Quiet coaches on trains

[Boyskeepswinging]

The guard has just made a lengthy and detailed announcement telling people not to use their mobile phones in the quiet coaches. All fine. But why is talking on the phone not allowed when we have at least three sets of very loud (face to face) conversations and one crying baby in the carriage?

A phone conversation is more annoying than a real conversation. They should try and be not mega loud I suppose.
And of course no one wants their baby to be crying.

You'd hope those chatting loudly would know better than to disturb a quiet coach I suppose.

Tbh people talking in loud voices seems to be getting more frequent unfortunately.

Loud face to face conversations shouldn’t be happening either.

Crying baby I have some sympathy with, because sometimes the reservation system will just allocate you a seat in the quiet coach without telling you, so parents might not have known. They should be taking it out to try to soothe in the vestibule between coaches though.

Believe me, Biscuit, a phone conversation could not be any louder. There's one party of four men at a table who are particularly loud. They appear to be seeing who can laugh the loudest.

I actually avoid the quiet carriage because it annoys me too much when people don't follow the rules.

I'm sympathetic to the crying baby, we've all been there. It just amused me that the guard is making such a big thing about mobile phones when it's so blinking loud in here anyway.

I don't know, OP. I think the quiet coach should be pretty much silent, no communication over a whisper. Last time I fart opposite a couple who talked loudly for 3 hours straight. Why they'd booked seats there I have no idea.

Proof read fail. I SAT opposite a couple.

Oh well.

The question is, was it a silent fart in keeping with the carriage rules?

Fantastic typo! Maybe if you had farted they'd have moved into another carriage?

Haha is this the new snapped and dated thread

Once was allocated a seat in the quiet coach. Mega busy train so every seat occupied. Phone rings and man answers in a loud voice, another bloke shuts him down almost immediately reminding him this was a quiet carriage. Loud mouth was clearly embarrassed and quietly ended his phone call double quick.

The number of times I booked 1 adult, 3 children seats and turned up to find we were in the quiet coach. There wasn't ever an option to say NOT the quiet coach.

If they've reserved seats then they may have had no choice.

We once travelled in a quiet coach on an Amtrak train from NYC to Philadelphia and the guard actually told people off for chatting.

I think the clue is in the name. To some quiet=silent but if that were the case it would be called the 'silent' coach, surely? The problem is that one person's quiet is another person's 'noisy' (even if only normal level chat). I was always under the impression that they were introduced to be 'noisy phone-call free' settings, not for total silence?

Tell the guard/train manager

@Tableclothing best typo ever 😂😂😂

How annoying. I recently went to Liverpool for the weekend with some friends for a girls weekend. When I made the booking, the website automatically placed us in the quiet carriage. I changed it as soon as I noticed as I knew we were going to be chatting on the train.

Actually the kids and chatting people should not be in that carriage either

Parents with young babies always seem to make a beeline for the quiet carriage. Last week I was on a 12 carriage train with 3 quiet carriages. 9 "normal" "noisy" carriages. Train half empty at my station with plenty of seats but of course the parent with baby had to get into my quiet carriage. No reservations on our line. Absolutely no need to use that carriage.

YANBU. If you're one of those people who Never. Stops. Talking. the quiet coach is not the place for you. The clue is in the name.

There's one party of four men at a table who are particularly loud

If they're in the Quiet Coach, generally you can ask them to keep the noise down, and the train guard/manager should support you. There should be notices about keeping noise to a minimum generally.

Good luck!

People who don't respect the Quiet Coach are total arses.

My favourite train journey moment was sitting on a table with three strangers in the quiet carriage. There was a twassock a few rows back making endless very loud calls. His name was John Gillebrand, I know this, as does everyone else in that carriage, because he announced it very loudly at the start of every bloody call.

The lady next to me answered her mobile (on silent!) very discreetly, put her hand over her face and very quietly said “sorry darling, I can’t talk now, i’ll text my arrival time...... pause....... Because I’m in the quiet coach and everyone will think i’m an arsehole”. Then put her phone down. The rest of us creased up.

Last time I sat in the Quiet Carriage (Leeds - London), the journey was punctuated by two uber-twat men booming at full volume about their architectural bid (all bullshit, but they thought it was cool to spread the plans out to occupy a 4-person space) ... thank goodness they got off at Doncaster. Then a Chinese woman started playing a movie on her tablet at full volume, she pretended she didn't understand people asking her to turn it down / listen with headphones. The ticket collector came round and tried to tell her she was not booked for the Quiet Carriage, she made out she didn't understand and he gave up in the end and left her. Next, an Ed Sheeran-lookalike bloke who was very poshly-spoken started a long and pointless phone call in which he repeatedly deployed every swear word he knew, due to his not being signed after an audition. Thank goodness we weren't treated to his guitar. A crying baby would have been bliss in comparison to that lot. I don't bother with the Quiet Carriage now.

I'm on my way home now. Back in the "Quiet" coach again. And buoyed by this thread I've given the man who was shouting down his phone one of my Mummy Stares. He started talking really quietly then stopped the call. Yes! It's now totally silent ... bliss ...