To really loathe it when people eat on trains?

[HeadFairy]

I'm not talking about long distance ones, or even mid distance. I'm talking about commuter trains where the journey time is no more than an hour from one end of the line to the other.

I'm sitting on the train opposite someone who is literally demolishing a Maccy meal of some sort. The burger is collapsing everywhere. There are bits dropping all over the place. The sound of his chomping is making me feel ill and it absolutely stinks. Someone else in the next row has a flipping kebab. It's 9pm on a Monday! He's not even pissed. The entire carriage now smells terrible.

See your point!

yes not nice being pregnant and feeling quesy when travelling. I was there about 20 years' ago so I get that :)

I would eat a sandwich or something and have done so on the bus last week. To be fair I was in work 8-1 so by the time I get out of work and get home it is going on for 2 o'clock and would be starving by then. Saying that I would not eat anything really smelly cos that is just rude.

I hate watching/listening to other people eat wherever they are. I accept that is my problem though.

What I have begun to especially hate though, is eating during meetings. I'm on a couple of community-type committees and we meet in people's homes in the evenings. I find it infuriating when someone is trying to speak and is constantly interrupted by someone else offering round a tin of chocolate brownies or all you can hear is someone munching on noisy crisps, and whiffing of salsa.

I know people are trying to make a social occasion of it because it is our free time etc but if we could just get on with discussing what needs to be discussed, without the chomping, and the topping up of wine glasses, and talking about flapjack recipes, those of us who like to get home before midnight can go and the socialisers can have another drink and a moan about me natter.

We manage to have meetings at work that last two hours or more with just a cup of tea or a glass of water. It's not essential to proceedings.

Sorry for change of subject OP. You are probably not BU.

OP, I TOTALLY agree with you. OK, maybe people need to eat on the train, whatever. Eat a sandwich, the smell of food in an enclosed space makes me heave.

I don't have a problem with things like sandwiches, and with people who eat politely (mouth closed etc) but do find it repulsive when people bring very strong smelling food into an enclosed space.

Slightly OT, but went to see someone in maternity unit recently - she was pretty poorly as had had an emergency c-section. She was in what is laughingly called a four-bed ward, which is basically a small room divided by hanging sheets with barely room to get down the side of the bed. The other three beds were occupied by women whose families brought pots of hot, over poweringly strong smelling curry at anytime of the day. The smell literally made me retch (and I like curry in the appropriate environment) but for the woman I was visiting it was making her vomit. Totally thoughtless and disgusting

YABU.

Bumblequeen I quite agree.

I want to come to the UK and inspect the trains now... are they really that bad? Sounds grim.

Smelly foods are anti social and unnecessary but no food at all is totally unreasonable. Some people have no choice but to eat on a train at times. I certainly wont be going hungry because someone might get offended by my sandwich!

I don't mind people eating on trains but they could at least try to be civilised about it - there's no need for chomping, shovelling and dropping bits.

If people are working long hours its an efficient use of time, and the helpful provision of M+S at stations means that you can usually get something relatively tasty and healthy along with ready mixed gin and tonic.

I agree with the posters who can't stand the talkers. Last time I went on a train, I was sat in front of two women who did not shut up for the entire length of the journey. From the topics of conversations, it is highly likely that they were mumsnetters and if the battery on my phone had not been flat, I would have been posting on here about them .

ginontwo - think it was me that posted about talking on trains. actually i don't mind people talking, espec if they have interesting conversations - its amazing what people discuss sometimes and passes the time. i also don't mind mobiles. what i hate is collapsing on the only free seat on the train to find its a non-mobile phone carriage when i've got to catch up on things after a long day and it doesn't make sense that people are allowed to talk f2f.

it must be lovely to have so much time that you don't have to eat on trains sometimes

You're not supposed to talk in the quiet carriage. I quite often end up in there either by accident or again the lack of seats and decide to play a game on my phone which is set to silent, but the looks you get from doing this! I'm being quiet FFS!

I wouldn't care that much if someone ate on the train. I'd do it myself if I was hungry.

To everyone who've said they don't care about stinking out ther carriages with their hot food, don't you ever have gaps of at least five minutes when y arrive at the station before the train departs and buying your pasties or burgers when you can eat your food? And why don't you eat cold food instead when travelling on the trains?

I got on a train at 5pm yesterday, having had nothing to eat since 7.30am cos I was stuck working in the middle of an industrial estate with nothing for miles around. Let me tell you, if I hadn't been able to eat my 2 pathetic Gregg's sausage rolls on the train, I'd be in the clink for cannibalism around now.

southeast - usually i end up staying in meetings till the last possible minute and then sprinting across the concorse.

bearing in mind how smelly the trains are anyway, i really can't understand the issue of just one more smell. some people wear the most awful perfume/aftershave - surprised i haven't seen a thread about this too????

Look, the thing s, smell disperses. People's loud talking, or phones going off, or the thump, thump, of the bass-line fuzzily through bad headphones all in the Quiet Coach just DON'T.

But gosh, I thought I was judgemental of people's behaviour in public until I read this thread! I'd never realised, in my long life, that eating is disgusting. Really?

I loathe it as well. Hate people eating in a packed space of any kind. Being forced to watch someone else eating is like being forced to watch them defecating or having sex. Gross. I would never do it.

Southeastdweller, if I had a gap of 5 mins I would eat then. Not for anyone elses sake, but because I am hungry. And I don't buy cold food because I want hot food.

I hate people eating fruit on public trasport. They're always left holding a browning skin/core/stone and it makes me

I still think it's bloody gross.

Can't find the link now but I agree with Rachel Johnson who sad in the Evening Standard that she thinks eating hot food should be banned on public transport.

I was thinking about this thread when in the train to work this morning -- just two hours today as the place I was visiting is relatively close.

< hyperbole button on > A vile elderly woman playing terrible music on her phone without headphones, two rather thick people shouting talking at the tops of their voices across the carriage about the football, people's phones going off, fat woman next to me squashing me into the corner with her fat elbows sprawling all over the arm rest and jabbing me in the ribs. < hyperbole button off >

The sunny beautiful trip across the Dales ruined by all these disgusting people. A bacon sandwich or a hamburger and silence would have been far, far preferable.

And if you find my post insulting, have a quiet think about what you've all been writing about your fellow passengers' disgustingness.

"fat woman next to me squashing me into the corner with her fat elbows sprawling all over the arm rest"

Nice

fat people should be made to buy two tickets, shouldn't they