To get irrationally angry at train behaviour

I was a commuter with a season ticket and it was easy peasy with NR. I never claimed to speak for other operators.

I can't use the airline seats with a laptop. Even though it's only small the flippy down trays are crap and there is no space to put my phone either.

Also manspreading due disability:
My BF and also a elderly neighbour of mine but have to manspread on buses or trains. Neighbour has wonky hips and physically can't close his legs. BF has right leg shorter than the other, often wears a titanium leg brace and is has a unusually shaped torso & abdomen. If there was room to stretch his legs out unbent he'd be fine, but few transport seatings provide that. He sits with right knee slightly in the aisle when he can, with a pole handy on the buses to help stand up.

Otherwise spot on with your peeves.

I was 7months pregnant and getting a train for a 4hr journey. Had deliberately reserved a seat so I wouldn't have to stand for any part of it. Had to ask someone to move from my (clearly marked) seat. There weren't any other seats available in the carriage and they had to stand, but they tried to convince me first that since they were already settled in, then it made more sense for me to remain standing. They did eventually move, but spent the next 40 mins staring/ glaring at me until they got off at their station.

Virgin is now Avanti and they do it automatically if you sign up for their Delay repay service.

GWR train managers will generally announce when passengers are eligible for DelayRepay

crossCountry don’t tell you. Yet I have travelled all over the UK on the DelayRepay vouchers I get from them.

It varies by train operator. LNER is, in my experience far superior (but expensive).

I’ve never known any one ‘ostentatiously’ poo on a train. The doors are usually kept closed. 🤣

I find it a bit claustrophobic to sit in an airline style seat. If I have the option of a table, I'd rather do that, even if it means sharing with a full table.

It depends on the specific train operator's delay repay policy. And if you regularly use trains to commute (as opposed to the odd journey) it's a balls ache, particularly if you have a non standard ticket such as flexi season or split fare.

This is why I always swerve the table seats in favour of a 2-seater - much more leg room!

Maybe it varies by train operator, but I've done this with LNER and West Midlands, and have got 100% back for cancelled trains. Partial refunds only for trains that are delayed, obviously, which goes up in increments of I think 20 minutes or half an hour.

I did a day trip of 3.5 hours each way a few weeks ago, pre booked seats. Both were seats on the tables. Trains were busy. Not many, if any spare seats for the entirety of my journey.
I was sitting in one seat, not taking up the whole table, and I would have swapped to the another one opposite, behind in front if a family or group who had also pre booked seats were split up and they had 3 seats together and one separate, but I'm not giving up my pre booked and allocated seat and trawling a busy train for a spare seat or standing when I've got an allocated seat.

If someone has booked that seat and they want to sit in that seat then I'm not sure why your opinion trumps that?

That's really good. I think LNER are possibly a positive outlier (and rarely delayed/ cancelled anyway). I've tried the same on Thameslink/ Great Northern and received a pittance.

All of the above but can I add my pet Four Stranger Fever, or folie a quatre?

Those tables. They're so great when travelling with kids or friends, it's like home from home. But dear god, the people who insist on sitting there studiously avoiding eye, thigh or ankle contact with three complete strangers in order to occupy their BOOKED SEATS in an otherwise barely inhabited carriage blow my mind.

You could have a two seat all to yourself! And your own fold down table! Madness and so very British.

I'm talking East Coast mainline here, not commuter journeys obviously.

I've claimed for delays and cancelled trains and found it very quick with National Rail.

My train was an hour late a couple of weeks ago, DH had sorted the refund before I was even on the bus, let alone to my destination. Took 2 minutes. (LNER). The train guard had announced it and that we were entitled to a 100%refund

Have you ever tried actually doing it though? It's such a faff and barely worth the effort in most cases, because the delay repay policies are minimal. E.g. if your train is cancelled, they will work out when the next available one is (say 20 mins) and therefore say you were only delayed by 20 mins so get a few quid off only. It doesn't matter to them that you've missed the start of a meeting, for example. And if you take advantage of a split ticket fare, then delay repay is almost impossible to navigate.

Our trains are among the most expensive and least reliable in Europe.

It's not irrational anger op, it's perfectly justified. I commute to work 2 days a week and it gives me the absolute rage. And that's quite aside from all the delays and cancellations.

I've actually started gravitating towards the double seats on which a passenger puts their bag to mark their territory and very deliberately asking them to move it. This is despite there being other double seats with just one passenger sitting down, and no bag present, in the rest of the carriage.

Is it only me who gets irate when the person sitting next to me (if they're on an aisle seat) doesn't move into empty doubles once other people get off? My stop is the end of the line, so when alternative seats become available, I expect the person wedging me in to move to an empty double.

People who sit in MY reserved seat. Then expect me to find another seat because they can't be bothered to move.
No. I am not playing musical chairs. That's my seat. You go and find another one.

YABU about spreading into the aisles. I'm 5ft10. I can't fit into a standard seat. Therefore one leg has to drift into the aisle. Sorry.

Oh god, I politely asked a man to not manspred into the aisle (as he was infringing into my space, he was sat across from me) and he called me a wanker and walked off.

Didn't know about this. I'm in the age group least likely to use apps and most likely to need extra time to board!

You can claim compensation for delayed trains. The only time I have been on a train where passengers were being advised of this was a Virgin service

Good grief wasn't expecting this level of reaction to a light-hearted anecdote about ASD DS's obsession with train seat justice!

Just to clarify:

Of course, my preference is just to get on the train and take the first four seats available in reasonable proximity to each other. DS always has other ideas.

He is never rudely addressing other people, he is talking at himself / to me but inevitably loud enough that other people can hear him because he doesn't really have volume control. This is slightly mortifying but that's often life with DS.

Do I deliberately want to shame other people into moving? No, I just want to sit down as quickly as possible with minimum fuss and without DS insisting on travelling the full length of the train on the hunt for an elusive four-seater. I'd never ask or expect other people to move.

Am I grateful when other people move? Yes very! Do I think they should? Well personally I will always (on local trains like this) offer to move if I'm travelling alone, there's other seats to move to and it will facilitate a group of people being able to sit together. It's an easy courtesy. It's not an obligation but it's nice thing to do for the mild inconvenience of standing up and sitting down again.

Different situation on long-distance trains with tables as that's quite a different set up.

People travelling alone can still sit at a table, particularly if using a laptop. It’s unreasonable to think that they should all leave the table free in case a family of four gets on.

I would put my bag on the seat next to me if it’s vacant when we leave the station and at the following stops I check for anyone looking for a seat and move my bag when needed. There is space for others to share a table if they want to and I use noise cancelling headphones so I’m not listening to their calls, chat etc.

I do get frustrated with people who occupy booked seats and then won’t move. Happened more than once to my mum who is over 70. When the train is full the conductor can’t always get there to sort out the situation