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?

@catblanket

To whoever quoted me and told me that England was doing lots more testing than the rest of the world, you have got to be KIDDING?

My app records all the PCRs I have had done since Covid started, and these are all administered by a nurse by the way, and I have had scores of them - at least 60. I was tested at least once a week until recently (it's reduced since our vaccination rates got into the 90s).

I have also been to Greece and France this summer, and they are also making tests easily available to everyone. Why does everyone in England think that they are just getting more tests done than other countries? The tests in England are pretty crap anyway, being self administered. I have friends and family in England who have never even been tested! Baffling.

Furthermore, to get away with not wearing a mask where I live, you'd have to actually have a certificate signed by a doctor and attested. I honestly don't think I've seen anyone not wearing one.

The UK vaccination rates are relatively low now - it's at around 67% which is way lower than most other western countries (and many of those were administered more than 6 months ago, so immunity is waning). So the UK can NOT afford to relax measures.

This thread has made me realise that there are thankfully some sensible and community-minded people left in England, but my god some of the replies have me utterly exasperated at the levels of denial about what a total shit-show it is in England.

Surely, unless you're in a job that requires it, most people only get tested if they suspect they might have covid, or if they need the test for something like traveling. I wouldn't think it was that unusual or strange for someone never to have been tested. I've only been tested once and that was because I had symptoms and it turned out that I did have covid. (I'm not in the UK, btw.)

Aren’t we supposed to social distance on trains now? So it’s rude to ask a stranger to move their bag so you can sit right next to them? Masks or not, if either of you had covid it’s likely you’d catch it from each other if sitting hip to hip.

Why not wait for a less busy train? Or stand and give people space?

Agree people should be wearing masks, but they’re not a foolproof way of avoiding covid and other viruses. Social distancing and good ventilation is more effective, especially as people tend to take masks off to eat/drink/blow their noses/talk on the phone.

@5128gap

Where I commute, large city, not London, few people where masks. However, an etiquette has developed around seats, with it being accepted that you generally do not sit right next to anyone else. Occasionally on very busy trains people may do, but they always ask the existing occupant of the double seat if its OK. Knowing this, people do use the seat next to them for their bag. Pre covid bags on seats used to infuriate me, but its expected now on my train.

I got the train to London last week, returning the next day. Not many mask wearers on the way down, even fewer on return and that was a much busier train.

I booked my seat both ways and wore a mask - I could only get a table of 4 on return (sitting by the window) as all the 2 seats had gone - and then was obliged to sit, the only masked person of the 4, with 3 people, two of whom were in their late 60s or early 70s so should have known better, in my opinion.

On the tube, mask wearing was around 75-80* (despite it being compulsory) and the transgressors I saw were all under 40s.

@FateHasRedesignedMost

Aren’t we supposed to social distance on trains now? So it’s rude to ask a stranger to move their bag so you can sit right next to them? Masks or not, if either of you had covid it’s likely you’d catch it from each other if sitting hip to hip.

Why not wait for a less busy train? Or stand and give people space?

Agree people should be wearing masks, but they’re not a foolproof way of avoiding covid and other viruses. Social distancing and good ventilation is more effective, especially as people tend to take masks off to eat/drink/blow their noses/talk on the phone.

It's not possible on my rush hour commuter train into London to not have someone sitting next to you, and/or standing near you. Many people are back working in the office and doing their normal hours.

It’s fantasy land to believe that you can socially distance on the underground. I was in London a couple of weekends ago and the tube was packed, standing and sitting, and mask wearing, at best, was roughly 50-60%.

I’m not saying it particularly bothered me, just an observation.