Quieter coach on train, shouldn’t it be quiet?

[Seymour5]

Fairly lengthy train journeys recently, we booked the quieter coach well in advance, because we like to read or quietly look at the scenery. On the outward journey there was a man holding various face time conversations quite loudly. The woman sitting in her booked seat next to him was getting really fed up, and eventually moved. The younger guy behind us kept playing bits of music on his phone.

Coming home, the first part of the journey was bliss. We changed trains, and the two passengers behind never stopped yakking loudly. Why would anyone book a seat in a quiet coach only to be noisy? No staff around once the tickets were checked, and we are older and don’t wish to risk a confrontation. Twenty years ago my younger and healthier DH might have said something, but not now.

Such selfish behaviour.

I never book the quiet coach because I know the inevitable noise will just irritate me even more because it's supposed to be quiet. Instead I splashed out on expensive noise cancelling headphones. Worth every penny.

To those people who wear good noise-cancelling headphones, do you not get nervous about missing your stop? I get so anxious on trains if I can't hear the announcements!

No, I have the app so I can easily see what time we’re due in and just keep an eye out before that time to see which stations we’re at.

What part is selfish?

It’s the QUIET carriage, not the SILENT carriage.

I hate that so many are perfectly ok about behaving like this on trains, on buses, on the street, park benches. No one else wants to listen to the footie match you are watching on your screen, no one else is interested in your work call about Sandra who cant make it in today. And absolutely nobody wants to listen to your precious darling play a computer game or watch peppa pig. Get thee some headphones and shut up!

<rant over>

YADNBU op but sadly common courtesy isnt something as widely understood as it should be.

But some of us want peace when we travel. That's not selfish. But why could you have gone into another carriage if your child wants to play?

The best answer in my opinion would be to replace the quiet coach with one with compartments. Reduce the chance of noise in your seat by at least two thirds.

This is one of my pet peeves. It's not just that people make noise but the noise is so obnoxious. Loud shouty conversation, phone calls on speaker. It's very inconsiderate.

A member of our family is autistic and noise sensitive, we always book the quiet carriage to try get some peace of mind that it won't be too noisy.

I have the same problems. And sometimes find that the other carriages are quieter.

I've done this before and my friend and I were mortified when we were confronted at the end of someone's journey- we had not noticed that we were in the quiet coach and spent the whole time chatting! Still feel bad about it sometimes 😳 I aM now ultra careful to check

Thank you @Babyenroute THat's very thoughtful. A lot of passengers are not so thoughtful (commuters from Paddington to Reading at rush-hour on the train to Cornwall, I'm looking at you)

I booked a table seat in the quiet coach, 2 blokes same table took and made work calls for 3 hours. I didn't moan because you do not know what people are like, they could have just told me to fuck off and carried on.

Now I book miles ahead in the quiet first class coach, a single seat. Much nicer, similar price.