Quiet coach on trains

[1questionfromme]

If you deliberately book on to the quiet coach on a train what does this mean to you? I'm trying to work out if I'm naive or stupid as I thought it meant no talking on phones or listening to music etc out loud. I feel as though that's how it always was. More recently that seems to have gone out of the window and people just treat it the same as any other carriage. I'm on a train to Edinburgh from Kings Cross now and there's one person who has been constantly talking loudly on the phone and another with a child playing a beepy game on a tablet.

Do you think others like hearing your conversations? Be quiet or sit with noisy people.

I used to use the virgin west coast service (probably not even called that nowadays - it was many moons ago, thankfully!).

So many people in the quiet coach on phones, playing music, shouting. Even wearing headphones still means other passengers can hear tinny noise. It's so selfish.

So many times I had to get the guard to speak to the worst offenders but I suspect the guard is now an extinct species.

I swear these noisy people go in the quiet coach just so they can hear their phones / music better!

It means that if more than 60 percent of occupants are observing the quiet(er) aim, the proportion who are not and who have no intention of doing it, are extra-specially magnified in terms of annoyance ability. It's the suggestion that it could be quiet under some circumstances and some times of day that might mean you're going to be less enraged by sitting somewhere that doesn't make those claims in the first place.

I would think they are being rude tbh. They can chat anywhere, why do it in a quiet space?

you're lucky there was a variety performance, I once had to listen to a very out of tune toddler rendition of the first verse of three blind mice on repeat for 3 hours.

I don't know why they bother with fancy torture techniques for prisoners, that's all it takes.

because some people are working on the train.

child carriages exist on some European trains, they are basically mini soft play. not tons of seats but lots to play with.

When I took the train last Friday, there was a message telling people to take phone calls next to the doors rather than the carriage.
Granted, it was 1st class but surely that’s quite a feasible thing to do? Usually people talk much louder in trains when in the phone, I think because it’s hard to hear the other person.

In Germany, quiet carriage means no talking at all.
In France, you can’t take any opine calls at your seat anywhere. And loud talking is frown upon. All carriages are usually very silent!

I was on a long train journey this weekend and found myself w8shing I'd booked a place in the quiet carriage. Sounds like I shouldn't have bothered anyway! Since when has it been acceptable for adukts to play their music out loud even in a normal carriage?! Barbarians.

Everyone on a quiet area should show some consideration for their fellow passengers and be quiet. I would have no problem telling that mum to be quiet.

It is a little known fact that the Agatha Christie murder mystery novel 'The 4.50 from Paddington' was inspired by just such a scenario.

It means nothing, because it's not enforced. A rule isn't really a rule if there aren't any consequences for breaking it.

And there aren't any. The people blaring tinny music know you aren't going to go find a staff member, that you're unlikely to do anything more than give them a disapproving look.

And even if a staff member does say something, then they're going to be too busy to hang around afterwards and check that the rule is being enforced.

So the quiet carriage is really just a "Perfectly normal carriage with a couple of stickers saying "Quiet Carriage"".

What a charmer you are.
Whether it's no phones or not, you certainly disturbed someone when you were 'on the blower'. So classy.

I regularly do the Edinburgh-London trip, and almost always book the quiet coach so I can work in peace...I even put my phone on silent and ignore unless it is the boss - at which point I often walk to end of carriage out of the door.

IMO, there is a combination of busier trains (so people get a seat who would not have chosen quieter), it is not easy sometimes to tell it is a quiet carriage (see the small stickers on door and windows) and of course just more and more entitled people these days who could not care less.

My understanding is that quiet conversation is allowed but phone calls and any devices without headphones are not.
Quiet doesn't mean silent. If I'm having a low volume chat with my seat neighbour and someone asked me to stop talking I'd say no.
I have previously pointed out the quiet carriage signs to people using their phones or devices and they've all understood and either found headphones or popped out to the vestibule to finish their call.
Also, if the train is very busy then I'd probably expect the quiet carriage to be noisier as more people will be using it

I'm thinking of putting a playlist together of loud, sweary, horrible sounding songs to play when people won't wear headphones in public. I reckon that playing them at full volume through a little speaker I can drown out the inconsiderate bastards and make my point.

Not a quiet carriage, but a guy did this during next to me a while ago and his screen was angled so I was in shot. The only way not to be would have been to lean to the side the whole journey. So instead I joined in his meeting, I leaned in a bit and looked at his screen and all his documents. It took him ages to notice, I assume a colleague told him as he was wearing headphones so I could only hear him talking.

He then moved his screen so I wasn't in shot. I still thought it was shit of him to subject everyone to one side of his meeting, but to have me in the actual shot was something else.

So the kind of noise that you want to make other people listen to is OK but the kind of noise you don't want to listen to isn't OK?

Quiet coach? I tell people they might want to use their buds if I can hear music/ both sides of a telephone conversation in a “normal” carriage. Surely it’s common courtesy not to inflict this sort of noise on other passengers no matter which carriage they are in?

It might be staffed technically yes but they doesn’t mean there’s anyone patrolling through the train at any point. I’m on a train right now and the only staff are serving in the buffet car. Very rare to have a guard actually keeping order on the train these days.

It really isn't. People talk FAR more loudly on their phones.

I travel by train regularly, and rarely notice people talking to each other. But I've had to change carriages on multiple occasions after being driven mad by someone loudly talking on their phone and having to endure every word of their conversation about their latest contact, or them having a row with their other half.