Interested in opinions- noting hugely exciting!

[BertrandRussell]

Ds was coming back from London on the last train last night. 4 stops from home, the train had to stop because of a problem on the line. After about 30minutes of milling about, the passengers were told that in “about an hour” there’d be a coach arriving. I was going to pick him up from our local station anyway, so I was just about to go and get him when he texted to say that someone had called an Uber, and offered a free ride to anyone who wanted to share.

What interested me was that there were 3 spare seats in the taxi, but only 2 people took the offer- and ds recognized people from our town. And the man who called the car repeated the offer several times. Would you have just grabbed the chance to get home for free?

Before we get called freeloaders, I did meet DS with cash and he tried to pay but the man said no very definitely!

I suspect that this is due to people not wanting to speak to others, not wanting to make contact.

I don't think I would consider it a risk for myself if other people were sharing the lift and there is also the driver so it's pretty unlikely for anything to happen, I'm not sire how I wpuld feel about my ds going thpugh, I don't know why, it would just make me a bit uncomfortable.

I'd say that it's low risk. But I've also shared taxis with random folks.

I got a lift with a random man and 2 other commuters (one female, one male) once. It was morning rush hour, train was cancelled with an announcement that no trains were now running through the station. Bloke piped up that he was driving to next station down the line and did anyone want a lift. I thought it was very considerate of him to offer! I would have felt differently and declined if it were at night and/or just me and him.

I've shared taxis with strangers before. It would depend on whether I felt comfortable with them or manipulated.

I probably wouldn’t actually. If there were Uber’s available I’d probably order my own and maybe offer to share with other women if I knew they lived locally (I have done this before when a train home from work was terminated several stops too early, but it was daytime and less scary).

Or i’d ask DP to come and get me

I get why other people would decline. Their parents were probably better than mine at doing the Stranger Danger thing.

I think under these circumstances I would have done. Clearly this man had no weird agenda just wanted to sort a situation for himself in the easiest possible way and wanted to extend it to others. There are some good folk in this world!

I’ve been the person who called the cab before when we were stranded in some arse-end village platform on a cross county train past midnight. I was sharing a table with an elderly woman who was distressed she was being collected by a family member at the other end and had no mobile phone, only a landline number for the person collecting her. I rang the number and explained I was going to deliver this woman myself! No way I could have left her. I offered up the other 2 seats to a teenage boy and another girl, I would have been about 26 at the time travelling for work and I expensed the journey.

But there were two others present so really there was no danger, or very little.

I've shared taxis with strangers before in these kind of circumstances - always shared the cost. Seems very strange to refuse the offer of a free taxi ride, especially as it's a group of people.

I collected from the train in town 20 mins away when it had been cancelled and they had to wait for bus replacement 1 hour away. we offered lift to 1 guy who dh knew also lived in our town.he accepted. 3 years on if train is cancelled they look for each other and either me or his wife come collect. in between they never speak.