I hate trains

Bluergh.

What part of the country are you?

I have noticed a dip in 'standards' on trains - it's becoming common to find people taking over the whole table or sitting in someone else's reserved seats etc.

Have you thought you're maybe a bit of a sensitive soul? While that's a bit grim, I cannot imagine that ever putting me off eating food (not sure a Twix counts as food though).

Think my own toenail in my coffee would put me off drinking it, let alone someone else's!

Have you thought you’re maybe a bit of a sensitive soul?

Let me guess, you don’t wash your hands after going to the toilet?

Seriously? The whole carriage stinks of shit and there’s a skid mark on the table, but you’d quite happily munch your dinner without being bothered at all?

Not convinced by the use of the word “sensitive” as an insult either. I’m a proud member of the leftist wokerati.

Sound to me like you hate people, not trains.

Which is entirely reasonable.

When he wrote L'enfer c'est les autres, Satre was on the 07.15 from Hebden to Leeds central. 

Most memorable recently: I had was a women who was "liquidly emotional" at 11.00am on a train from Manchester Vic to Newcastle and she loudly told the entire carriage (although she was speaking on the phone to her mate) about the shitty sex she'd had the night before and how disappointed she was with the flowers that he'd bought her after he'd chucked up on her duvet..

Have you thought you’re maybe a bit of a sensitive soul? While that’s a bit grim, I cannot imagine that ever putting me off eating food (not sure a Twix counts as food though).

Being put off your food because there is a steaming pile of fresh human faeces on the table directly in front of you hardly makes you a 'sensitive soul'.

Congratulations on your cast iron stomach but you must have had a pretty rough upbringing if you think that's acceptable!

Funny that nickc!

Being put off your food because there is a steaming pile of fresh human faeces on the table directly in front of you hardly makes you a ‘sensitive soul’.

I’m a proud member of the leftist wokerati.

You'll be eating tofu next.

@flaperon - i feel your pain. The general public are largely awful people and or idiots.

@nickc - on the rare occasion i find myself on a train these days i always seem to have someone like that making their business my business! Makes for a good story though.

When i lived in Berkshire the last train from London to Reading was always a lottery.....there could be a punch up, pull a girl, a lively debate, end up at a party......it was fantastic!! 😀

Buses are worse.

Hospital waiting rooms are worse still.

My guess is that prison is the worst but I can't confirm firsthand.

Have you tried taking medication? Medication can make situations like this easier to manage.

Thinking back to when my kids were younger, if I had to change a nappy, I  would either go into vestable end or use the changing table above the loos. I think I used the loos. 

Agree with @thenorthwind sounds like hate people (who are kn@bs). 

One of my boys once climbed onto a table in the middle of the lounge of the CalMac ferry to Mull, and proudly pissed himself.  He was 2, but I was not impressed. The table has a slight lip, and the  pee sloshed backwards and forwards with the motion of the ship. I did clean it all up.

I hate people on trains. Working on the Forth Bridge the walk to work each morning was sullied by the **** who took a dump each morning in North Queensferry then flushed as he got to the north approach viaduct. We were greeted by a cloud of piss and shit accelerating towards us and all we calould do is turn around hunker down and close your eyes and mouth....

Have you thought you’re maybe a bit of a sensitive soul? While that’s a bit grim, I cannot imagine that ever putting me off eating food

Could I ask what would put you off eating food? Is someone else's toenail in your drink and the sight and smell of baby shit not enough? 😜

Are you Rambo? 🤣

Behaviour like this and the generally parlous state of our rail network is a not insignificant part of why we have such an insanely car centric culture. Before the pile on I know there are lots of other significant factors that contribute as well.

A few years back I tried to start a little blog about cutting car use right back and making more sustainable choices mainly centred around converting my car commute to the train.  I think I wrote about three posts before I realised on our local line it was more likely to act as an incentive to buy a big automatic car and sit in traffic jams.

I never sit down on trains. Always stand in the corridor. Mainly because I can’t be arsed with people and thankfully my train journeys are short.

No wonder threads in this place fall apart, its misanthropic central.

Crikey. Thank the Lord we don't have the gun ownership issues they have in the States. I didn't know such judgemental superior beings lurked amongst us. 🙄 Although it is only STW.

👍 Misanthropy! That's the word I was searching for  thank you.

