To expect to sit on an empty train seat?

[NellieTheElephant1]

Travelling on a busy train to London, lady wearing a mask sitting on a window seat with her bags next to her on the aisle seat. No other seats available nearby. Asked her politely 'excuse me please' indicating that I wanted to sit there. She mumbled 'sorry no I need to distance'. Surely if you're that worried about Covid don't travel on public transport at busy times?

Not as selfish as wanting to sit down next to a mask-wearing vulnerable person in a pandemic and force them to possibly breathe in airborne virus particles and droplets.

I am a mask wearing vulnerable person but having an empty seat next to me wouldn't really help on a crowded train. There are still people nearby )in front and behind, and standing up). Also, as someone who finds it difficult to stand up for more than 5 or 10 minutes I'm very aware that other people could be in the same position so I wouldn't dream of making people stand.

You paid for it, you sit in it.

If she's uncomfortable she'll have to stand or book two seats in future.

Get the guard.

How mature. I've met people like you and think they are just arsey, especially if other seats are free.

No you pay for the journey not the seat.

RTFT - it's a point that's been made many times.

If you want YOUR seat you reserve it.

@NellieTheElephant1 If a seat was that important why didn't you reserve one or pay for 1st class? Or just walk down the carriages to find another seat?

There was someone on my old commuter train who used to practically set himself up an office across two seats. He’d sit in the window seat, laptop on his table, bags in the aisle seat, coffee and notepad and newspaper on the aisle table, suit jacket hung off the aisle seat headrest.

Was fun watching him huffily pack it all up again because somebody else didn’t think he was as important as he was 😀

Had the woman reserved it? No. Nor had her bags.

I’d think many people who are legally disabled - I’m one - don’t qualify for a disabled persons railcard. I don’t qualify. I looked into it.

I really hope you end up next to me one day...might teach you a little lesson about empathy and understanding why some people might have very good reasons not to want someone next to them if they can help it.

People aren't mind readers, and given that most travellers who put bags on seats do so because they don't want someone sitting next to them, it isn't unreasonable for people to assume you are just being unsociable.

Can you take anything to combat travel sickness before you travel?

I’m not saying it’s OTT. I’m saying that, whatever your personal views (or mine), you do not have the power to deal with this risk by controlling what other people do. The law won’t do it for you, huffing and calling people selfish won’t achieve it, and muttering darkly about the conspiracy theories you think explain the UK vs ‘Europe’ won’t make a difference either.

The person you can control is you. The behaviour you can control is your own. It is best to find a way to accept this and move on.

How busy the train is/will be is the key part for me. If it’s rush hour and guaranteed to be full at some point in your journey then you’ve zero right to be aggrieved at someone expecting that seat next to you, and it’s already annoying that you’re forcing them to ask.

How selfish

I would (and have done) sat on her bags.

It's a train. It's busy.

That wouldn't have worked for me when I had no alternative other than to travel by public transport to my radiotherapy appointments at very specific times. I can't stand for more than 5 minutes and was told to avoid anyone who was unvaccinated or infected with Covid. My husband was in hospital so couldn't take me and there was no hospital transport available for the first 9 days.

What the OP hasn't told us is the key data of just how full the train was. Was it the very last available seat so she can was being asked to stand for an hour? Or was she being asked to walk a bit further down the carriage and ask someone else to move their bag?

If other double seats are free, I choose those. If there are few seats free (almost always the case) I choose one with a bag on it over an empty one next to someone who isn’t seeking to ‘bagsie’ 2 seats for the price of one.

I too get travel nausea, pixie5121: it doesn’t entitle either of usto 2 seats for the price of one on a full train. If I thought I was actually going to be sick (happened a few times during pregnancies) I’d say so

Or actually, anything!
A drop and run poster

If she did have Covid, would you want to sit on the seat next to her??

@pixie5121 Motion sickness, vomit bags… exactly how it’s done by airlines , where you can’t take up an unpaid for seat! You’re an entitled, selfish person if you’d still take up an unpaid for seat in a crowded train.

OP said no seats available nearby. Some trains are 9 carriages long. It's not unreasonable to ask someone to move their bags rather then walk though the train.

*motion sickness tablets

@PortiaFimbriata You can’t risk walking through the length and breadth of a busy train looking for seats. Others would have gotten there before you.