Eating smelly food on trains

[al78]

Looks like someone got pushed beyond what their tolerance could stand:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/city-work...eggs-at-6-am-104447030.html?hl=1&noRedirect=1

I can have sympathy for both sides. The reaction was over the top, but when I travel by train and am planning to eat on route, I don't take something that is likely to smell strongly, it is just basic consideration for others.

"A City worker has been fined after she flew into an “aggressive” tirade at a commuter who was eating boiled eggs on the train.

Samantha Mead became furious with Erika Stoter for opening her breakfast on a 6am Greater Anglia service from Chelmsford to Liverpool Street in September last year.

Ms Stoter, who is originally from South America, told the court that Mead, 50, started giving her “bad” looks when she started eating the eggs, before moving to the door to get away from the smell.
Mead then apparently “quickly and aggressively” moved towards Ms Stoter and leaned into her face after she shrugged her shoulders to apologise for the strong odour of eggs.

Ms Stoter told the court: “The woman asked me if I spoke English and I said no because I was scared and confused. I thought she would stop… she said, ‘You are disgusting.’”

She claimed Mead then threatened her, saying: “You don’t know who I am, be careful. Do you want to go outside?”

Ms Stoter said one other passenger had previously complained about the smell and that she had closed her Tupperware box to stop it spreading.

Explaining why she ate eggs in a public place in the morning, Ms Stoter told the jury: “I have to eat at that time because of my diet.”

Mead told the court she had been taking tablets for a medical condition and that the smell of eggs made her feel nauseous.

She denied losing her temper on the train, insisting she was calling the eggs “disgusting” rather than Ms Stoter.

However, Mead, from Manningtree, Essex, was found guilty of one charge of intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress, and was fined £750 and ordered to pay £750 in compensation.

She was cleared of a racially aggravated public order offence."

 

[DarloRich]

people are strange.

 

[Mathew S]

people are strange.

Indeed.

 

[iphone76]

For eating the eggs or the reaction? Or both? Lol

 

[scotlass]

There's a degree of irony in this story given that every train company, ever, not only serves eggs in some form as part of their breakfast, but that an overly marketed version of an egg and cress sandwich is apparently the vegetarian answer to everything.

 

[A0wen]

Looks like someone got pushed beyond what their tolerance could stand:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/city-work...eggs-at-6-am-104447030.html?hl=1&noRedirect=1

Well I have some sympathy for the prosecuted here. There's nothing worse than getting on a train and somebody's munching away on something like a hard-boiled egg which smells disgusting. Travelling as a commuter on busy trains is stressful as it is, so things like unpleasant odours make it worse. That said the person who brought the eggs should have a bit more regard for fellow passengers. In my mind it's every bit as anti-social as smoking on trains used to be.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

an eggstraordinary story...

I'll get me coat...

 

[Darandio]

Shell probably think twice about doing it again.

 

[gordonthemoron]

boiled eggs don't smell. OTOH I was once in1st class on an ICE and someone was eating a McDonalds, the smell was unpleasant

 

[Bantamzen]

Well I have some sympathy for the prosecuted here. There's nothing worse than getting on a train and somebody's munching away on something like a hard-boiled egg which smells disgusting. Travelling as a commuter on busy trains is stressful as it is, so things like unpleasant odours make it worse. That said the person who brought the eggs should have a bit more regard for fellow passengers. In my mind it's every bit as anti-social as smoking on trains used to be.

The thing is smells are subjective, like a lot of things in life, some people will find the smell objectionable, others will not. For example I loath the smell of McDonalds fast food, but love the smell of garlic. Of course I wouldn't sit on a train munching on raw garlic* (although I might on a long journey snack on a few garlic stuffed olives), but I also wouldn't presume to have a go at someone tucking into a McDonalds.

So either the answer is to have TOCs completely ban food brought onto trains being consumed, or, well you know, we just have to deal with the fact that we are different. A little bit of tolerance goes a long way.

*Just as an aside, many years ago when I lived in Wakefield for a short time, there used to be a nice pizza take out that did the most amazing garlic mushrooms, basically about 40 button mushrooms swimming in garlic butter. If I had this during the week, it was for some reason always easy to get a seat the next morning on my commute.....

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Well I have some sympathy for the prosecuted here. There's nothing worse than getting on a train and somebody's munching away on something like a hard-boiled egg which smells disgusting. Travelling as a commuter on busy trains is stressful as it is, so things like unpleasant odours make it worse. That said the person who brought the eggs should have a bit more regard for fellow passengers. In my mind it's every bit as anti-social as smoking on trains used to be.

That's public transport for you.

I don't particularly like it when parents let their young children scream and shout on the bus in the morning but what can I do about it?

No point getting angry. Wait for the next bus and hope it's quieter?

 

[Mag_seven]

There's nothing worse than getting on a train and somebody's munching away on something like a hard-boiled egg which smells disgusting. Travelling as a commuter on busy trains is stressful as it is, so things like unpleasant odours make it worse.

And of course fast food outlets on stations just encourage people to bring on smelly food as well.

 

[tom73]

I normally nibble on a couple of Scotch Eggs on my train from Yorkshire back to London before I start on my Jaffa Cakes washed down with a Tango Orange

 

[Eccles1983]

If you don't like it - buy a car or other form of self transport.

It is a mass transit system, if people want to eat and you don't like it either move or get off.

