To think there should be rules about taking certain things on trains?

[RosesAreBetter]

We have just got onto the train and there is a man with a very large animal carrier ( roughly the size of a washing machine) which is full if ferrets!

And when I say full, I mean there has got to be two dozen of the things in there.

And it STINKS.

The entire train carriage stinks of ferret fecies and urine, and the train is full to the point of people standing.

I have heard several people complain to the conductor, but apparently there is no room for the man and his ferrets to stand in the bike area as it is full of bikes and people with pushchairs.

He has the carrier on top of one of the tables!!

AIBU to think there should be rules against bringing something that stinks to high heaven onto a busy train?
Not to mention how distressed the poor ferrets seem.

How can you tell the difference between a stoat and a weasel?

I dunno, how can you tell the difference?

One is weasily recognisable and the other is stoatally different

Sorry I can't agree with the children watching films thing, me and dd regularly get the train to my mums (2 and a half hour journey on 2 trains) and now she's a bit older the films in the iPad are a god send!
She regularly watches a film or cbeebies during the journey and I'm sure passengers would rather here a bit of tangled and the gruffalo than dd having a tantrum because she's bored! Especially now as she's 17mo so takes about 2 minutes to get bored of all her toys I take and only wants to run up and down the aisles!

You pick passengers, you pick!

Arf - I must tell the dcs that joke when they come home.

I would ban all eating (pipe down those people who are going to shout "Diabetics!" - I know a few of them and they don't eat in an uncouth manner in public) unless it's a discreet packet of sweets. I'd waaaaay rather sit next to a (collective noun for) ferrets than someone rustling around in a tin foil package and eating egg sandwiches and pungent crisps. And drinks are a no-no, too. People are always spilling their coffee and it goes swimming across the table into everyone else's stuff. I think eating should only be done in a buffet car.

That is revolting, yuk! YANBU

I don't much like loud phone conversations or people eating smelly burgers but smelly ferrets would be worse.

You are right lucie I would have liked to ban the toddler (little girl) who decided to throw a tantrum on our train for the whole hour.

I'd been to see Brave, the film was fun, but it was loud and it's crap blurry 3D and my head hurt.

I do accept that if trains had sensible places for mums, prams and accompanying siblings. Not having them standing in the doorway, she might have been happier.

It's public transport. You're going to encounter odd people and unpleasant smells now and then, that's just the way of it.

I think I would prefer ferrets to the bloke f-ing and blinding on the phone at full volume for 30 mins on the train when I was travelling with my children. I think they learned a few new words that day .

And no I didn't challenge him, he was a big bloke and sounded quite aggressive from the way he was speaking (I know he was probably lovely etc but I didn't really want to push my luck).

You've never been in third class on a train coming from southern Italy, then?

Ferrets are the least of your worries. At least they'd kill the chickens.

Actually I would ban tuna sandwiches from trains if I was in charge of the world. But until then, I guess you just have to tune out other people's annoying and weird behaviour.

Can't the iPad kids use headphones though?

Two or three times a year I have to get the train from north of Edinburgh to south of Norwich - pretty much impossible to avoid needing to eat on the train since I leave home at ten and get to my folks' house at seven or eight in the evening! Sometimes the layover at a station is at roughly the right time to eat, but sometimes it really isn't. I tend to think people would rather smell hummous for five minutes (I'm vegan so don't do the worst extremes of greasiness away from home) than deal with me when I'm grumpy from lack of food. Also I tend to feel faint if I don't have anything between early morning and late evening, which is made less fun by being in possession of a large rucksack.

Eating only in the buffet car? Are you writing from he 1930s? Surely then restaurant car? The buffet is often a teeny, tiny space you can hardly stand in wiout being jostled, or it's an at-seat trolley!

I like taking picnics on trains and think they are wholly in keeping with a day out, all the better if accompanied by sparkling wine (rarely in my case but I like the way people travelling to horse races often make a day of it). Incidentally this practice highlights the difference between drinking in public and drunkenness - only the latter is a problem.

Ah, if only I were writing from the 1930s... Miss Marple would never have stuffed her face with a smelly burger on the 4.50 from Paddington...

DD met a woman on the DLR with a snake in her pocket a few months ago. I would not have been amused!

I think I'd even prefer the ferret.

