To think that people should be quiet in the quiet coach of the train?

If someone was making a noisy phone call in the designated quiet carriage I would have no qualms about asking them to quiet down.

Ah, that makes sense!

Yes, I avoid the quiet coach for this reason. It stresses me out no end when, inevitably, noisy selfish are sitting in it.

How do you make this happen?

If the conductor comes through you can report, but personally I don't often fancy a confrontation!

No this was back in the days when they sold those crappy orange sponge headphones that you plugged in between the seats. I think they were as much speakers as they were headphones! It wasn’t loud at all, far quieter than people talking, but still too loud for the quiet carriage.

The quiet carriages I have been in recently have had signs about electronic rules, not about conversations. But given that anyone can be assigned a seat in the quiet coach without wanting to be there or knowing they’re there, the whole thing seems pointless. I’m sure I remember news articles about quiet coaches being scrapped for this reason a few years ago

The thing about noise cancelling headphones, or anything else that stops you hearing what’s going on, is that it’s all too easy to miss announcements.

Almost every time the driver announces that a tube will be missing the next stop for some reason, someone in headphones will get up to get off there. Or if a tube is terminating early 🙄 there will be headphone wearers who keep sitting there while everyone else is getting off.

That takes me back reserved seats no input on which carraige on a packed train which turned out to be in quiet carriage me and very young kids being quiet - and arsehole couple behind having a loud fit every time one of mine move a magazine page or whispered to me for a drink. Thankfully in end one other other passengers asked them to stop being pricks and to shut up themsleves as they were making way more noise than us.

Quite carraiges were mostly about forbidding phone calls and requiring silent electronic devices and conversations even at normal tones have never been forbidden.

Though on a recent trip I found myself in a quiet carraige jumped on first with seats and nearly everyone was having loud phone calls and playing music/games/phones with no headphones.

I have some horrifically nosiy train journeys recently and now carry noise cancelling headphones.

TBH, if other people can hear the noise from your headphones then they are probably too loud, and not great for your hearing either.

Years ago I was listening to music with headphones on in the quiet carriage and was asked by the conductor to turn it right down so there was no noise at all coming from my headphones, or change carriages because silence is expected.

Indeed. See also signs saying "Dogs must be kept on short leads at all times (explanation give re wildlife in area)" which apparently have an extra bit, invisible to most people, which says "Except you - let your dog off lead as much as you like and if someone politely reminds you (people on the National Trust Longshaw estate last week, I'm especially talking to you), ignore them or give them a mouthful of abuse".

Hell no. It’s a quiet coach and the passengers in it should respect that

No you're wrong here. People have always been allowed to talk quietly in the quiet carriage, and quiet talking absolutely exists.

I've been in the Quiet Carriage and not noticed it was the Quiet Carriage.

1. Talking is allowed in the quiet carriage
2. Transport is more oversubscribed than it used to be so it is more hectic overall.

They should be quieter spaces, but what are your options?

• report to the conductor
• sit elsewhere
• wear headphones/ignore
• confront directly

Personally I have no desire to confront directly!

It has probably changed now but aeons ago when I last booked a train, you couldn't select "non quiet carriage" and it didn't tell you which carriage was the quiet one so I definitely ended up there by mistake at least once when I was travelling with DS1 who was a toddler at the time.

I found this just as annoying so I hope they have changed it now. Quiet carriage makes sense but only if everyone subscribes to it.

Always tell the conductor when there are people being noisy in the Quiet Carriage.
Quiet talking is fine.

I'm not the reason society is 'falling apart', but to be honest I don't think it IS falling apart.

I think travel is oversubscribed and hectic.

Other aspects of society are better than when I was younger.

We're not going to hell in a handcart yet.

I am also autistic and avoid the quiet carriage for exactly this reason. It annoys me so much that they’re breaking the rules and I’d rather sit where they’re ‘allowed’ to make noise even though it’s irritating!

Noise cancelling headphones help.

You can talk in the quiet carriage. Just not loudly. It is not a silent carriage.
Also, people who struggle with noise might want to have a quiet chat too.
My DP is autistic and also struggles with noise, but he likes to talk too.

It’s a radical idea, but YANBU.

If you can, it's easier to lower expectations and not anticipate quiet.

And this is why as a society we're failing at the moment.

The boorish minority are growing, and visibly ignoring anything that looks like a "rule" if it won't be enforced.

As a result, those who are weak-minded just say "join them, or stop complaining"

YANBU @HighlandTERF at all, but Mumsnet is full of people who rather than argue for the status quo to be preserved and rules to be followed, are keen to needle OPs into thinking they are somehow the problem for not noticing the shift in society and putting up with it.

It's become a "what can I get away with?" society.

Yes but you keep your voice down. You don't just blather on, in earshot of others as if you are in a cafe or bar!