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?

Why though? I really don’t understand the issue. And ‘almost touching’? Eh?

Lol these threads always go the same way, I can just picture it now, someone 'sobbing and shaking ' because someone ate a cheesy Dorito 3 carriages down and they couldn't bear it.

Okay so you got 100s of different passengers on public transport - so who gets to decide what is considered considerate or inconsiderate? As I said, if it bothers someone so much then the other alternative is to use your own transport. You can't dictate what others can or can't do on public transport.

Dictate, no. Hold an opinion, yes.

If people were more public-spirited instead of espousing the cult of the individual, there would be fewer conversations like this, though. Because, as this thread demonstrates, there are some foods that are more or less universally deemed as too antisocial to eat on a train, so if more people were considerate of others the world (or at least trains) would arguably be a nicer place for everyone.

I'm afraid that's the price of public transport.

Personally I find it more annoying when people are loud, playing music, or something noisy on an iPad for the whole carriage to hear.

I mean, at most I would have a sandwich on a train, but not fish and chips, that smell lingers!
I was on a long haul flight some years ago, and another passenger started painting her nails... stunk the plane out! So inconsiderate.

Absolutely!

On a recent train journey, a woman had a very loud conversation for more than an hour, which included details of her sex life, for all around to hear.

Haha brilliant! How did the Barbarian respond?

I'm genuinely interested as to what train operator serves fried fish and chips onboard

No fish and chips on LNER

www.lner.co.uk/globalassets/lner2586-dine-menu-april-2024-final.pdf

It could be argued that the public spirited option is to suck up your own discomfort at food smells in acknowledgement that some people are on very long train rides and need to eat during them....

I thought that one of the big differences between trains and city transport is that it is actually allowed and expected to eat on the board including hot meals, both from the dining car and from the train station's takeaways.

Btw, what is the issue with hard boiled eggs?

How is what must have been a cold McDonalds more stinky than the hot meal that would be served on the plane?

Fish and chip train

https://kwvr.co.uk/events/haworth-haddock/

Not a public service admittedly...

I love hard boiled eggs but it's a no no on public transport. They can be quite pungent and stinky especially if you aren't keen.

LNER serve bacon rolls, chickpea curry wraps, cheese and onion sandwiches, various stinky crisps..

Loads of the tourist attraction train services, you can pay for a Fish and Chips train ride where the entire point is to eat fish and chips on the train!

I think eating food on the train is generally accepted by train companies as ok.

This is one of those 'whats ok if rich people do it but scummy if poor people do it' things.

Perfectly acceptable to pay £300 for a first class ticket and be served a full English at your table but heaven forbid someone has a bacon sandwich in stsndard class!

I think it's quite sweet really; a famished family of 4 getting on a train at the end of the day (presumably) tucking into fish and chips.

If I were seated nearby, overcome by the smell, I'd be asking for a chip or two to compensate.

I find this fascinating because I can't smell them at all!

They would never have been on a list of stinky food for me

@spriots interesting, they can smell quite pongy/farty especially when you peel them! You're not missing anything by not being able to smell them anyway

"Hard boiled eggs should be contained within 2 heavily buttered/mayonnaised bread slices (or similar), seasoned/green herbed to taste to reduce any offence to fellow train passengers."

According to my Good Passenger Bible - happy to provide any other 'passenger' tips but maybe you should just buy my Passenger Bible (that I haven't written yet) instead.

Strange. I have never noticed hard boiled eggs to have any distinctive smell at all.

I googled it now and it seems overcooked eggs can develop a smell, but that is easily preventable by cooling them down when the cooking time is over. It doesn't seem that normal boiled eggs would be a problem.
Maybe stop overcooking your eggs and they will be fine?

@ZiriForGood yeah it's not just eggs I make. Any shop bought ones/hard boiled eggs have a smell to them. You're likely nose blind to it and offending people next to you.

Love eating on the train. Find it bizarre some people saying the people eating are being antisocial and thinking their needs trump everyone else's when you are thinking your need to not have any smells on board trumps everyone else's needs to eat. Since when does fish and chips smell bad anyway. Live and let live.

There is no rule like that. It is totally normal to buy something on the train station and take it to the train.

That might have been me. Sorry.