Agree with the ipads. They have earphone sockets for a reason to use them. But then, millions of parents have managed to go long distances before the invention of ipads, and kept their kids occupied.
Should also be some type of bag rule, so stop people smacking them into the side of peoples heads as they walk past.

Snake on the DLR?

Try the buses in China - I had a pig pissing on my arm once!

Yep Ephiny - at Stratford. Mind you, it would have suffocated recently! . I got a full description of the idiot in question from DD, and avoided anyone who bore a slight resemblance afterwards.

I was watching a spectacularly funny and rude episode of 'Shameless' on a portable DVD player. The earphones didn't seem to be working properly so I turned the volume right up. It took a long while to realise the headphones hadn't been plugged in properly and the rest of the very conservative looking commuters had been able to hear every word.

I pointed out to someone that he had been hitting a guy every so often in the face for about 10 mins of a journey when i was standing on a train.

He got really embarrassed and stormed down the train. The person he was hitting said thanks and was a bit

But why do people sit next to you in an empty train?

I did however eat a peperamii the other day because i was really hungry and was feeling sick. I felt less guilty as next to me was person putting full make up on. one man making weird sucky noises on his water bottle, a noisy chewing gum chewer, and everybody needs to listen to tinny bad music from earphones guy.

It was such a nice journey.

On my way home(scotland) from school,one Christmas, I had been on the train for eight hours, when we came to a halt in the borders, the snow had blocked the tracks, we all sat patiently waiting for the train to restart, after an hour or so the heating went off, and it started to get cold, the elderly ladies at the table we were on were getting a bit aggregated, we all put our coats on,(anyone remember donkey jackets)

In the guards van I had a trunk, a couple of cages of rats(pets and food ones),a crate with a rabbit and a box with a burmese boa(cuthbert),

as the temperature dropped I started to worry about my snake, so I went to guards van, took some jumpers,duvet, and a blanket out of my trunk, then wrapped a subdued cuthbert(snakes don't do cold) round my waist put a jumper on, put on the donkey jacket, and a scarf,

I took the duvet and blanket back to the carriage, sat down gave my duvet and some jumpers to the grateful women on the other side of the table, and put the blanket over myself, then became very engrossed in my book,

I had realised over years that not everyone liked my pets, I had taken the precaution of labelling the box that the rats's cages were in, "Siberian desert squirrels" as at that time british rail wouldn't allow rats on trains, but I had discovered people were reluctant to have anything to do with a rat, but will happily hold a bald tail desert squirrel, and BR allowed them on trains.

I also knew that I would become very unpopular if anyone became aware of cuthbert, so I just sunk behind my book, after a bit the rather dejected cuthbert, started to warm up, and started to explore as he wanted a view, I stared hard at my book, as I really didn't want to catch the eye of either of the women opposite me, partly because one was wearing my big black jumper with a big red/yellow/green CND sign on it and the other my fluffy mohair rainbow jumper with a cannabis leaf on it, and partly I was worried they would suss me out,

Cuthbert became more active,he was used to being carried around under a jacket or jumper,but normally he was allowed a view, I pulled the blanket up and twisted my scarf round the neck of my jumper and read on, eventually I risked a peek over the top of my book, two very stern faces were staring at me, my face went very red,I hid behind my book,

there was a few seconds where I considered my options, clearly these women were not amateurs in judging odd behaviour, I glanced sideways the people on the table opposite were staring at me, the book wasn't going to hide all of them, and cuthbert was winning the battle to find the light,

so I lowed the book, my face by this time was glowing enough to heat the carriage,

one of the women asked, "So what is it that you have there"

"I can't tell you"

"why?'

"because you won't like it"

"Oh?"

"It's just that he needs heat and I can't get his hot water bottle refilled"
(the train had just split before we got stuck and end with the buffet car had gone with the glasgow end of the train)

it was at this point cuthbert found a gap, and stuck his head out under my chin,

All I could say was, "His name is Cuthbert and he doesn't know he's a snake"

once his head was out he was happy, all he wanted was to "taste" the air, so he stopped being so active, and I thought it best to go back to reading my book,

by the time the train got going seven hours later, everyone in the carriage had had a hold, even the ones who had at the beginning declared themselves snake phobic.

I only later realised that the book they all had been watching me hide behind was this one

they must of thought I was really taking the micky