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?

@TurnUpTurnip

I get on public transport daily and rarely see anyone wearing masks anymore but I don’t care as I don’t wear one either, no one is enforcing it so people don’t care.

And that attitude is why we are seeing 50,000 new cases a day and 1000 deaths per week.

I’m exempt actually do I don’t need to wear one but I’m glad no one else is bothering because I was sick of getting abuse for not wearing one, now no one is!

I can't wear a mask (it triggers massive sensory overload and panic attacks in me and I'm waiting for an Autism diagnosis as well). I used to commute into uni by train but I can no longer do so because of fear of the judgemental shaming. It would take one person to have a go at me and I'd be wrecked for weeks in terms of confidence.

I now drive in, having obtained a car permit on mental health grounds.

Bags on seats is very rude in normal times. But I understand people’s reluctance to have a stranger next to them when we’re meant to be distancing!

Rather patronising @Etinoxaurus!!

OP, I travel into London for a pretty lengthy commute (with awful SWR!) and have done quite a few trips recently. Like you, I’ve seen far fewer people wearing masks, and it’s worse in evenings. Staff don’t either, and I’m not impressed when the guard insists on leaning in close to check my ticket. Although I have a mask, they don’t- and it’s not good for them, or me. And this is despite higher disease levels in our areas. London and TfL seem to have considerably higher mask wearing and it’s reassuring. Unlike SWR!

@Butterflyfern

When I was on the tube 2 weeks ago, nearly everyone was in a mask. The rrain to London was a different matter, but it was pretty quiet and I'm not too bothered tbh.

Same here, almost 100% compliance on tube, fewer on the train going into London (which did bother me) - fairly decent compliance on the train coming out (maybe because a lot of people had come off the Tube so just left their masks on).

The having bags on seats thing has always been a thing and the subject of many a debate on MN! Along with playing loud music or having loud conversations in the quiet carriages...

There's an unspoken etiquette on my commuter train that you don't sit next to anyone, for social distancing purposes. If it's a table of four, you can have two sitting diagonally opposite. So I'm afraid to me it sounds like you were the one committing the faux pas in that case.

I fully agree about the masks, but if you're sensible about masks you should also be sensible about distancing!

@TurnUpTurnip

I get on public transport daily and rarely see anyone wearing masks anymore but I don’t care as I don’t wear one either, no one is enforcing it so people don’t care.

You don't care about people dying or lockdowns? Wow.

"This was on a Sunday evening ...."

And there's something worth looking at more closely.

You will get lots of cancellations (if there are any trains in the first place, and not replacement bus services) on a Sunday evening. A lot of people will want to travel at the end of the weekend to do what they do for Monday onwards. They're still quite cheap for advanced fares, so they will have been bought, most likely with the expectation of having a booked seat, but turns out it was on another train that's been cancelled or even in a carriage that's inexplicably missing among the ones provided. Aside from this, you will also get a few cases of people boarding without tickets and being belligerent or loud if they are caught. These little ways are not exceptions, but really regular.

I had to travel on many Sunday evenings where a train would go so far and then terminate earlier than normal, connecting with a replacement bus service around 9pm. One week, a fair number of cyclists had taken that train out of London after a cycling event. Replacement bus's hold was nowhere near large enough to take more than 2 bikes as well as luggage, and the driver refused to take the rest of the cyclists, therefore giving them the single option of being stranded at 9 on a Sunday in Hinterlandsville. If you commute, you usually have other options coming along quite regularly. I would recommend giving Sunday (and Friday) nights a wide berth if you're easily ruffled.

OP, I say fuck the environment and all of this progressive shit, there's nothing makes you feel as low class as using smelly, dirty public transport where people flick snot everywhere and act like thugs. And buses (urgh!) are like a council estate on wheels. Doesn't everyone small of wee wee and financial depression? Long live the car and our heavily condensed roads with all of their delicious particulates!

