Telltale sìgns of newbie rail travellers

[WillPS]

As with so many things, I find 'freshers' is very much the peak time for idiots.

A couple of years ago I was on a late running train bound for Nottingham. Immediately after Alfreton the guard made a PA announcement apologising for the trains' late running, which he finished with "the next and final call will be Nottingham". Que an entire train full of 18 year olds getting their up and queueing right down the train for the doors... all of 25 minutes away from the next stop.

 

[amcluesent]

Older pax battling to get a 25kg suitcase up the stairs of the transfer bridge, not realising most stations now have lifts

Booking a seat in the 'quiet coach' and expecting it to be like a Trappist monastary

 

[185143]

I'll confess to throwing a bag down a Sheffield Supertram when the person would not move it

To be fair, it wasn't a stranger!

 

[fandroid]

Many posters here are not talking about newbies but about those regular travellers who have inexplicably strange habits, or are not railway geeks who delight in their knowledge of how the railway works.

Getting up miles before the destination is a regular habit on German IC & ICEs as well as on most British trains.

The one thing that I am fairly sure identifies newbies at my busy local station is when they stand on the platform right in front of a train door and then, when it opens, be surprised that there might be someone getting off!

As for seat baggers; travelling regularly on morning peak trains from Reading to Paddington meant that I have developed a pair of very sharp elbows. At that station on that service it is blindingly obvious that every seat is needed. After a while I took a perverse delight in picking out the seat hogger who had the biggest bag, or had to move a swathe of laptop, books and wires in order to let me in!


One poster mentioned a guard announcing the 'next station'. Give that guard a prize. Most insist on using convoluted terms like 'next calling point'. Just try finding those words in a phrase book! The word 'station' is so universally recognised that its use should be compulsory.

 

[jon0844]

What's wrong with next stop?

(Which could of course be a red signal, miles from anywhere!! )

 

[Bletchleyite]

One poster mentioned a guard announcing the 'next station'. Give that guard a prize. Most insist on using convoluted terms like 'next calling point'. Just try finding those words in a phrase book! The word 'station' is so universally recognised that its use should be compulsory.

"Station stop" is quite usual, isn't it? This takes account of the fact that there could be a non-station stop (e.g. at a signal) and also there could be a station at which the train doesn't stop first.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Those people who get on a 2 car 158 unit via the centre doors, then walk all the way to the end of the train, go through the doors to the driver's cab, then walk all the way back where they've came from, announcing to their partner "It's the end of the train". Surely they must have noticed the number of carriages when the train pulled in?

 

[trainophile]

I've just left Chester on an ATW Maesteg service, which unusually came in on P7a. I was amused that the entire collection of passengers on the platform were staring in the wrong direction as they awaited its arrival. More surprise ensued when it pulled out the same way it came in, along with much swapping of seats to remain forward facing.

I even doubted myself for a minute and wondered whether it was on a diversionary route from Holyhead for some reason.

 

[Tetchytyke]

After a while I took a perverse delight in picking out the seat hogger who had the biggest bag, or had to move a swathe of laptop, books and wires in order to let me in!

I always make a point of getting the one who's sitting on an aisle seat with a pile of books or bags by the window to shift. I can out passive-aggressive most people

As with so many things, I find 'freshers' is very much the peak time for idiots.

A couple of years ago I was on a late running train bound for Nottingham. Immediately after Alfreton the guard made a PA announcement apologising for the trains' late running, which he finished with "the next and final call will be Nottingham". Que an entire train full of 18 year olds getting their up and queueing right down the train for the doors... all of 25 minutes away from the next stop.

That's a Chinese student speciality. That and taking 20 minutes to work out how to get £20 out of a cash machine, as though they've never seen an ATM before in their life.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Honestly, the people who actively seek out passengers who want to avoid sitting next to someone and do so with perverse glee are worse than those passengers in my opinion.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Honestly, the people who actively seek out passengers who want to avoid sitting next to someone and do so with perverse glee are worse than those passengers in my opinion.

It doesn't seem worth doing it out of principle. But as I prefer a window seat, I have done it to the only person who was sitting in the aisle (all other pairs of seats in the coach contained someone in the window seat). She really didn't like it, and stormed off in a huff, shouting that I had spoilt her journey to her job interview. Though obviously wasn't clever enough, as the way she could have screwed me up was to move to the window herself

And in any case, if she couldn't handle that, she probably wasn't cracked up to be a London commuter (this was a peak-time train from MKC).

 

[Mag_seven]

I had yet another lady (not meant to be sexist but it always appears to be a female) attempt put her seat reservation ticket through the barrier today subsequently holding everyone else behind her up.

