Travelled by train last week for the first time in years - really wish I hadn't

[coffeerevelsrock]

What a depressing eye-opener. I wanted to do the right thing and use the car less and also going to a few different parts of London is obviously easier by public transport.

I was taken aback by the lack of mask wearing on the trains. Despite posters everywhere saying please wear them, pretty much all staff wearing them and announcements encouraging their use, only a handful of people in packed trains had them on. Even on the tubes it was a minority who had them on. Last time I went in the summer (travelled by car that time but used tfl once there) it was compulsory and almost 100% take up. Now that seems to have fizzled out.

Then, on the way home, the train was cancelled and our connection was packed as three earlier trains had also been cancelled. On the packed train, I asked someone to move a bag off a seat so ds or I could sit down and the woman glared and huffed and puffed before doing so. Just so rude. In the seat across the aisle I then had to ask a young lad to move over so one of us could use the empty seat he was next to. He did without the rudeness but tbh I don't know why he didn't just move anyway - he could see how packed t was. Then a woman opposite had bags on the seat, headphones in and was looking fixedly at her book. She blatantly ignored me when I asked her to move for my other ds/someone else. WTF? You're sitting on a packed train with a bag on the seat and you pretend not to notice people are going to have to stand for 40 mins + so your bag can have a seat or so you don't have to sit next to someone??

The whole experience made me think people in this country are fucking selfish. This was on a Sunday evening - god knows what it's like commuting.

Is it always this bad and why do we have such an issue with masks here?

@ShirleyPhallus

All these stories and threads of people being selfish arseholes boils down to one thing:

The general public are awful, selfish arseholes

This is the answer to many many different threads

^this

I would just sit on the bag.

Wait until all the selfish twats get us locked down for Xmas. Ironically it will be these selfish, ignorant twats that moan the loudest

@ShirleyPhallus

All these stories and threads of people being selfish arseholes boils down to one thing:

The general public are awful, selfish arseholes

This is the answer to many many different threads

This. The main reason I use my car all the time and will not use public transport unless I have to. People are jerks and generally disgusting, so not going near them. And public transport in my area is a joke, it may as well not exist for all the use it is.

I don't commute by train but on recent leisure journeys everyone seems to be drunk and not wearing masks.

Actually that's a pretty accurate description of the UK generally. It's not a nice place to be.

YANBU some people are selfish arseholes.

On a train home from London several years ago, a woman had shoved his suitcase on the seat next to her and was doing a fantastic job of ignoring everyone attempting to politely ask her to move it.

It was a massively over crowded carriage due to earlier cancellation and it was Christmas so busy.

A ticket warden was called over by an unhappy passenger; they basically had to punch the woman (very hard nudge) to finally break her attention from her phone/ear plugs. Woman acted like she’d been assaulted and refused to move her suitcase as there was nowhere else to put it and she didn’t want to have to stand in the interlink of carriages with it.

The ticket officer told her the only way it was staying on that seat was if she bought it a ticket for almost £200. Naturally she declined this option. ‘In that case your suitcase hasn’t paid for a seat and has to give it up to one of these other passengers who has!’

I had noticed a couple of years ago the bags with a seat. It was more normal when I were a lass that people would move any bags in anticipation now it feels you have to make a real point about it.

@PandoraP

I would say 75% of people still wear masks on the tube.

They really don't! I've been up to London approx 4 times in past fortnight and about 10-15% wear masks on the tube. Mask wearing is a bit higher on overground trains into London.

I have to say, mostly older people I see wearing masks. Younger people really don't seem to bother, unless from Far East.

I only see about 1/3 to 1/2 of people wearing masks on the Tube and you are in a minority wearing a face mask in the station now.

I'm on the Tube twice a week and would say on the lines I take (Bakerloo and Victoria) that mask wearing is now under 50%. There is no enforcement, despite the fact that its allegedly still compulsory. Train is mixed but not as crowded. I've sometimes been the only person in my carriage, although less so now.

I have started to see this on buses too (I don't drive and so have a pretty good barometer in my area). Mask wearing mainly limited to older passengers and ventilation mostly closed.

But perhaps I am really jaded because me and DC sat here very poorly with Covid.

I was quite interested to see this film of the metro in Paris twitter.com/AlexTaylorNews/status/1450919681112657937?s=20

I was in London yesterday for the first time in over a year - I was quite pleasantly surprised by how many were wearing masks on the tube, I would say around 60-70%? That wasn't in rush hour, though.

My train home was cancelled due to points failure - plus ca change!

