Do you ever think about people who you met briefly on train journeys (or other ways)?

[Specialneedsnightmare]

Occasionally I still think about people who I sat near to on a busy train journey and wonder how things turned out for them. Not necessarily significant things either. Years ago I was on a train to Guildford and sat at a table with a mother and two adult daughters who were going to a restaurant followed by a party. They were debating what to eat and whether some person they knew would be there and what he might say. They were worried he might cause trouble. They wanted to leave early from the party. I wonder if they went and if the guy was there and what happened. Odd I know..

Another time I was on a train on the south coast and a group of college students got on. I was at a table with two girls who were discussing their upcoming exams. One girl was clearly intelligent and driven and waa trying to encourage her friend who was struggling with a lack of confidence. She told her she could do anything she set her mind to, but not to "be lazy" and to work hard for it. Clearly had excellent parents! Like with the women, sometimes my thoughts go back to the girls and I wonder how they got on.

Does anyone else ever wonder about people who they shared a brief journey with?

In November 2016 we were heading to Twickenham for the rugby and DD2 and I managed to squeeze onto a train at Clapham and DH and DD1 got the train behind.
When we were waiting at Twickenham for them to arrive I sat on a bench beside a Mum with her son with autism who I think was early 20's. She told me they came to see the trains every Saturday and that day some of the roads were closed so they had to take a different route. She said "I'll suffer for that later as he hates any change of routine."
She saw DD2 looking at chocolate bars in the machine and she gave her money to buy one.
I often think of her. She looked tired and obviously really had her hands full and she still took the time to give something to DD2 and as we left with DH and DD1 she thanked me for chatting with her. I never forgot her and hope life got easier for her.

Thanks for sharing everyone. I'm reading all of these, just too hot to write a proper reply yet!

Yes when I was a teenager I was on a long solo train journey to a university interview. The train was supposed to arrive at 11 and was 3 hours late. I hadn’t brought any lunch, and when it arrived I would have to run straight to the interview. There was a dad and his two children, a girl and a boy, sitting on the next table and they shared their whole lunch with me. The kids even shared their chocolate bars. They were absolutely lovely and made sure I got the interview and did an ok job rather than arriving starving and useless.

Those kids must be about 30 now and I bet they’re still really good people.

Yes, one of the (many) joys of solo travel is the brief connections made in a snapshot of time, with others, this never really happens when I'm travelling with someone else. I often remember random, insignificant encounters like these - often such interesting people.

Def! I boarded from 12 with my parents far away overseas. As a result I did very long train journeys every half term to go and stay with relatives hours away. I remember my first half term journey I was on a 3 hr train to Glasgow to change there for a station further north. I was crying quite a lot and trying to hide it (homesick and going to stay with an uncle I barely knew) but was in the middle of a group of cheerful ladies heading up to Glasgow for a hen do. They were so sweet to me and chatting away to them helped the journey pass. I’ve had many conversations on trains since then, one memorable one was with a guy obsessed with iron mans. Wonder if he kept on doing them!

Years ago when staying in London I had to go to a launderette. There was a woman there also taking her clothes out of the dryer and I noticed the way she folded her knickers seemed very neat and ever since then I have folded mine the same way. I was only thinking this morning that she would never know that she had changed my knicker folding technique for ever….

I don't think about specific people and wonder about their background, but I do often experience "sonder" while in busy places and end up sitting and people watching for a while.

Thinking about how big and rich each of our lives are, our friends and families, and then realising what a tiny tiny percentage of humans that really is, is utterly mind-blowing to me.

So so many people and all so interconnected in ways we often don't even realise. How many times have I passed someone who is loved by someone I love, and I never even knew they existed?

I was travelling from Paddington to Bath when a young woman sat opposite me on a table seat & we chatted all the way down, she had brought to the table several small cans of gin & tonic, she did offer me one, but I declined her kind offer, by the time we got to Swindon she was well lubricated, & told me she was going to Bristol for her first venture into live adult TV that evening , she told me the station number & wanted me to watch her & then asked if i knew where she “could pull” tonight in Bristol. I did see her being advertised on pay to view.
I often wonder how her life progressed.

Hmm, she does sound snooty. Plenty of Bristolians do like to chat in a queue!

Interesting you say that, it's not my experience at all. I'm from a working class family and my mother and grandmother were very gregarious though, if that makes any difference.

Obviously not everyone in Bristol was a miserable sod! My own mother included. But generally it really wasn't a welcoming place. It was very inward looking and was pretty much noted as such. Not sure class comes into it particularly. I've generally mixed with working class people. I mean, I don't regularly rub shoulders with the upper echelons!