 

[bramling]

Honestly, the people who actively seek out passengers who want to avoid sitting next to someone and do so with perverse glee are worse than those passengers in my opinion.

I agree with the above. Two wrongs *do* *not* make a right.

Having said that, I'm not sure I believe some of the stories we read on here about people who have done things to other people's property. What people boast about on here, and what actually happened in reality, I suspect are quite different.

 

[pdeaves]

People who panic when the train reverses en route (Bristol Temple Meads, Bourne End and Exeter St Davids come to mind immediately, but of course there are plenty of other places where this happens).

 

[Mojo]

People who run for a train that is in the platform, even though it is not due to depart for several minutes.

 

[Pigeon]

Ha, I remember feeling a little perturbed the first time I got on a Worcester service from New Street that took the Camp Hill route

 

[Kite159]

People who run for a train that is in the platform, even though it is not due to depart for several minutes.

Or at a station when the train is getting ready to depart (less than a minute) running down the length of the train to board instead of jumping on at the first available door.

 

[alxndr]

My first time on a train since I was in primary school I would have certainly been pegged as a newbie.

Halesworth station, assuming for Lowestoft. The train arrives, except it's come from the opposite direction to what I had envisaged as LWT is to the north-east, but trains run HAS in that direction east to west. I get on anyway, being thoroughly confused if it's the right one or not, the train pulls away, and the guard comes through asking for tickets from HAS.

"Can I get a childs return please?"
"Where to?"
"Err... Where does this train go again?"
He stares at me, looking bewildered. "Lowestoft."
"That'll do. I'll go there!"

I have no idea why I didn't just twig it must be the right one from the time, I just remember figuring Woodbridge would do if it was an Ipswich bound service.

 

[me123]

I was on a train with a friend once, boarding at an unmanned station. When the conductor came around to sell tickets, my friend turned to him and stated his full name (including middle name).

I still have absolutely no idea what he thought the guard would do with that information. Nor do I know how this guy manages to live an independent life.

 

[fowler9]

I was on a train with a friend once, boarding at an unmanned station. When the conductor came around to sell tickets, my friend turned to him and stated his full name (including middle name).

I still have absolutely no idea what he thought the guard would do with that information. Nor do I know how this guy manages to live an independent life.

Ha ha. I quite recently worked with a girl who needed to get a train from Liverpool to Chesterfield. She was terrified. I walked her from the office to Lime Street and put her on the train. Her main fear was what she would do if she saw any Muslims on the train which I found hilarious.

Can I just add she was from Bristol and not Liverpool before anyone makes any assumptions about scousers. Ha ha.

 

[amateur]

Ha ha. I quite recently worked with a girl who needed to get a train from Liverpool to Chesterfield. She was terrified. I walked her from the office to Lime Street and put her on the train. Her main fear was what she would do if she saw any Muslims on the train which I found hilarious.

Can I just add she was from Bristol and not Liverpool before anyone makes any assumptions about scousers. Ha ha.

Should have sent her to Birmingham instead

https://mobile.twitter.com/rabeb_othmani/status/554396771238305792

 

[khib70]

.....Frequent and interminable threads full of giggly posts about how stupid and naïve rail customers are. I mean imagine letting anyone travel by train who hasn't taken the trouble to memorise the Sectional Appendix for the line, swot up on the seating layouts of every unit on the network, bone up on the door opening and closing systems of said units, speed-read the diagrams and schedule cards and on no account bother staff or passengers by asking questions of any kind.

I really like this forum - it's interesting, informative and helpful 99.5% of the time, but these "tee hee, aren't passengers a silly bunch" threads do hack me off quite a lot.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Honestly, the people who actively seek out passengers who want to avoid sitting next to someone and do so with perverse glee are worse than those passengers in my opinion.

I'm not going to sit next to someone if there are plenty of free seats where I don't need to sit next to anyone. But on a busy train then yes, I will seek out the person who is being all aggressive and difficult about not wanting anyone to sit next to them. Everyone else has to squash in, the passive-aggression really gets my goat. Why should the passive-aggression win, and why should the sensible considerate people always lose out?

I don't believe the stories of people throwing bags around the carriage though. I've only moved a bag once, gently into the overhead luggage rack: it was on a full-and-standing XC, the bag was on my reserved seat, and I didn't want to wake the person up (although I'm not entirely convinced he was asleep...)

 

[andrewkeith5]

I'm not going to sit next to someone if there are plenty of free seats where I don't need to sit next to anyone. But on a busy train then yes, I will seek out the person who is being all aggressive and difficult about not wanting anyone to sit next to them. Everyone else has to squash in, the passive-aggression really gets my goat. Why should the passive-aggression win, and why should the sensible considerate people always lose out?