That's a lot of empty seats for a "rammed" train.

I sit on a train for 3 hours every day. I don't wear a face covering because after a few minutes I find them suffocating and frankly, if I'm stuck in a poorly ventilated box with people for an hour and a half it's likely that face coverings will make 0 difference.

@LampLighter414

It seems odd that you spotted such an amount of seat-hogging in a small area of the train, which makes me think it was not as 'packed' as you think. Were the aisles full of standing people? Could you move easily between carriages? Did you check the whole carriage for empty double seats or check another carriage?

I think the general social expectation on commuter trains is that you have to ask rather than the bag being moved by the owner or a person shifting from aisle to window seat. Why? I'm not sure, but that just seems to be the etiquette.

In my experience on truly 'packed' commuter trains where all floor space is occupied by standing people, you do get the she-baggers and man-spreaders who risk it, but will move when asked with no fuss - I suppose they just hope nobody will ask, but won't cause a fuss if they do. It is also not uncommon to ask someone sitting in an aisle seat if the window seat is free - usually they just have a preference to be in aisle seat and will happily move to let you sit.

OP’s post reminded me of the 2 travellers story. “ A man who was traveling came upon a farmer working in his field and asked him what the people in the next village were like. The farmer asked "What were the people like in the last village you visited?" The man responded "They were kind, friendly, generous, great people." "You'll find the people in the next village are the same," said the farmer. Another man who was traveling to the same village came up to the same farmer somewhat later and asked him what the people in the next village were like. Again the farmer asked "What were the people like in the last village you visited?" The second man responded, "They were rude, unfriendly, dishonest people." "You'll find the people in the next village are the same," said the farmer.”

More kindly op you were nervous about travelling and noticed things you wouldn’t have normally because you were tense and hyper alert. If you’d been more relaxed you’d also have got a friendlier reaction from other travellers.

@IggysPop

I have started to see this on buses too (I don't drive and so have a pretty good barometer in my area). Mask wearing mainly limited to older passengers and ventilation mostly closed.

But perhaps I am really jaded because me and DC sat here very poorly with Covid.

This too. Sometimes I get the bus as it's quicker, easier and saves worrying about parking in the high street. Windows generally are open and some people do wear masks but the vast majority don't.

I had my car in for repairs the other day but wanted to go to a nearby town for shopping/meet a friend. Again, same people not wearing masks and younger people definitely in the minority.

This is standard bad behaviour on trains so it seems like the shitty behaviour is returning to London. You often have to shout to people to remove bags from seats / give up seats to disabled people or heavily pregnant women / behave like decent human beings. It is most often British non-Londoners who act like this too.

@Santastuckincustoms

I sit on a train for 3 hours every day. I don't wear a face covering because after a few minutes I find them suffocating and frankly, if I'm stuck in a poorly ventilated box with people for an hour and a half it's likely that face coverings will make 0 difference.

Face coverings protect others from your snot. They are not designed to protect you, so you should stop being selfish and wear one.

It is most often British non-Londoners who act like this too.

How do you know if they are British or if they are Londoners or not?

The same non mask wearing people who get on the bus with me are the same ones who then proceed to cough and splutter all over the place.

And the same people that will moan if we lockdown again.

We aren’t in london but when I get the tram the majority of people are very polite and friendly. Around half still wear masks I would say and they aren’t compulsory any more. You had a bad experience and perhaps it’s a london thing as people get the tube/train daily snd get desensitised but I wouldn’t say every person in the UK is selfish and unpleasant. Twice recently there have been incidents on the tram (a woman fell ill and a disabled man was struggling) and everyone jumped in to help. It was heartwarming and reassuring that most people out there are good.

Whilst some of the public can indeed be selfish assholes as has been said, many of them are just thoughtless or, like some family I know they don't follow the news, so they just see what others are doing and follow. The government has been remiss in not retaining mask-wearing rules in shops and transport. They are putting their "libertarian" politics ahead of public health and the NHS. It smacks of Trumpism.

Face coverings don't protect others if you're sat with them for 3 hours, unless it's a proper mask designed to shut out covid particles. Thankfully my trains are pretty sparse anyway, so I am not going to sit feeling sick with a mask on (because that's how they make me feel) for hours so someone 10 seats away might not get covid when I do twice weekly tests for work, they themselves are not wearing a mask, and presumably feel comfortable enough to go on public transport too.

Mask wearing should be mandatory as in other countries around the world who have handled Covid so much better with Lowe death rates. Mandatory with on the spot fines.