On a serious note, public transport only upsets me when men (it is always men) are visibly drunk and in large groups making everyone else uncomfortable. Most of these issues could be fixed with intervention and better management by the companies and gov. I now avoid them sadly, thanks to this.

As for your upset regarding masks, I agree with you, although in any communal space there will be others we disagree with to the point of embolism, but we have to simply accept that.

I used to love public transport, we do need more and more of it, but much better than it is now, and more safe/comfortable for women.

But this is exactly the selfish childish attitude people are talking about. They aren't wearing masks so why should I? What a selfish attitude. No wonder cases are rising so quickly.

Cases are rising quickly because it’s an infectious virus, and a society that was closed in January is now fully open. It’s not a difficult concept.

You can find my attitude ‘selfish’ all you like, but realistically, if the very people who should be enforcing the rules aren’t even following then themselves, what’s the point? Let’s say I make two train journeys in a day. How many do you think a ticket inspector makes? And how many people do you think they’re in contact with in that time? fact If he or she isn’t

Me too but I really enjoyed it! Met some fab people and was easy.

Me wearing a mask on those two journeys is going to make zero difference if someone who is paid to follow the rules ignores them on their eight daily journeys.

I'd assume people were using their bags to try to create some social distancing. I wouldn't be mad at them about that.

I don’t recognise the barely anyone wearing masks on the tube thing. I live in London and have been in and out of town all week in the tube and reckon about 2/3rds of people wear a mask. Those that don’t seem pretty young. I wonder if it depends on the line?

I rarely take the train but have friends who are back into the daily swing of commuting into central London

Your description sounds typical

If I had to take the tube I would definitely wear a face mask!

Covid or not, the tube is just a germ-fest!

Not defending it, but seat hogging with bags is probably worse than before because people don’t want potentially infectious people to them.

Unfortunately people seem to have stopped with masks entirely. I don’t remember the last time I saw someone else in a shop wearing a mask.

*next to them

@SkippettyDoDah

It's shit. Masks should have been left compulsory as in the rest of the UK. If you ever needed evidence that the general public actually cannot be trusted to make safe decisions, it's the number of maskless idiots in public transport.

This is why I'm not going on Public Transport again if I can help it. Is it really so bloody hard to wear a mask?

Having been on trains and tubes a month or so ago, Vs now, there's been a marked decrease in the number of people wearing masks. It's like as more people stop wearing them the social pressure disappears and before very long at all almost no-one is wearing them. It's the same in shops, despite no actual changes to rules between August and now. And yes, you're spot on, we are a nation of selfish twats. There's no civic responsibility at all, nothing like that seem in other countries. And we're led by very bad role models, are government are the most selfish citizens of all. That's the route of lots of our problems, it's not just Covid related.

Why is everyone banging on about masks like they are some kind of magic force field.
They do very very little

Why is everyone banging on about masks like they are some kind of magic force field. They do very very little

Well many scientific studies disagree with you...

www.factcheck.org/2021/08/scicheck-misinformation-about-face-masks/

The fact of it is that face masks do lower transmission rates, especially when used in conjunction with other non-lockdown measures like social distancing, hand washing/good hygiene, and good ventilation.

I went on the Tube last week for the first time since before first lockdown, and I was shocked at the lack of masks. DH and I were wearing proper CE-marked ones which do block off 95% of particles if fitted right and are actually quite easy to breathe through.

We're fully vaxxed but have very vulnerable parents, and I work in a hospital so we are doubly careful. I really don't understand how people can say that they'd not put a mask on even if asked to on a crowded train, like Javid did...

@watchingyoutwosleezes I understand that's still more than 10% of total critical care beds though?

Sunday evenings are often busy going north south to London either way. If someone pretends not to hear me about the bag on the seat I pick it up and smile (poker face) and sit down. Usually by the time I've sat down the bag owner has suddenly sprung to life apologising or gives me a dirty look and grumbling whilst taking the bag. Sadly you need to become very assertive these days on trains. The trains being cancelled annoys me so much especially considering how much a ticket costs. This government are doing nowt to encourage people out of cars