Pains on Trains

[2Dogbox]

1. People playing tinny rap music through the speaker of their mobile phone. Obviously they don't give a stuff about the other passengers being subjected to the noise.

2. Double buggies. Shoved anywhere except the places where they should be. And those new high level buggies where the baby is raised on a plinth. Totally impractical for taking on a train.

3. People with silly items of luggage, the other week a passenger tried to put a boxed 32 inch tv set on the overhead rack.

4. People who have no concept of how to put litter in a bin!

5. Passengers who despite having the latest designer gear, iPhone, Nike trainers etc, don't appear to stretch their budget to shower gel or soap.

 

[Wyvern]

I'd like the MML platforms at St. P to repeat the big departure board in abbreviated form on the platforms. This way people can wait on the platforms (and keep track of platform allocations and changes) and not just in that tennis court sized excuse for a waiting area. A train's worth of people waiting for a Sheffield to be announced versus a trains worth of arrivals pouring through is just a collossal pain in terms of people movements.

I haven't caught a train from STP for a year or so, but it used to be the case that pax were not allowed on the platform until the train was ready for boarding. And then they inspected tickets as people entered the platform.

 

[Hydro]

I haven't caught a train from STP for a year or so, but it used to be the case that pax were not allowed on the platform until the train was ready for boarding. And then they inspected tickets as people entered the platform.

Yes, that's the case but you are allowed on the platform. It's just your platform won't be confirmed/announced until "boarding" commences. If you have a valid ticket you can get through the gates at any time.

 

[SS4]

The best way to stop yourself from having to walk through the train to get closer to the exit, is simply to memorise (or write down!) the best carriages from which to get off for each length of train, and sit in the correct one when you first get on the train!

Until everyone else has the same idea . I usually use the platform to overtake, especially at BHM where nobody seems to cross the platform despite the adjacent one being empty.

Here are some from other contributors I find myself agreeing with

things that anoy me or are a pain:
1. On the rare occasions I deliberately book the quiet coach (often during school holidays as noisy kids anoy me im afraid) and the first thing that happens is some chavvy mum with at least 1 buggy and 2 noisy brats get on and regardless of the signs make a load of noise.
Nearly came to blows with 1 on an XC service once as all I wanted to do was quietly listen to my audio book and despite being repeatedly asked by the TM they wouldnt stop and had to be thrown off.


2. people with buggies, bikes or luggage who think they rule the world and basicly say f***k you when pax or staff ask them to shift

5. People who buy the cheepest advance and dont read the Ts and Cs and have a major shouting match when told there on the wron train and will be charged

1. People playing tinny rap music through the speaker of their mobile phone. Obviously they don't give a stuff about the other passengers being subjected to the noise.

2. Double buggies. Shoved anywhere except the places where they should be. And those new high level buggies where the baby is raised on a plinth. Totally impractical for taking on a train.

3. People with silly items of luggage, the other week a passenger tried to put a boxed 32 inch tv set on the overhead rack.

4. People who have no concept of how to put litter in a bin!

5. Passengers who despite having the latest designer gear, iPhone, Nike trainers etc, don't appear to stretch their budget to shower gel or soap.

Yet it's never good music

 

[Wyvern]

Yes, that's the case but you are allowed on the platform. It's just your platform won't be confirmed/announced until "boarding" commences. If you have a valid ticket you can get through the gates at any time.

I got the impression that people were not allowed on the platform until the cleaners had finished because of smarta***ses forcing their way on board.

 

[Anon Mouse]

4. And im glad there aint many of these but guards who seam to be out for a squable with every passenger.

5. People who buy the cheepest advance and dont read the Ts and Cs and have a major shouting match when told there on the wron train and will be charged

The thing is, when you find somebody with the cheapest advance and have not read the T & C's are the ones who kick off and make the Guard look like he is out for a squabble when he is trying to tackle the problem.

 

[Requeststop]

Parents who don't control their children! Its the same on aircraft I'm afraid. screaming kids, kids who run about, kids who incessently chatter, and those whose cannot control their urge to procreate, to bring these brats into this world, do not accept their responsibility to control them

Sitting at a table, travelling St.Erth - Paddington a few years back, Mother and daughter od about 8-9 years old decide to sit opposite me - daughter in front of me. She decides it's a great game to swing her legs towards me, occaisionally kicking me. Change my position on the seat to avoid bruising and dirt on my suit trousers, and she changes direction. Dirty stare over the top of my glasses does not work (actually I call it you heap of S&@T stare) so I remonstrate with mother. I get a sigh and daughter is told to stop it. This gave me 10 minutes of peace before she starts again and when I get a particular hard kick, my patience snaps.

