To not be surprised people don’t want to use public transport

[PublicTransportNightmare]

I know it’s a bank holiday today and people want to enjoy themselves but is there any wonder why people dont want to take public transport? I was on the train today as I decided to take my kids to the beach and the behaviour of the other passengers was just awful.

Firstly on the way there we are sat down together and a group of about 10 teenage boys get on and literally sat directly behind us for the whole journey they were swearing, fighting, throwing things, lifting up the train seats, vaping, and just generally being extremely loud. We wanted to move but at this point the train had got pretty busy so we tried to ignore them but eventually moved when they smashed a bottle. Go into the next carriage where some seats had become free. Then some teenage girls singing the entire journey with their phone on loud speaker but that seemed pretty tame in comparison so we decided to just stay there.

On the way back train much emptier but a group got on at some point in the journey then as they went to get off one of them who was clearly drunk fell onto me. Also people just blocking the aisle with their feet up on the seats (one woman with no shoes on!) aibu to say it’s not surprising people don’t want to use public transport? I know we’ve probably just been unlucky but this was really off putting.

Different reason but I occasionally take my 4 year old to town on the bus instead of using the car.

He shortly turns 5 where it would be costing me an extra £4, whereas it won’t be extra if I drive in. So I won’t be using the bus after that.

I had to go to London three times in the last month. Two changes and three hours just one way so six hours travel in all and at least one train cancelled on each trip. Standing room only on at least half the trains I had to catch and one of those was over an hour long stretch. No anti social behaviour though thankfully.
I only live two hours away by car but just didn’t want to get stuck in traffic on the M25

I find you rarely see on board train stafff unless you stop somewhere without barriers.

I've never experienced anything like that. But trains are expensive, and often unreliable at holiday times, as that's when engineering works are often done, and that's enough to put people off.

It depends on the train company and route.
Long distance trains will have staff.
Commuter style trains trend not too.
This is what a lot of train strikes are about.

Once you’ve paid the sky-high costs of a car (insurance etc), public transport is then extremely expensive. For most journeys, the cost makes it a no-brainer.

Sadly, you're right. I've asked people before and had very aggressive replies. Not worth it. No one cares anymore. Girl with feet on seat listening to some thing without headphones with her boyfriend were on the train next to me and man behind me roaring into his phone. I turned and glanced at him but he kept speaking at top volume. I have to use public transport all the time but it is grim.

I hate public transport for the unreliability.

DS got the train back from college a few times last year. It never arrived on time. Not once in 8 - 10 journeys. On three occasions the trains stopped at Crewe, one was after 10pm. We ended up driving 40 minutes each way to pick him up from there.

We went to London a couple of months ago by train, and the return journey was over an hour late. Plus point was that we got a refund, but we would rather have got home on time.

Indeed, politely asking someone to be considerate always risks physical violence. There was the woman who was pushed on to the tracks when she asked someone to stop smoking on the platform. And the thugs know they are practically immune from prosecution.

Sounds like a hideous experience OP, I think you got unlucky with the feral teenage boys, there are a lot of teenagers out there that are respectful too. Obviously public transport is going to have a lot of drunk ppl on this cant be avoided!

what because they were girls? I wouldn’t take the chance, maybe if there was one but there was 6 of them. Wasn’t 3/4 teens just arrested for killing a man with rocks including girls? not worth saying anything and tbh it didn’t bother me after what would just had to listen to it was more just inconsiderate but definitely better than the teenage boys. There was a group of 4 men opposite them (we were behind) who didn’t say anything so maybe no one wanted to confront them. The bottle I don’t know what happened with it as we left the carriage after that.