I don't believe the stories of people throwing bags around the carriage though. I've only moved a bag once, gently into the overhead luggage rack: it was on a full-and-standing XC, the bag was on my reserved seat, and I didn't want to wake the person up (although I'm not entirely convinced he was asleep...)

Even though singling out someone in particular to pick on is, by it's very nature, passive aggressive.

Also, in case you hadn't noticed it's always the sensible, considerate, honest people who lost out. Case in point is insurance - I'm honest, so I end up paying ridiculous amounts compared to the casual dishonesty many people freely admit to engaging in. Similarly I'm considerate and follow the rules by buying a ticket appropriate to my needs, so I end up paying an absolute fortune for my train travel.

In return, it's only fair to expect other people to be considerate and polite, and ask (if they can) before sitting next to me, which in more cases than not results in discomfort through either being squashed into a window or having to sit on half a seat whilst those in the aisle make every attempt to remove my arm. Sometimes it's better to stand!

In case you're wondering, yes, I do always ask if someone minds me taking a seat next to or opposite them - it's basic manners and I won't be offended if they say no without giving a reason, they may be waiting for someone they are travelling with or they may just not like me - I don't really care, I'll get to my destination and that's all I can really expect. I don't particularly want to sit next to somebody who doesn't like me, it just makes the situation worse for everyone. Most of the time, even on busy trains, there's a seat somewhere else.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

.....Frequent and interminable threads full of giggly posts about how stupid and naïve rail customers are. I mean imagine letting anyone travel by train who hasn't taken the trouble to memorise the Sectional Appendix for the line, swot up on the seating layouts of every unit on the network, bone up on the door opening and closing systems of said units, speed-read the diagrams and schedule cards and on no account bother staff or passengers by asking questions of any kind.

I really like this forum - it's interesting, informative and helpful 99.5% of the time, but these "tee hee, aren't passengers a silly bunch" threads do hack me off quite a lot.

Chill out! Most of the posts on here are about people showing a lack of common sense rather than not being fully conversant with all the railway rules and regulations.

You don't need to read the NRCOC to know that it's very selfish to put your bag on the adjoining seat on a crowded train, do you?

 

[Tetchytyke]

Even though singling out someone in particular to pick on is, by it's very nature, passive aggressive.

Of course it is, but then again, at that stage I'm going to have to sit next to someone, so it may as well be the selfish and ignorant person.

I'm always very polite.

 

[khib70]

Chill out! Most of the posts on here are about people showing a lack of common sense rather than not being fully conversant with all the railway rules and regulations.

You don't need to read the NRCOC to know that it's very selfish to put your bag on the adjoining seat on a crowded train, do you?

I don't think by any means all of the posts are about "lack of common sense" (although some are). What is common sense to those "in the know" is not necessarily so for others. People understandably get anxious about being on the right train, or missing their stop - particularly in the light of the swingeing financial penalties the railway will gleefully impose on "offenders". People with the relevant knowledge should be looking to help, not get a cheap laugh with their pals.

I totally agree, however that it's selfish and ignorant to use your bag to "reserve" an adjacent seat on a crowded train. However, this behaviour is, I would suggest, by no means confined to "newbies".

 

[fowler9]

.....Frequent and interminable threads full of giggly posts about how stupid and naïve rail customers are. I mean imagine letting anyone travel by train who hasn't taken the trouble to memorise the Sectional Appendix for the line, swot up on the seating layouts of every unit on the network, bone up on the door opening and closing systems of said units, speed-read the diagrams and schedule cards and on no account bother staff or passengers by asking questions of any kind.

I really like this forum - it's interesting, informative and helpful 99.5% of the time, but these "tee hee, aren't passengers a silly bunch" threads do hack me off quite a lot.

Mate to be honest I really don't care if there is a place on the internet that rail enthusiasts can have a giggle about the rest of society being daft. A lot of rail enthusiasts are thought of as fair game for insults in most other walks of life which is unpleasant. Why let it bother you?

 

[fandroid]

In defence of my picking on the worst seat hoggers. It's actually a public service. I only do it on trains where people are already standing, or where that's a very strong likelihood. Many standees are too timid to try it. My liberation of that seat reduces the crowdedness of the train by a small increment. And, anyway if that hogger wants two seats then I suggest they buy two tickets!

 

[yorksrob]

Indeed, if it's a full carriage with people standing, I make a point of getting people to shift their detritus. I don't pay a fare just so some nitwit's bag can get a free ride.