Through gritted teeth and so not as to cause a major disturbance in the coach, I tell mother that if she doesn't stop her offspring from kicking me either by reprimand, or by changing seats, I would kick her daughter so hard that the bruises would not go away for a month. Gasp of horror from the man sitting next to me, at the thought of he receiving the treatment if they changed seats, and the harridan, shouts out that I'm a horrid man for critising her daughter and that she was only gently swinging her feet. Oh yeah, I reply to you want to see the state of my trousers and see the bruises? I reply. At which point, she and daughter got up and found someone else to annoy. Gentleman next to me also grateful as he can sit where the brat was and we had some space to ourselves at least until Reading.

 

[Seacook]

Just a few annoyances -

4) Peeps who sit directly opposite you at a table, when the diagonal seat is free

I don't agree with this one. If you are sitting on the side you prefer (aisle or window), it is not reasonable to expect someone else to forgo their own choice when it is available. If 'diagonal seating' is more important then just move over yourself.

 

[Muzer]

Until everyone else has the same idea . I usually use the platform to overtake, especially at BHM where nobody seems to cross the platform despite the adjacent one being empty.

Well, most people not on sites like this would probably find it sad to work out the best place to sit


And yeah, if for whatever reason I can't sit in the best carriage (for instance me getting there before the whole train has got there, it usually coming in two halves if it's over three coaches), I always walk around on the (not publically used) Ludgershall side of Andover station's island platform to overtake people. I'm just a brisk walker.

 

[Southern]

People thinking the aisle is for their feet/suitcases/stupid large papers. I know your suitcase is big and probably won't fit in the luggage rack but it will clearly fit on the table, which is empty. Hopefully kicking it out of the way will make you actually use your common sense next time and not place it in the aisle.

 

[Anon Mouse]

ditto for people who think the seat next to them is for luggage!

 

[Muzer]

TOCs who operate long-distance services obviously mostly used by people who will be staying overnight but don't provide decent luggage facilities in most carriages

 

[Requeststop]

People thinking the aisle is for their feet/suitcases/stupid large papers. I know your suitcase is big and probably won't fit in the luggage rack but it will clearly fit on the table, which is empty. Hopefully kicking it out of the way will make you actually use your common sense next time and not place it in the aisle.

Last time I did Padd - Truro about 18 months back - as you entered the platform, staff were asking if you were travelling to Exeter, Newton Abbot, Plymouth, and taking luggage to put into the rear power car, suitably labled and passengers didn't have to worry about storage space - loss of items etc. We passing over the Tamar into God's Own Duchy were able to keep our luggage with us. Does any other operator do that on their services?

 

[table38]

Parents who don't control their children!

A child pushed the emergency help button on the platform at Staly this morning. The lady who answered was very understanding as the poor parent apologised; I guess it happens quite a lot!

There was an excellent story on the radio last year about a couple who were fed up with their children's behaviour in the car.

They were planning to go to somewhere like Alton Towers, so the weekend before they set off on a "fake" trip with the usual threats about turning the car round if the kids didn't behave... you can guess the rest! Apparently the kids were incredibly well behaved the following weekend

 

[CC 72100]

TOCs who operate long-distance services obviously mostly used by people who will be staying overnight but don't provide decent luggage facilities in most carriages

Not a reference to XC there at all?

Yesterday on my voyager I sat in my airline seat with my bag - which fits into a 150 overhead rack but no room for it on the voyager - between my knees and the row of seats in front. Thankfully it was on Exeter - Bristol before I changed to the 150, but the voyagers don't exactly cover themselves in glory on the luggage front! (or any many things for that matter, but that's a different debate )

 

[amcluesent]

Sitting at a table, travelling St.Erth - Paddington a few years back...

Nowadays you would be arrested of course and put on some snooping database for "traumatising" a kiddie.

 

[IanXC]

Its amazing how different my commute (admittedly only 20 minutes) was in Summer compared to Winter. Theres nothing quite like being on a train full of screaming children, only silenced by a naked child running up the isle screaming "mummy mummy I did a big fat s***".

Made staying at work a little longer to make sure I had a Hull terminating service a pleasure!

 

[Requeststop]

Nowadays you would be arrested of course and put on some snooping database for "traumatising" a kiddie.

