to think that nobody died from travelling backwards on a train?

[EvelynWardrobe]

Why do people make a fuss about this? The trains I travel on aren’t full, so I get to watch this pantomime of ninnies quite frequently.

Today I’m facing in the direction of travel at a table seat, empty seat beside me and two empty seats on the opposite side of the table. A couple get on, she sits opposite me and he insists I move my bag (the train is less than 50% occupied) so he can sit beside me.

I’m considering doing some man-spreading, even though I’m not one.

As a PP said it’s safer to sit going backwards. The ‘most unsafe’ position would be a table seat facing forwards.

YABU

your bag shouldn't be on any seat, facing any direction.

Fucking move it for a person, they shouldn't have to "insist"!

As a PP said it’s safer to sit going backwards. The ‘most unsafe’ position would be a table seat facing forwards.

Safe from what daily occurrence?

Surely this is all quite simple.

If you don’t get travel sick and like to have more than one seat to yourself then travel facing backwards. It is a statistically safer way to travel, you spend much less time hunting for a seat and people don’t want to sit by you —and talk to you—.

(I also find wearing my glasses rather than my contact lenses reduces the likelihood of men deciding that they must sit by me in a half empty carriage although the aging process is fast sorting that one anyway.)

Well apart from the merits of this thread - I do get very car sick ( not mostly to the point of actually vomiting but incredibly and uncomfortable queasy in the back seat ) & yet I can do backwards train seats. I have read before about the horizon thing. Not sure about trains , but then whichever way you face you have the same size window and by and large trains are smoother. Interesting. But yes if you want a seat for your bag - book a seat for your bag.

I do remember reading something about Larry Hagman ( Dallas) many years ago - he used to book all the plane seats in his row as he didn't like someone sitting next to him ( I realise he had the money to do so)

If it were an attention seeking thing then I wouldn't be sitting quietly on a bus trying not to throw up surely? I'd be shouting loudly for everyone to hear "make way, move your bags, for I am about to spew up, look! Look at me! Me me me! Here I go! "

But no, most of us sit quietly trying to contain our nausea etc or else politely ask if we can sit in a forward facing seat. Complete fail at attention seeking behaviour.

@TonicAndTonic and @justforthisthread101 - I get travel sick on the pendolinos too - my dh (who travels a lot by train, and is an engineer) reckons that if you sit in the aisle seat, rather than the window seat, you get less of the tilting motion and will feel less queasy.

I am OK travelling backwards on a train, but have to take a travel sickness tablet if on a pendolino - other trains, not a problem at all. I will try Seabands next time though.

I get travel sick in the back of cars - but I reckon this is at least partly psychological - when I was a child, my mum used to smoke in the car, and this made me feel horrendously sick, and headache-y - which she refused to believe (because then she might have had to do without her cigarettes in the car) - and as I always travelled in the back, I learned to associate the back of the car with queasiness.

@dramallamakarma

As a PP said it’s safer to sit going backwards. The ‘most unsafe’ position would be a table seat facing forwards.

Missing the point much?!

Ah, other pendolino train haters! The first time I ever got one was the month after we started TTC, and by the time I got to Newcastle I was convinced I was pregnant and suffering morning sickness, and had a strange urge to tell everyone at the conference this. Luckily I managed to restrain myself, as I was very unpregnant! I hate them so much, and really resent it as trains are usually my only totally reliable, no chance at all of sickness form of transport.

Why didn't you just sit going backwards rather than moaning about the fact that you had to move your back and sit next to a stranger on public transport?

If they refuse to shift them, I WILL remove them myself.

I am working myself up to just pointing out to the next bag-owner just how much I weigh (a lot) and leaving it up to them to decide whether the bag remains on the seat or not.

No, nobody dies, but they can get motion sickness. I do, and when I get it I usually throw up. It's absolutely horrible.

I HATE travelling backwards.

Haven't RTFT but I always like to travel in the direction we're going otherwise it increases my travel sickness 10 fold. But... if you'd rather me sit opposite you and then vomit in your face rather than you moving your bag, sure thing

I'm not usually too sick on a regular train but that pendolino train.... God I feel so very ill on that train, i find it torturous🤐☹️😓😫

Safe from what daily occurrence?

From Edward or Percy coming off the rails. Happens pretty much daily in my house!

Seriously though, sitting going backwards is safer in the (very unlikely) event of a train crash. So, for someone like me, who doesn’t get at all travel sick, a backwards facing seat is the most sensible choice.

I am far more bothered by wearing a seatbelt in a car than travelling going backwards on a train (we always over estimate how long we can go between comfort breaks and the seatbelt then presses on my bladder) and I haven’t been in a car accident for decades but I still wear a seatbelt.

Move your bags. Seats are for bottoms not bags. Re backwards...some people get sick and in the case of my now departed gran she have head ache due to her brain tumour.

Seriously though, sitting going backwards is safer in the (very unlikely) event of a train crash.

Yes but that's extremely unlikely and therefore has almost zero relevance to those who do suffer motion sickness on trains. The point I was trying to make was that what daily 'risk' is a sufferer going to take? Being sick all day or being safer in a hypothetical crash?

Edmund

But that’s my point. If all the “I never get travel sick it is all made up” brigade were being rational then they would choose to travel facing backwards. And so wouldn’t be at all bothered by the travel-sickers wanting to face forwards. All the more backwards facing seats for them (me!)

I wouldn't say I make a fuss over this, but I get a headache and feel sick when I travel backwards. Or sideways on buses. Not sure why.

Oh DS1 would projectile vomit all over the carriage if he was forced to travel backwards on a train for more than a few minutes, it's absolutely not a made up thing. He also can't travel on the top deck of double deckers or read in the car.

Mumoftwoyoungkids

Sorry misread. You have a point, why don't all the people who insist that motion sickness is all attention seeking not just sit traveling backwards? Go one further, get a carriage just for them, with side seats for their precious bags. The bag seats would have to be labelled in some way, to make it clear though 'I am a twat and my bag needs a seat' is to the point.

I once knew someone who thought that people who got travel sick were attention seeking fakers. I threw up all over the back of his three month old Jaguar.

If I vomit all over someone who thinks it’s all snowflake nonsense, maybe that would prove the contrary.
Fellow motion sickness sufferers, try wrist band things. They help. Or, at least, they help me.

This What kind of entitled-to asshole demands a seat for their fucking BAGS?!^

Lots. But then I will often happily be That Twat who makes a beeline for your seated bag. Purposely because you've done it and irregardless of how many bloody free seats there are.

Other times I just happen to be in excruciating pain with sciatica and I couldn't give a shiny glittery shit if my choice to sit in the nearest seat affects someone's delicate constitutions. I just need to sit down asap.

I get rotten motion sickness if I go backwards for a few minutes. As a result i prefer to stand if there aren't any forwards facing seats.

Can't sit in the back either. One of the upsides of being a LP is that I'm always in the driving seat.