To think you can't ban food on trains?

[poshme]

In today's times (sorry rubbish at links) there's an article saying the outgoing chief medical officer wants to ban food on trains unless for medical reasons.
AIBU to think this is completely stupid & unworkable?
Apparently it's because we're snacking too much & too many children are obese.

I regularly catch trains with my kids- usually a 3-4 hr journey. Invariably it's a meal time, and part of passing the time is eating a packed meal. Yes- it's not the healthiest meal in the world & includes crisps & chocolate, but as part of a normal diet it's fine.

My kids are not overweight. In fact they're generally underweight.

If this is implemented they're never be able to enforce it surely?

@poshme why do you have to do a 4 hour journey with your children every day?

Have you ever considered a local school?

Eat before you get the train, at the station if needed.

You missed the point OP. There was no suggestion of banning food on long distance public transport. Only local.
Food and drink is banned on local public transport in plenty of other countries with no problems whatsoever. It means that the transport is clean and free of food smells. Comfortable for everyone.

Yu can if you are involved in building a more repressive nanny state!

Sugar tax instead of food standards regulations
Alcohol tax instead of education or enforcing existing laws
Highest number of CCTV cameras in Europe, half a million in London alone and falling crime detection rates
Arresting people for having thoughts

Lifestyle regulation is the new thing! And so many actively lobby for it, to save us from ourselves, cos we are obvuiously too stupid to do it for ourselves. There is something almost inevitable about liberal societies becoming the most Draconian., because they care...

There's really no such thing as a "local" train - leaving aside those trains that, for instance, leave London "next stop York", most trains carry both local and long distance passengers.

It's a very London centric view to assume that trains/buses are either local or long distance.

so you start a complex commute very early & pickup or carry coffee & sandwich or whatever as breakfast - well that's going to screw up all those little coffee eateries on the station! imagine people with diabetes, people who get a little travel sick. drinks in hot weather etc Our "local" bus, for instance, takes over an hour to get to nearby town (where students for college, unis, workplaces etc are) Yup! great idea! not.

I read it on BBC and can't believe it!
For many I know the train is the only time the can sit down in peace and eat something.

I am fat, but it's not the fault of takeaways or commuters eating! It's my own lack of movement, lazyness and bloody denial bigger than MT Everest which got me here. Not people eating in public🙄

There some good points in that proposal though like free water refills.

Looking at the report itself, it refers to "urban public transport" - i.e. transport within towns.

It does also suggest excluding water and people who need to eat for medical conditions.

Oh yes please!

Fed up with people crunching, chomping and slurping all sorts of stinky food on the trains.

Something radical needs to happen but some of the ideas are bonkers. Car free weekends to increase activity. Excellent, I’ll tell my daughter we can no longer go to swimming and ballet because I can’t drive at the weekend or we can’t drive to the local national trust place for our long walk. I don’t think they really thought through that one. The impact on the economy of car free weekends would also be pretty dire in many areas.

These people have never worked a 12 hour shift with a 1hr LOCAL bus commute each end... EVER.

Breakfast bar, orange juice and apple on the one hour bus trip bus, walk 30 min, work 6 hours, lunch in the canteen, work 6 hours, walk 30 min, sandwich and banana on 1hr bus home, shower, sleep - repeat...

AmIThough
"Eat before you get the train, at the station if needed."

I don't like to eat standing up and often there then aren't any bins for any rubbish.

I was travelling two weekends ago. Took my Grandchildren to see Blackpool Lights. Every train was cancelled coming home. They ran one around every three hours. We had to come home via different routes that would count as local.

This ban would apply to trains and buses. If you get public transport, you're already doing a bit more fat burning that a lot of car users.

How do you define local? Lots of connections are just local trains. Outside of London etc our transport systems aren't as well organised and split.

There have been signs on my local buses banning eating food for years and plenty of people ignore that. I think it would be unenforceable.

Is there a reason why the person who wants this to be introduced is the outgoing Chief Medical Officer? Why do newspapers bother to report one person's opinion when there is no chance of it being introduced?

I don't do it every day!

But when i catch a train with my kids, it is a 'local' train - within the conurbation stopping everywhere... and then it goes further as a longer distance train. At what point does the rule start & stop?

Car free day is ok. Whole weekend might be too much. Paris regularly holds car free day and city hasn't collapsed. If it's properly organised and announced well in advance it can be a good thing. Air quality in cities is abysmal in general so any little helps.

Suggesting people are more conscientious about the food they choose to eat = fine.

Stopping people eating altogether = nonsense

And saying 'eat at the station before you get the train' is just silly. Why will I eat healthier food because I'm at the station rather than on the train?

Educating people, there cant be many people who dont know that, a vast amount of fast food,sugar in food,snacks,or drink,alcohol,smoking,not excersising is bad for you.

It works in Japan in that on long train journeys it is socially acceptable to eat, but never on a commuter train so far as I saw. No eating on the street bar an iced lolly but tons of cafes and restaurants, all full with people eating. Lots of walking and few cars. Rarely saw an overweight person, but then when I asked someone who knew Japan very well indeed, they said the cultural disapproval of fatness is immense - seen as a lack of self-discipline.

All of this is the context of a society that places a higher value on conformity. It makes for blissful public transport: no-one speaks on the phone, it's the height of rudeness; backpacks are taken off and put at your feet so you don't bash others; when strap hanging you face the person sitting, so as not to put your arse in their face.

Could it work in the UK? Certainly as a baby boomer I was brought up not to eat in public/walking down the street, but times have changed.
However as a principle, if the Japanese can do it, so can westerners.

If you read what she said instead of just the headline, she is talking about local public transport journeys, so I assume less than an hour. She is also talking about snacks, not meals.

No idea how You would enforce it though.

I actually agree with her. Also about kids only being allowed milk or water in schools

Yesterday I had to stand to go stand on a different part of the tube carriage the person sitting down next to me brought out their stinky take away making me nauseated. Not to mention the litter on carriages, buses. Other countries all manage, I am always impressed by how clean public transport can be if food is banned. On long distance travel its necessary, getting across town its not.

They did say local but I don't know how you would define that. 'Local' journeys here (it's rural' are easily an hour long and lots of people eat their breakfast on the train on the way to work to start 8am shifts.

I tihnk on long train journeys it would be a bad idea. often if you are really busy with work you will have a meeting hving got up at 6a,m to get the train there and the only chance to eat is on the train (your lunch) andn then you are back in work by 2pm. It doesn ot mean you are eating too much,. I certainly would support only tap water being available on trains though and only good foods - no chocolate, colas, crisps.

*@Chouetted"

"There's really no such thing as a "local" train - leaving aside those trains that, for instance, leave London "next stop York", most trains carry both local and long distance passengers."
Cross city trains? Local train services depend on where the train travels to and from.

It’s such a stupid idea (not her first) it’s barely worth commenting on. Exemption for medical reasons? So anyone who gets ‘caught’ snacking now has diabetes. Unworkable.