, and then the entire back carriage was empty!

Yet a couple boarding just decided to sit, of all places, at my table. Took out food and had a very loud conversation and meal while I was quite clearly trying to work on my laptop.

I’m trying to work out why anyone would sit at a table where someone was when they had the pick of the entire rest of the coach. Its just silly, unnecessary and annoying, and made me feel a bit weirded out to be honest. Has this happened to anyone else?

View attachment 152524
Click to expand...

Definitely reasonably for you to have the hump. Personally I’d have likely had a go at them. Extremely inconsiderate and rude.

Appears like a total and complete lack of self awareness.
 
S

swt_passenger

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Apr 2010
Messages
31,439
Bletchleyite said:
Similar annoyance - why do people park next to you in an empty car park? Why would they want to make it harder to get out of their car?
Click to expand...
They can’t see the lines, so need another car to line up with? (Thinking of the strange recent case of the bloke who can drive but can’t see to buy a ticket)… :D
 
YorksLad12

YorksLad12

Established Member
Joined
5 Feb 2020
Messages
1,895
Location
Leeds
"Sorry mate - this seat's taken." ? ;)
Or, start a conversation with them. Ascertain their politics, take the opposing view. Hours of fun :lol:

But yes; I like my space too, which is why I avoid tables whenever possible.
 
Busaholic

Busaholic

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Jun 2014
Messages
14,091
Happened to me several times over the years, admittedly more than once when I was with quite an attractive woman, so probable leching on their part! I also think once or twice I'd selected a seat on a train that the other passenger considered was ''their'' regular seat, and they got their way as I immediately moved, with as withering a glance as I could manage. Wasn't going to say this, but on one occasion when my companion and I then moved seats and were followed by the weirdo, I got angry and said I'd be reporting him to a member of staff if he didn't find another carriage pronto. Let's say it worked.
 
43066

43066

Established Member
Joined
24 Nov 2019
Messages
9,425
Location
London
TT-ONR-NRN said:
I’m quite baffled by this. Empty train, except a couple of women at the front of the carriage, me towards the rear, and then the entire back carriage was empty!

Yet a couple boarding just decided to sit, of all places, at my table. Took out food and had a very loud conversation and meal while I was quite clearly trying to work on my laptop.

I’m trying to work out why anyone would sit at a table where someone was when they had the pick of the entire rest of the coach. Its just silly, unnecessary and annoying, and made me feel a bit weirded out to be honest. Has this happened to anyone else?

View attachment 152524
Click to expand...

Ridiculous - people just behaving like sheep and not thinking about those around them.
 
P

PaulHarding150

Member
Joined
13 Feb 2011
Messages
1,063
Location
Cardiff
Whilst I agree sitting next to/close to strangers when the train is essentially empty is both weird and unusual. I wouldn’t recommend filming/taking photos of strangers.
 
DelW

DelW

Established Member
Joined
15 Jan 2015
Messages
3,880
Something similar happened to me on an almost empty GWR class 800 from Bristol to London a year or so ago. I was sitting in the middle of an otherwise empty coach. A minute or two before departure from Temple Meads, a middle aged woman, talking loudly into a phone earpiece/ microphone, walked through and sat in the seat immediately across the aisle from me. I was on an advance ticket and in my booked seat, but approaching Bath I was so fed up with the continuing rabbiting away that I moved to the next (almost equally empty) coach. There was a ticket check around Chippenham, but with so few passengers, the guard made no comment that I was in the wrong seat (and coach).
 
TT-ONR-NRN

TT-ONR-NRN

Established Member
Joined
30 Dec 2016
Messages
10,480
Location
Farnham
PaulHarding150 said:
Whilst I agree sitting next to/close to strangers when the train is essentially empty is both weird and unusual. I wouldn’t recommend filming/taking photos of strangers.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice but consent to capture someone on video is only required “in a place where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy” and public transport does not include that. (If someone is anti social or weird in public, I will often film it discreetly)

But anyway, I was more filming the carriage, to show how empty it was.
 
Last edited:
M

mikeb42

Member
Joined
19 Jan 2015
Messages
125
It may be related to the same pathology that I'm actively perplexed/infuriated by at this moment:

Why do an aberrant minority of people regularly go to all the bother of walking quarter of a kilometer from the concourse at Paddington to get to unreserved seats in the quiet coach on far from busy trains in order to have a lengthy exchange of banal drivel with each other at full volume?

The basic problem with public transport is the public :lol:. 43066 and their colleagues get the best deal - a solid sheet of steel and a door they can wearily slam on the rest of humanity!

I console myself with the (paraphrased) words of the late, great Douglas Adams.

Q: Why do some people never stop talking?
A: Because they're afraid that if they stop using their mouths their brains might start working.

:E
 
P

PaulHarding150

Member
Joined
13 Feb 2011
Messages
1,063
Location
Cardiff
mikeb42 said:
Why do an aberrant minority of people regularly go to all the bother of walking quarter of a kilometer from the concourse at Paddington to get to unreserved seats in the quiet coach on far from busy trains in order to have a lengthy exchange of banal drivel with each other at full volume?
Click to expand...
That is easy.

No one apart from those with an above interest in train travel know that GWR have a quiet carriage, the signage is non-existent and enforcement is equally non existent and has been for years.
 
43066

43066

Established Member
Joined
24 Nov 2019
Messages
9,425
Location
London
mikeb42 said:
The basic problem with public transport is the public :lol:. 43066 and their colleagues get the best deal - a solid sheet of steel and a door they can wearily slam on the rest of humanity!
Click to expand...

Amen to that! Hell is other people, as someone once said (probably a train driver).
 
M

mikeb42

Member
Joined
19 Jan 2015
Messages
125
PaulHarding150 said:
No one... know(s) that GWR have a quiet carriage
Click to expand...
This bit can't be disputed (though guards still regularly make announcements about it, including on this very train).

However, it's the psychological motivation of the really quite prolonged schlep to the very front of the 260m long train past legions of empty seats and indeed virtually empty carriages to get to the one with a few people quietly minding their own business and royally trash their tranquility for no apparent reason apart from boorish solipsism. They've now inevitably started with the speakerphone tw*ttery. One day I will turn one of those to dust under my foot and to Hell with the consequences.

Twice in the last few years I've seen people come very close to a fist fight over it on GWR trains so I'm not the only one!

It's not the hill to die on tonight though as I'm saving my entire tolerance of humanity up for a journey from Leeds to Manchester after a job late tomorrow night :E.

"To summarise the summary of the summary, people are a problem" ©️ D Adams (again)
 
P

PaulHarding150

Member
Joined
13 Feb 2011
Messages
1,063
Location
Cardiff
mikeb42 said:
This bit can't be disputed (though guards still regularly make announcements about it, including on this very train).
Click to expand...
Indeed, although as has been discussed elsewhere on this forum, there are too many announcements (especially in the quiet carriage) and no one plays a blind bit of notice.
 
F

FenMan

Established Member
Joined
13 Oct 2011
Messages
1,380
I did this once, not knowing the rules of the road. I was returning to London from Brussels on Eurostar for the first time and dutifully sat in my reserved seat, clambering across another passenger to reach it. I'd fully exoected the carriage to fill up, but it didn't. There were maybe 10 or so passengers in the carriage and my new "friend" was (grumpily) very relieved when I decided to move out of his space. All ended well. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Top