An overly hot and humid and busy commuter carriage on a cold wet day when everyone’s wearing too many layers and sneezing and coughing but pointedly ignoring each other but at that same time letting each other they hate one another in a misanthropic passive aggressive is way and everyone hating the shouty phone person and the baby who won’t stop crying and it’s mother struggling with the problem in the face of hostile indifference and the arse with the massive bags and the **** in your seat who has developed a case of manners in a coma and the train you’re on is not the train you paid a bastard fortune for but the shittier smellier more delapidated replacement service that came so late it’s barely worth getting on it...is a near perfect metaphor for modern Britain 

Covid anosmia FTW 🙂

My train rides are generally civilized. Not had any updates on previous night's bedroom athletics on the 08:30 from Windsor (yet).

I don't think asking for just a little bit of common courtesy is being judgemental 🤷‍♀️

Wonderful announcement from the guard on last nights 16.17 Northern service from Nottingham to Leeds:

"Due to equipment failure at the Sheffield depot we have no working ticket machines or readers, so I will not be walking through the carriages. It's not that I'm being lazy, there's just no point."

No wonder threads in this place fall apart, its misanthropic central.

Is that on the line out of Victoria, somewhere near Dorking Deepdene?

@GlenQuagmire

It's not the "lack of courtesy" that triggers the judgemental comment, it's over use of the word "hate".

People get weird when around trains IME, I saw a guy the other day literally vibrating with anticipation whilst waiting to get on. The doors hadn't opened and he was blocking the doors so the other people couldn't get off. The train had plenty of seats for everyone. You'd never think that we had been through a pandemic, people coughing, sneezing and spluttering away. Making no attempt to cover their mouth. Grim.
As for people sitting in reserved seats, I see plenty of empty seats that are apparently reserved, I think its to do with people booking cheap returns and only using the ticket one way. Maybe other passengers have worked out that the seat might actually be free even though it says it's reserved.

Due to equipment failure at the Sheffield depot we have no working ticket machines or readers, so I will not be walking through the carriages. It’s not that I’m being lazy, there’s just no point.

I love it when you get someone with a bit of humour and humanity dealing with issues like this. Forget the corporate lingo here just go straight in with the stand up comic style of delivery.

As for people sitting in reserved seats, I see plenty of empty seats that are apparently reserved, I think its to do with people booking cheap returns and only using the ticket one way. Maybe other passengers have worked out that the seat might actually be free even though it says it’s reserved.

+1 , trick is to find 2 seats reserved from different stations, unlikely anyone will sit next to you and if you do get kicked off you only have to move one seat.

Driver on Monday was great at keeping us updated as we were going through Storm Debi (not to be confused with Debi Storm), we made it to Manchester, delayed a bit but still got there. 

The solution is to stump up more £££ and travel in the big seats in 1st class.  

Less chavvy behaviour

The bus is just as bad. Wet day, bus is packed and its wetter inside from condensation that it is outside. But will anyone crack a window open to let the atmosphere clear? bunch of dummies. As ever its left to me.

Sometimes I can even convince another passenger to open one near them. And within 10 mins the condensation on the windows is gone and you can breath clearly.

Got to laugh at some folk, if you think it's judgemental to "hate" someone that ends up putting toenail clippings in your drink or leaves smeared shit on a table you really need to either change the company you keep or stay away from everyone else. This isn't a judgy 'look at the povvo' thing, it's just basic decency. Clatty bastards like that should be thrown off.

As for people sitting in reserved seats, I see plenty of empty seats that are apparently reserved, I think its to do with people booking cheap returns and only using the ticket one way.

I'm part of the problem.

The problem is corporate drones like myself who use a travel booker, you ask for a table seat in the quiet coach and they book you an airline seat in the party coach. So you phone the train operator (because you didnt book direct) and they book you the correct seat. But don't cancel the wrong one. Why? Who knows...

jamiemcf
Full Member
I hate people on trains. Working on the Forth Bridge the walk to work each morning was sullied by the **** who took a dump each morning in North Queensferry then flushed as he got to the north approach viaduct. We were greeted by a cloud of piss and shit accelerating towards us and all we calould do is turn around hunker down and close your eyes and mouth….

I forgot you worked on the NR bridges, I normally get to dive for cover but there have been one or two close calls where I have had to apply the "if all else fails don't look up" rule.