Of course and my traumatised legs would never be taken into account and they talk of Human rights!

 

[Muzer]

Not a reference to XC there at all?

Maybe

The weird thing is, they don't do anything to draw attention to the large luggage racks they do have in the door areas in some carriages (the names of which I can't bring to mind right now, my brain's not working tonight), like adding signs above the small luggage racks by the seats, or hell, even trying to make them more visible (they're very easy to miss when walking past them, they're always very dark if I remember correctly). I remember once there was so much luggage in the racks, it was almost blocking the aisle (I think there had been a cancellation oslt) - the guard came in and angrily informed the passengers that there was a huge empty rack just outside... none of us had any clue it was even there!

 

[loopit]

what i get really annoyed with its actually when on peak journey times a train roll up with 5 empty 1st class carridges as 2 standard class and you all then have to cram into those two carridges its stupid - i had to do this when i was 7 months pregnant and actually feared for my baby as the amount of elbows and shoves i received - luckily a rail worker with a brain saw my dilemma and let me sit in 1st class but i see this all the time and really cant understand the logic as the 1st class carridges are always empty...rant over!!!

 

[Hydro]

I cannot think for the life of me ANY scheduled service that would run with five First Class coaches and only two Standard. Rant over.

 

[NSEFAN]

I cannot think for the life of me ANY scheduled service that would run with five First Class coaches and only two Standard. Rant over.

Any peak hour trains between Alton/Basingstoke and Waterloo would be well suited to such a formation.

 

[Blindtraveler]

or an EC train? They are afterall continually telling us to upgrade!

 

[PTF62]

ditto for people who think the seat next to them is for luggage!

No, I love these people.

I know that whenever I get to my train in the evening, however full it is and however many people are standing, there will always be one of these lovely people with a suitcase on a seat.

And I seem to be the only one with enough guts to ask them to move it so I can sit down (and it is going to move, no matter what).

They are my own personal seat reservation service.

 

[Flamingo]

No, I love these people.

I know that whenever I get to my train in the evening, however full it is and however many people are standing, there will always be one of these lovely people with a suitcase on a seat.

And I seem to be the only one with enough guts to ask them to move it so I can sit down (and it is going to move, no matter what).

They are my own personal seat reservation service.

I LIKE IT!

A man after my own heart!

 

[lookingforit35]

People thinking the aisle is for their feet/suitcases/stupid large papers. I know your suitcase is big and probably won't fit in the luggage rack but it will clearly fit on the table, which is empty. Hopefully kicking it out of the way will make you actually use your common sense next time and not place it in the aisle.

Of course, a bulky suitcase plonked on the table in front of a passenger may well understandably annoy them somewhat too!

 

[amcluesent]

Tubbys. I was seated (squished actually) beside a 'woman of size' this morning. At least I was in the aisle seat... :-x

 

[tsr]

Of course, a bulky suitcase plonked on the table in front of a passenger may well understandably annoy them somewhat too!

Yes, and moreover I can't actually think of any suitcase which hasn't been fitted in a 377/4 luggage rack with a bit of Jenga and general squeezing and shoving, including those massive, inflexible hard-shelled suitcases that are so beloved of those who think they are accurately mimicking Americans (most of whom probably never use such things).

P.S. The vast majority of the many train journeys I go on will at least start or finish with a train that is travelling via (or has travelled via) Gatwick Airport.

 

[Anon Mouse]

Tubbys. I was seated (squished actually) beside a 'woman of size' this morning. At least I was in the aisle seat... :-x

I had the unfortunate 'pleasure' of being wedged in a window seat next to a fat, sweaty, horrible man on EVA between Bangkok and Heathrow. Not only did he eat and watch every movie back to back without a trip to the toilet, he refused to swap seats with me and had a go at me and/or give me filithy looks every time I went to the toilet or went to the galley for a drink or snack. It was horrible! :-x

 

[Southern]

Of course, a bulky suitcase plonked on the table in front of a passenger may well understandably annoy them somewhat too!

Well, it's tough luck isn't it. On the table is better than stuck out in the aisle. To be honest, I think people just can't be bothered. I offered to put a woman's suitcase that she had on her seat up in the luggage rack, just to help out. When she saw that I wasn't going to take the seat, she looked at me dumbfounded and said "oh, I thought you wanted to sit down.” No, I'm trying to get you to move your case as it's taking up a seat on a busy train. :roll: