Eating on Trains

[likepebblesonabeach]

I travel on the train daily to work, 30 mins each way. I've just came back from a 3 hour train journey and was shocked that a family of 4 got on with fish and chips. The whole carriage was stinking of fish and chips and the majority of passengers were on the train the whole journey so had to put up with this for 3 hours.
AIBU that if you travel on public transport you should be aware of those around you?

I think its inconsiderate....if I'm on a long train journey I take a cold packed lunch. Simples. But if someone is eating hot food the smell does make me hungrier 😂😂

Train and plane, 2 different types of the same thing - transport.
Why is it acceptable to eat hot food on one but not the other?
YABU.

I occasionally get a train at 05:30, spend the day in meetings with a sandwich for lunch then get a train at 18:30 that gets back to my local station at 23:30.

I need to eat on the train. There is a nice Indian takeaway near Wigan North West station and I like to get a meal when changing trains there.

Only reason it’d upset me is that I would be really jealous. The last train I got on (last week) someone changed their babies nappy on the seat at the side of me (aisle). Give me fish and chips soaked in salt and vinegar any day.

My partner had only been living in the uk a year and is from a completely different culture. When we first met we lived 70 miles apart and at the time neither of us could drive.
My best friend and 3 other friends (6 seater car) came to spend the day where he lived and pick us both up and bring us back to the town I lived in.

I was showing my friends round his house and garden whilst he got his things together then we all got going, I was sat next to DP and thought I got a whiff of egg but it was summer and windows were open so it was faint.

As we continued our journey he suddenly pulled 3 (still warm) soft boiled eggs in a lunch bag out of his back pack and a spoon and prepared to start eating them. We were all completely horrified!

My friend threatened if he cracked that egg she’d crack his head and insisted he get out of the car and bin them, we didn’t even let him eat them outside case the smell clung to him in the small space of the car.

It wouldn’t have been so bad but we were literally on our way to a restaurant to eat something! He just believed you had to eat something when you had just woke up to start your day and wanted to use up the eggs.

13 years in the UK and he now realises his behaviour was outrageous and would never consider having eggs upon his person in a small space now, he’d probably find such behaviour as appalling as everyone else.

I agree with random man on train that it is barbaric behaviour and warrants some sort of punishment or shunning. I also believe this should apply to people who eat egg sandwiches in small places, microwave fish at work or crunch crisps loudly next to your ear. Extra punishment should be given to bag rustlers, finger lickers, lip smackers and those who tip the crisp dust from the corner of the bag into their mouths.

I actually feel quite queasy remembering some of the encounters I’ve had with foul creatures on public transport, the memory of a man crunching chocolate covered crickets in another country has caused me to retch.

The only thing I would feel if someone was eating fish and chips on the train would be jealous (and probably hungry) ! But this is mumsnet where everyone has an adversity to any kind of smell and gags at the slightest wiff !

It's public transport not your own home. People are SO rude nowadays.

This wouldn't bother me. Perfume smells worse, and nail varnish when people decide to paint their nails!

I think trains are fine for hot food. The buffet car serves bacon sandwiches, cheese toasties and coffee - all these can smell.

Fabric conditioner smells are the worst, makes me feel queasy if someone sits near me on public transport and reeks of Lenor 🤢

You can buy a lot of hot food at stations, our local one has a bakery and noodle bar on the platform. So because of that I deem it acceptable. If someone is eating something I don’t like the smell of I consider that to be my problem.

I think eating is fine but people need to be mindful of strong smells and common allergens.

Taxi or better yet get over it?! Nothing wrong with eating on the train.

But the absolute worst is pungent BO!

YABU. Especially since kids are involved and a 3 hr journey.

Had a 3 hour train journey over teatime and into the night where I'd definitely have taken a Maccies/KFC/Burger King etc on with me had there been one local

Train journeys can be long and over meals times. People gotta eat

I agree. I'd be so embarrassed eating f and c but a quick sandwich at your own table/seat - fine (I wouldn't if I had a stranger right next to me or opposite though)

So the inconsiderate person gets to carry on being inconsiderate, while those affected by their lack of consideration are the ones expected to alter their behaviour?

O-kayyy, then.

Loads of airports have McDonalds. There was an article recently about how Dalaman Airport is the most expensive place to buy McDonalds

@SunriseSunsets aren’t you a charmer, why should she pay for a taxi over that distance because people are selfish and inconsiderate.

I’m sick of idiots who think they have the right to impact other people’s lives with their noise/smells/behaviour. I’m not some nutter who expects total silence etc (someone will be along to say that MN is full of them) but there used to be accepted standards of how you behaved in public and they seem to have gone right out of the window lately.

They sell hot food on trains, so I don't really see how it can be considered bad etiquette, although I wouldn't take fish and chips, I would a burger or a bacon roll

I love this!

If kids really can't go 3 hours without eating smelly food, then their parents have been modelling some pretty crappy eating norms.

Last time I was on a train the woman next to me ate a huge fish curry 🥴🤢 I put a polo in a tissue and sniffed it like a nosegay! Not content with an assault on the nostrils she watched a film on her iPad at full volume.

The bloke opposite called him a barbarian.

That has to be the pinnacle of entitled behaviour, surely.