I never sit down on trains. Always stand in the corridor. Mainly because I can’t be arsed with people and thankfully my train journeys are short.

same here, I usually just stand in the vestibule, in the old days when we could open train windows I'd open it and get the fresh air in and sound of the 'thrash' of the loco upfront...

now we're hermetically sealed in on trains in the UK and there's hardly a loco anywhere left these days hauling passenger stock, standing in the vestibule normally means being close to a smelly loo too...

still, I would rather stand than be sat next to someone eating their McDs or whatever, and playing stuff out loud on their phone etc, shame really, our trains are not what they used to be 🙁

I see plenty of empty seats that are apparently reserved, I think its to do with people booking cheap returns and only using the ticket one way. Maybe other passengers have worked out that the seat might actually be free even though it says it’s reserved.

That's what I do, the intercity from Leeds to London, and vice versa can get rammed sometimes, so I take my chances and sit in a reserved seat if needed (I will of course move or stand if the ticket holder actually turns up).

More often than not a large proportion of seats with reserved tickets just sit empty, or might only be reserved from Grantham to Kings cross or Doncaster to leeds whatever, so you can hedge your bets a bit.

I love it when you get someone with a bit of humour and humanity dealing with issues like this.

Conductor once announced we would soon be arriving at 'Cottingley international' on the way into Leeds, and some other airline realted funnies,...it certainly raised an audiable chuckle from most of the commuters on a miserable monday morning!

Not sure if it was because it was funny or people were supprised they could actually hear the announcement over the speakers, probably a bit of both.  😀

now we’re hermetically sealed in on trains in the UK

It's because people would occasionaly stick an arm or head out of the window, and get decapitated by an overgrown tree or something.

This is why we can't have nice things.

I love trains

The bus is just as bad

tbf it's not just buses and trains it's getting around by any means, flying is grim, both at the airport and on the plane, and driving is no fun either...

basically, getting around the country is best avoided by any motorised means, it's just stress and expense whatever mode of transport.

except on a bike, for the most part 😬

I love trains

Said no commuter ever, or anyone who caught the last train home on a friday or saturday night!

As for as all the unused reserved seats... when I was travelling by train more frequently,. Typically to/from London from the mid-shires, our 'open return' tickets often came with an automatic reservation.  Even if the chance of using the reservation was probably no better than  20%
The reason for the open return rather than a fixed return was precisely because I'd be unsure whether I'd be returning at 3pm or 7pm

Arrives me that what is needed is some syncing between ticket barrier gates and the train. If you've not passed through the ticket barrier eg at a London terminal then the reservation on the train is deleted when the train departs  (can't do that everywhere as some stations aren't gated. But it would hit a good chunk.

Have you thought you’re maybe a bit of a sensitive soul? While that’s a bit grim, I cannot imagine that ever putting me off eating food (not sure a Twix counts as food though).

Really? Maybe I’m a ‘sensitive soul’, but the stench of some entitled ****wit’s crotch-goblin’s shit two feet away from where I’m sitting would, in all likelihood, result in me vomiting everywhere. That sort of behaviour is totally unacceptable, and I don’t care what you think.

I love trains
Said no commuter ever, or anyone who caught the last train home on a friday or saturday night!

No? I sodding well did, as I got onto the 23.32 out of Paddington, four minutes before it left! Missing it would have meant spending seven hours waiting for the next train, and spending another £100 on a single ticket.
The next time I went to London for a gig I drove up, but that means a two hour drive home. Personally, I’d love to catch a train to London, or Bristol for a gig on my own, but as most gigs finish around 11.00pm, and it’s roughly 25-30 minute tube ride from the nearest underground station to Paddington, and in Bristol the last train home is 10.32pm, and again, gigs mostly finish around 11.00pm, with at best a 20-30 minute walk to Temple Meads.

Public transport makes no concessions to convenience for the travelling public when it comes to recreation - I see no reason why there can’t be a last train at midnight, which would be wonderful, a nice, quiet comfortable journey home, instead of an hour back from Bristol in the car, which admittedly isn’t too bad, or a late night drive getting home around 2am.

The GWR trains are lovely, quiet and comfy, perfect after a long day in London. Certainly preferable to the coaches.

