Why are there Quiet Zones on trains?!!

[GreatOak]

I don't know why they bother! I tend to seek them out to snooze on my long commute to work. But people don't notice they are in them, they simply get on the carriage that stops in front of them, and I've just been in a Quiet Zone carriage empty but for three Revenue Protection Officers talking very loudly. I moved, and one of them having clarified I was moving because I wanted peace, said, "I wouldn't get upset about it" - well, if it wasn't flagged as a Quiet Zone I wouldn't care. So why bother having them?!

It's more for people taking phone calls or listening to stuff without headphones

Report those staff. They should be upholding a better image for the train company.

I have no need for Quiet Zones myself but if you want to sleep, quietly read, or have extra needs about noise, they are very good. It seems those RCIs need training in this area.

(I'm a regular train passenger and I work in public transport.)

When the children were little, and we were using a family railcard, the number of times we got reserved seats which ended up in the quiet carriage was ridiculous. It was almost as if they did it deliberately. I mean, nothing says, "please put me in the quiet carriage" more than booking one adult, three children.

Expecting people to be quiet for an hour or so these days is asking far too much. If it's not conversations (in person or phone) it's playing devices out loud.

Isn't it about electronic noise and phone calls? I don't think people aren't supposed to talk.

This is what the train company I use most often says:

"Electronic equipment must be used in silent mode and we ask that all mobile telephone conversations are made in the vestibules at the ends of the coach", nothing about face to face conversations.

I think it's about not talking. I book it if I'm travelling on my own and want to read.

It's really bad in Britain, isn't it? I was travelling by train in Europe this summer and it was so quiet. No devices, no talking, just whispering. It all felt very civilised.

I think train companies should really focus on having enough seats and running a regular, reliable timetable tbh. Once that's done then maybe consider other special areas.

Like a PP, I always found my reserved seats ended up in the quiet carriage. Two adults and two small children; my heart used to sink every time when we got on and saw that's where the tickets were. We'd always do our best to keep them quiet (Where's Wally being an absolute lifesaver!), but with two autistic children on a long train journey, you'd get an hour/hour-and-a-half before they started struggling to sit quietly. I wish there was an option to select NOT the quiet carriage!

I agree. Possibly not on the OP's train as she mentions the quiet coach being empty, but on most trains the priority is to get a seat - any seat. People aren't used to the luxury of choosing a particular type of carriage to sit in.

I think that they are less necessary now that people tend to communicate by WhatsApp instant messaging more than phone calls these days, and have email on their phones. They were designed to control the annoying noise of one-sided phone calls.

PPs are probably right about QZs being more for not taking calls, etc, it's just distracting to hear loud conversations if you've been hoping for a quiet trip. I also admit to being a reluctant commuter and find travelling so often by train to be a suboptimal experience even at the best of times. 😏

It's the same with first class travel, everyone piles in and doesn't give a fuck if they have a ticket or not and the inspectors rarely ask them to move. Don't get me started on the NOISE, why they hell are people walking around like Dom Joly on their phones , why not use ear buds?

Yes, this.

If they do this and the guards let them, complain to the train company - you'll get money back!

Yes! Every sodding time.

I don’t use quiet carriages any more as I just get annoyed by people not being quiet in them. I invested in some good noise cancelling headphones and rely on those to make train journeys bearable.

Originally it was for people to be ...quiet ie not have loud conversations, pre tablet and smartphone days. It's only relatively recently that people have become so twattish by having 2 way phone conversations, listen to their devices without headphones etc.

Of course everyone has an excuse why they're different and don't need to be civil.

I can’t b remember the last time I was on a train and there were enough seats, I think QZ only works when you have a choice of where to sit. I think when they were introduced people did make more of an effort, but maybe I was on quieter trains then?

Occaisionally I commute into London on an early morning train and I’m always struck by how quiet it is, the train in and the tube is always really quiet until about 9am. Last train home is always really noisy.

I used to book them when travelling alone. I’ve given up. The number of people who don’t give a crap means I just get wound up by the noise.

I was on a train recently and there was a mother with four young children in it. A member of staff informed her that it was the quiet carriage and she might be better off moving to a different one. The mother said the children would be fine.

She spent the whole journey (over an hour) shouting at the kids telling them to be quiet because it was a quiet carriage. She was louder than the kids. When she took one to the toilet the others were silent

I once sat in the QZ to read my book. All was fine with people reading, murmuring quietly to each other, working or just staring out of the window. Then a group of 4 youths got on and walked down the aisle shouting to each other. I assumed they were going to move further down the train but they didn’t. They sat down in the QZ and continued to shout across at each other, guffaw, etc etc.

Someone told them it was the QZ and they just said, “Oh right” and carried on shouting. After this had gone on for minutes, I spoke to the ticket collector who told the group they had two choices: sit quietly in the QZ or sit elsewhere. They chose the latter.

For those reserving tickets, presuming this is online, you can usually choose your carriage and seats and thus choose/avoid the QZ.

That's very ableist of you

That should be throughout the train though. Why should anti social behaviour be permitted in the normal carriages?

For those reserving tickets, presuming this is online, you can usually choose your carriage and seats and thus choose/avoid the QZ.

Problem is, certainly on the trains in and out of my local town, that the quiet carriage isn't always the same one, and there's nothing on the booking to tell you which carriage it will be. There's an option to specify that you want the quiet carriage, but nothing to specify that you don't. Unless you've ticked that you need first class, they'll just put you wherever there's space, which seems rather frequently to be the quiet carriage.