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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think I should feel safe to take a train with 2 dcs at 7.30pm on a Saturday?

35 replies

TumbleWeeds · 08/04/2013 14:51

Was out with the dcs on Saturday afternoon. We had a nice afternoon and then went for a bite.
We took the train to go back home.

It was full of drunks, usually in groups. Loud, swearing, singing racist songs and in general being frightening tbh. There has been a few instances where it was clear that some of them could have become violent (start of a fight etc...)
This must a regular instance on that line at that time because there was actually 2 policemen on the train (that we never saw in our carriage unfortunately).

I feel like complaining but tbh I am not sure what else they can do now apart from having the Police in each carriage. Alcohol has been banned but as they were all completely drunk when going in....
Why why do people it's OK to use public transport when they are in such a state??

OP posts:

Original poster

TumbleWeeds · 08/04/2013 21:45

I would have loved moving carriages. Except that
1- there was some drunk people in all 3 carriages anyway (Hence the 2 policemen not showing up in my carriage. There were already 'busy' in the other 2) and 2- we were in the last carriage, right at the back, moving would have meant going through said group of drunken people plus another one after that ....

OP posts:

greenfolder · 08/04/2013 23:04

Its disgusting and tbh I think that the train companies just shouldn't be allowing them on the train. They can refuse to let them on and they should. My dd who is 18 is well versed in selecting seats, moving seats, pretending to get off the train and getting back in further down and sitting with older couples or merging into family groups. In extreme case, my very tall dh has met her on the platform as she gets out.

ArbitraryUsername · 08/04/2013 23:18

I used to regularly get a train that transported men off the rigs from Aberdeen to Glasgow. It was awful. They'd get drunk and load and there'd be fights and I'd always seem someone getting thrown off the train by the transport police. I felt very vulnerable and would always try to find a seat near other people.

Now I occasionally get a stag/hen night-tactic train (that goes nowhere near either glasgow or aberdeen) and it's bloody awful too. It costs an absolute fortune and it's so unpleasant to travel on a train full of loud, obnoxious drunk people getting progressively drunker as the journey goes on (because not only is drinking allowed; they sell it to you on the train) I try to avoid travelling on a Friday evening at all costs. The train companies clearly don't give a shit though.

Although, I also wouldn't go anywhere near the parts of town that those stag and hen nights are going on a Friday or Saturday night. The multiplex cinema in the city centre is in a centre full of awful bars and nightclubs (the kind sought out by nightmare stag and hen nights) and it's not somewhere you want to be even in the early evening. Even in the early afternoon the lairy drunks make it really horrible to take your kids to the cinema in there.

ArbitraryUsername · 08/04/2013 23:20

It isn't about being tolerant of alcohol though. It's about drunkeness (and really antisocial behaviour). It's perfectly possible to drink alcohol and not be drunk/antisocial.

VelvetSpoon · 08/04/2013 23:23

I got on a train once at about 3pm on a Saturday. Half empty carriage.

Halfway home, bloke A says to bloke B 'what you lookin' at?'

Bloke B gives some smart ass response.

A few more increasingly heated sentences are exchanged before they start a full on fight. Fists flying, head butting etc.

Me and the other passengers moved to the next carriage, someone pressed the alarm. Train stopped at next station, blokes got off, still fighting.

No evidence either was drunk or that they knew each other. I was just glad my DSs weren't with me.

squeakytoy · 09/04/2013 00:57

Saturday was grand national day, are you near Liverpool OP?

stopgap · 09/04/2013 02:28

Dear god, I don't miss this about the UK one iota. StuntGirl, your experience sounds utterly dreadful.

Any of the above cited experiences, especially if I had my kid with me, and I'd be putting in a complaint.

I live in NYC and have filed reports about flashers on the subway. Luckily I've never experienced drunken abuse, and I don't see a lot of it here tbh.

Original poster

TumbleWeeds · 09/04/2013 07:59

No not near Liverpool.

OP posts:

GoEasyPudding · 09/04/2013 08:30

We got caught up with a drunken rowdy mob on the tube at South Kensington at on a Saturday at 4pm in the afternoon. We were coming back from the museums and my 4 year old was with me. It wasn't sports fans though but students doing a pub crawl so there was no violent atmosphere thank goodness, but 4pm? Too early!
Why do drunks get to spoil so many things?

RatPants · 09/04/2013 08:57

I had to travel by train quite regularly as a student and when it fell on a football night the train was always very busy, lairy and intimidating.

I wouldn't get on a train like that with my dc tbh, am unlikely to still be out at that time as they are still very young and when they are older I will avoid that situation at all costs although can see how you got caught. 7.30 isn't very late.

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