I regularly catch the bus to local destinations, and really enjoy it, they’re free for me, I don’t have to piss around with expensive car parking, and if I go down to Bath, I can have a pie and mash and a couple of beers in The Raven! What’s not to like?

I never reserve a seat because I can't guarantee it'll be next to the bike carriage. I never realised it provoked such strong feelings in others to have to ask me to move!

I've never noticed; do trains tend to have baby changing facilities in the toilets? Perhaps they had no choice, however unhygienic (protest nappy change anyone?)

I never realised it provoked such strong feelings in others to have to ask me to move!

I wouldn't say it provokes strong feelings in me. Infant I don't really care in a THTS my seat kind of a way. But I have played the game of "I'll find somewhere else" then you can't so you sit in a reserved seat until someone says "that's mine" then you are stuck either looking again or kicking the person out of yours. It's just hassle. But equally I just don't understand why you don't put your bike in and leave it and find your seat.

The GWR trains are lovely, quiet and comfy, perfect after a long day in London.

They're sodding useless for bikes!

I hate them too… the only time I tolerate them is when they get me out to town for meeting friends for a few drinks and food… as you say, it’s not the train it’s the people that use them

I never reserve a seat because I can’t guarantee it’ll be next to the bike carriage.

If you book on most operators sites you actually can.

Could I ask what would put you off eating food? Is someone else’s toenail in your drink and the sight and smell of baby shit not enough? 😜

Are you Rambo? 🤣

I wouldn't drink the coffee, I would say to the person who's toenail it was what had just happened. Most people are actually quite nice and reasonable and chances was they'd want to make amense and with luck I'd get a replacement coffee.

As for the nappy, I'm a parent myself and quite understanding to the horrible situations that parents find themselves in. I'm not eating the baby's sh*t. My hands are nowhere near it. I'd be quite happy to eat after witnessing a baby being changed. A normal part of human life is raising young.

I enjoy trains because of the human interaction. I'd say it's the roads which I find far more uncivilized.

Trains are great. Sometimes. 

I commuted against the flow - into Dunblane and loved it.  Almost my own private carriage after Edinburgh Park. Read 0f just gawp at the Ochils.  Only problem -£££££

Scotrail have banned alcohol on trains since the pandemic. It is, without a doubt, the most ignored rule in Scotland. There are always people drinking. Conductors don't care or challenge it. Even trains in the morning seem to have a drinker. Saturday morning trains usually have groups of women going out for the "girls day" in Edinburgh, complete with cans of M&S G&T.

A few years ago, pre pandemic, there was a really rowdy groups of lads being seriously abusive. Lots of young kids on the train including ours. Conductor refused to do anything about it or even contact BTP. My wife ended up challenging the conductor quite robustly and he did phone the police, to report her for being abusive!  It was like a bad comedy sketch.

The removal of peak fares is a bit of a treat though, off peak rate travel any time of the day

Wish we could go back to bikes stored in the "guards carriage" being the norm, rather than the exception. So often the bike area on standard carriages is cluttered with baggage and even people standing, other times there are more than two two bikes or simply another bike there needing a lot more width than a road bike.

Only once over the last ~4 years have I been able to put my best spec bike in the guards carriage for the second leg of my journey up to Prestatyn, locked to a decent stand... It made the trip far less stressful, while allowing me to go for nice rides including the big Denbigh climb, knowing the odds of my bike taking a knock on the train was vastly reduced.

Not been able to do the journey for the last ~14 months because of long covid, but I hope the process of reserving a bike spot on trains has become easier, was suck a ball-ache to book a seat online and then have to book a bike spot via a manned train station.

I will stick to my own personal policy of avoiding public transport whenever practicable 

I love trains. I love travelling by train. I love standing at the station waiting for the train. I love reading about trains and watching trains on my dog-walk.

But what I absolutely detest is the general public who, like the OP, think trains are some form of moving bin. I think theres an unwritten rule that every other person on a train apart from myself has to have 15th century levels of personal hygiene.

There should definitely be a social awareness test before boarding!

My favourites are:

- Sticking your massive suitcase into the aisle because you don't understand luggage racks

- Locking your bike up (it's a moving train - who's nicking your bike?).

- Leaving the toilet door wide open after using it. Thanks for that.

- Screaming at your kids/dog/husband

- Video calling

Just sit down, shut up and enjoy the scenery. Maybe have a polite conversation or read a book.