No defending the attacker here. I hope they get banned from the network.

 

[xotGD]

I can cope with the smelly food. It is the smelly passengers I have a problem with.

(I was going to crack a joke (yolk?) about being given an Eggcess Fare, but I wont. Oh, and did the train have a scrambled headcode on Real Time Trains?)

 

[gazzaa2]

boiled eggs don't smell. OTOH I was once in1st class on an ICE and someone was eating a McDonalds, the smell was unpleasant

It's bad etiquette to eat anything that stinks on a packed train, especially at peak times,fair enough if it's a more sparsely populated train. Have a light snack if you must (plain crisps, biscuits, chocolate bar, ham sandwich etc) but it's just inconsiderate to stink out a train carriage. It's bad enough in the office when someone sits down at the desk with their smelly food rather than use the kitchen.

People have increasingly low empathy and self awareness these days though. Use of mobile phones an obvious example.

 

[RichT54]

I don't know why, but there are some foods that I quite like to eat, that I find really off putting when someone else eats the same thing on a bus or train. I quite like an occasional Cornish Pasty, but when a couple got on the same train as me at Oxford and sat nearby eating their pasties, I felt quite nauseous. Weird!

 

[richw]

Indian takeaway next time

 

[DerekC]

The worst one I had was a guy sitting next to me eating some kind of curry - the smell was like something out of the bottom of a fish shop's dustbin and not helped by his slurp-it-up style of eating. I did the usual thing, though - kept quiet and moaned afterwards!

 

[Camden]

Pretty obvious two sides to this story. What sort of person eats eggs on a train.

Eating strong smelling foods is definitely a no-no socially. Awful. I don't think there is a need for a special ban, but in line with railway byelaws to not cause nuisance to others people who do it should be dealt with under that, perhaps after being given one opportunity to be reasonable and pack it in. Our permissive society is just a red rag to the self-centered, there have to be some rules.

I can imagine the lady's upset, being stuck on a busy commuter train and then that happens.

 

[ohgoditsjames]

The worst possible smell on a train is when someone has obviously been sick days before. For those interested in chemistry thioacetone is what gives vomit it's putrid smell. One of the best things to remove the odor is permanganate which the cleaners will definitely not be able to obtain.


Thioacetone is one of the worst smelling organic (technically organosulfur) compounds (diethyl tellurium is also one of the top putrid smelling organic compounds), it's that volatile that in labs it is contained by the highest of security systems

 

[underbank]

Who would actually enforce any laws/rules re eating? Guards (train managers) seem to be reluctant to deal with on-board issues, i.e. not moving people sitting in reserved seats, not dealing with fare dodgers, not even checking tickets nor selling tickets on some services, hiding when there someone kicking off, etc. Wouldn't it just be another case where only the generally law abiding person would get fined but someone abusive etc would get away with it where the guard/manager don't want to risk a confrontation>

 

[Bletchleyite]

Who would actually enforce any laws/rules re eating? Guards (train managers) seem to be reluctant to deal with on-board issues, i.e. not moving people sitting in reserved seats, not dealing with fare dodgers, not even checking tickets nor selling tickets on some services, hiding when there someone kicking off, etc. Wouldn't it just be another case where only the generally law abiding person would get fined but someone abusive etc would get away with it where the guard/manager don't want to risk a confrontation>

Probably. Given the extent of unenforced minor antisocial behaviour on the network, I wonder why other TOCs don't consider a Merseyrail like approach of having bodycam-toting squads going around enforcing such matters? It seems to have worked very well for them.

Playing of devices out loud to the annoyance of other passengers is another one that needs enforcement.

 

[Matt_pool]

I was on a bus in Liverpool and a guy got on and sat in front of me. He stank of very greasy Chinese takeaway food.

I love a Chinese takeaway, but the smell coming off whatever chow mein or chop suey rolls he had made me very queasy.

About 10 minutes later he got off the bus and the smell went away. But I noticed he wasn't carrying anything like a takeaway, or had a bag that it was in; then quickly worked out from his appearance that he must have worked in a Chinese takeaway or restaurant, especially as he got on the bus by Chinatown in Liverpool!

McDonalds on trains though, now they should be banned!

 

[Gathursty]

I'll try not to sit on a train with my durian fruit, surströmming and Rafflesia arnoldii next time.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

It's bad etiquette to eat anything that stinks on a packed train

By your standards and mine but how many commuters in London practice good etiquette?

It's good etiquette to keep the volume of your personal music down, not to squash in the middle of a 3-seater, to give up your seat to someone that needs it more than you, to move down the train to allow others to board, to not board through a set of doors until others have alighted...etc...etc...

How often do you see this in practice? (especially in London)

 

[kristiang85]

This is one of my pet hates--funnily enough I just had to move carriage due to a group of people eating McDonald's burgers on a packed service out of London. Then I come on the forum and this is the first thread!

I would definitely support a ban on hot fast food on public transport, which does work in other countries, or at least signs asking people to think about what they eat in public.

 

[dk1]

Some people just don't seem bothered about those around them.

 

[306024]

Usually quite tolerant of folks eating, but if a bucket of slop from any Wasabi outlet appears that’s enough to make me move seat. Trouble is you can smell it a mile off, and then folks like to leave the pot on the train, half eaten. Yuk.

 

[gazzaa2]

Some people just don't seem bothered about those around them.

Lack of empathy and a lack of self awareness, combined with self centredness