I had a brief conversation once on holiday around the pool with someone I didn’t see again as they were leaving to fly home to the US that night. They had been recently widowed in tragic circumstances and it was their first solo holiday. They were a similar age to me and I often wonder how they are getting on and hope their life is not as lonely as they feared it was going to be.

On Sunday I stopped and spoke to a lady who pulled in next to us who was in tears. She'd just lost her dad so father's day was a toughie. We spoke for a few minutes and I left, I do hope she managed to get through the day.

I often think about other kids I made friends with on holidays as a child and where they are now in life

Me too 💯

In the early 90s I was visiting my nan and met a couple of kids who were also visiting their grandparents. We had great fun playing along country lanes nearby. I was 12 and they were about ten. Occasionally I wonder where they are now.

We met a man who was Serbio-Chinese on a ten hour bus trip in Eastern Europe.

THAT was eye opening. Just different ways of thinking about the world as much as anything. Not western orthodoxy.

But honestly it's all those little sliding doors moments that make travelling. Not holidays. Holidays are different to travelling.

I saw a young woman crying her eyes out under the departure boards at a big, busy interchange station.

She'd been unceremoniously dumped and was trying to get back home to mum but the station we were at was unfamiliar to her and it was basically just all too much. I gave her a tissue, a maternal hug and pointed her to the platform she needed.

I hope she got home and over him very soon.

yes! taking the very late train from Toulouse to Juan les Pins,
with an open carriage to myself, settled at one end
I forget the stations stopped,
but altogeether 8 Frenchmen about the same age, 30ish boarded,
Bonjour Madame segued into Bonsoir Madame, I dozed, I suppose
they dozed or slept, a few alighted at Marseille, then I alighted at
Juan les Pins, 4 Frenchmen wished me Bonne Vacances enabling
me to assure my hosts that I had felt safe and sound sleeping with
so many Frenchmen.

Omg this is like fate. I as just talking to a friend and telling her that I’ve had some of my best times talking and meeting strangers on planes, trains etc.. I did a lot of travelling on my own when I was in my 20s early 30s.

One that sticks out was travelling from the North to London on 31 December 1999 there were 4 girls, late teens early 20s heading to London for the millennium, they were so lovely but very naive, I spent most of the journey telling them how to protect themselves, what to do if they got separated ( pre everyone having phones), watch drinks etc.. By the end of the journey they had a game plan. I often wondered if they had a good time unlike me who ate a dodgy £5 burger from a burger van on the Thames and spent most of the night throwing up with people thinking I was drunk 🥴

Sliding doors moments in life 2004 , whilst flying back from Boise Idaho to Chicago a lady sat next to me chatted throughout the flight as she noticed a copy of horse and hound on my lap
we chatted for ages and when we disembarked I caught her up and she gave me her email and said to contact her
I never did but have always wondered what happened to her , she was from Sun Valley

Yes, 8 years ago we met a man at Frome station, in fact on the 23rd June as we were coming home from a gig and I still have the ticket on my fridge.
He could have been Leonard Cohen in both appearance, manner and in his considered conversation.
Our train was delayed and we (DD and I) sat on a bench and chatted to him.
He was trying to get to a hospital appointment in Bristol.
He was extremely soulful. We've never forgotten the encounter.
I always feel it was sad that someone wasn't with him somehow.
Yet I also felt we were blessed to have that encounter with him.

Oh it was the day after the gig, gig on 27th, so the 28th June!
Must tell dd I've been reminded of him again!

This thread has made me think of a lady I met on a train 38 years ago. I was travelling back home late at night but fell asleep and woke up at the end of the line. There were no more trains until the morning and this lovely lady took me to her house where I stayed the night. In the morning she dropped me back at the station and after she left I realised she had put £20 into my bag.

Looking back I was so stupid to go with a random stranger but so so lucky that she was a kind person.

I wonder if she ever thinks about the tired and scared 16yr old that she looked after that night,

Sitting on a plane flying to Abu Dhabi next to a young female 20ish, she cried her eyes out for the first hour, she wouldn’t say what was wrong/didn’t want to talk. I don’t know if she was getting on another plane following the flight or staying in Abu Dhabi. I wonder if she is ok now, it’s ten years later.

I have one - much more recent. About a month ago I met a young woman on a train who was a little emotional. It turned out her boyfriend has just told her he loved her and she was just overwhelmed (very happy). They were meeting families and she wanted to plan a life together. She spent the whole journey quizzing me about marriage (26 years here). She was delightful and I keep thinking of her and how they are getting on.