Why do solo train users take a table for 4?

[Badbadbunny]

Why do solo train users take a table for 4 and then huff and puff when a couple or family join them? Just on a train with lots of empty twosome seats but only one table for 4 free and a single woman takes it, and made a big fuss about moving her bags off the seat and clearing the rest of the table after she put loads of stuff on it when a family of 4 came on with one of them having to sit elsewhere.

Because it's more likely to have a socket to charge my phone (which has my ticket on it), I can't always fully bend my leg, leaning forward on the table can take some pressure off my spine and the table itself is useful for pushing up from when the bits of my back that are buggered all conspire to send lovely bursts of pain across my body and my leg goes weak.

Other than that, because I want to.

If you think about how passenger carriages are laid out. Table seats only work in groups of four. In the Good Old Days of the 1980s, Intercity 125s were all tables. But you can fit in more seating airline style. So most modern layouts have only 4-8 tables per coach. They aren't designed for groups they are just part of a compromise to offer a choice of seating.

The tables are for anyone. They are obviously great for a group of 3 or 4 but if you don't get lucky you should have pre-booked. Or maybe politely ask to swap if you have a special need. I moved recently to let a couple sit together one of whom clearly had dementia and was refusing to sit apart from his wife. But I'll usually have a bag next to me until the train starts to fill up, when I'm happy to move it if asked.

If people really can't cope with sitting near, hearing or speaking to strangers maybe public transport isn't for them.

Not what your title said though.

Why should a group of 4 bagsy automatic rights to a table? By your argument, there's plenty of good 2x2 seats available. Perhaps that singleton wants to get some work done? Or just, heaven forbid, got there first?

I'm a regular train user, and if a 4 is available with a table, I'll often jump in there, for the benefit of having a table. But I'm happy to share if/when more people come along.

I prefer to sit at a table because I have an hour commute each way and I like to try and get some uni work done. I do expect people will sit next to me however. I am very wary now though after an incident a few months ago where the only empty seat when I got on was one of the table seats with the other three occupied, at the next the stop everyone else at the table got off and a few stops down the line a family of three got on. I said they were more than welcome to sit with me but instead of sitting down they made a big fuss about the selfish lady taking more seats than she needed and when I tried to explain that it had been the only empty seat when I got on, I got called a bitch and told to shut up.

Yes they do in first class .

Ride GWR all the time, never seen them. Maybe on newer trains

You must have a very small laptop!

Seems normal to me - 13 inch?

It’s comfier? First come first served. If you want the best seat, either pay to reserve it or turn up first. You can’t expect to turn up last minute and have the best seats saved for you. Sit in whatever’s left.

That said, if it’s busy you can’t expect to have four seats to yourself whilst others stand.

Because I also want a table. I have no issue at all with sharing it. I do object to the expectation I should shift despite being there first to accomodate a family because they feel more entitled to the space

I always choose a table seat. I do t mind if other people joint me but I certainly won’t move away from it. They are not family tables. Its first come first serves and if I want to sit there and use my lap top I am perfectly entitled to.

If you were to wear a badge identifying yourself as That Woman On Mumsnet next time you and your nuclear family require your God-given seats, any audacious single person will scarper sharpish, you can be sure.

Hate sitting at them personally because you awkwardly have one or two strangers facing you the whole trip. Once sat at one and the guy opposite was pissed so started trauma dumping, even though I was clearly trying to read and also had my AirPods in. Then another woman got on at the next station and he started chatting to her, she then joined in with the trauma dump and they were both sat discussing their grief and emotions. It was just the weirdest thing so I moved.

Surely this is two different questions, solo travellers can sit where the hell they want to, same ticket cost and free will. People who think all the seats are theirs and huff and puff, are unreasonable.

I agree - they shouldn’t get priority. It’s different if you are elderly, disabled or pregnant, for which there are usually priority seats for them for this reason.
I dislike how us solo or single people have to go without for those with families or whatever.

Ignore. The world's full of rude arseholes. If I got offended every time I encountered this type of attitude I'd spend my life mad.

Frankly there are far more invasive, serious forms of conduct on our railways these days, especially if you happen to be female. Like the reason I tend to avoid table seats after having the 'leg brush' and being filmed/photographed by the creepy guy sitting opposite. Or the unwanted touching. Or (in any seat, you can hear it everywhere in the coach) screens blaring and no headphones, which so many people today deem acceptable.

As for Friday and Saturday nights, they are as good as no-go zones. I've experienced: a raucous inebriated man throwing up. A man sitting across the aisle from me in a completely empty coach and nearly empty train. I had to get up and move nearer to the only other people on the train, who were two coaches back. Why would anybody do that, if their motives were completely innocent? The guy who circled me like a shark whilst waiting for a connecting train in a dark and lonely station. He came and stood about 6 feet away from me on the platform (again empty station). I was never so glad to see a train approaching in the distance (and stood well back from the platform).

I'd assumed he was simply waiting for the train, had misread the situation, and it was entirely innocent. But he didn't board. He walked away slowly and even the conductor thought it odd, as he stood for a minute or two watching him go. My relief on boarding that train was immeasurable as the walk back home from my neighbouring station is pretty lonely.

A sense of entitlement, huffing and puffling is neither here nor there to me. It's very easily ignored.

The disabled spaces don’t usually have tables.

I only use the train when travelling for work and it is expected that I work during the journey. I need a table.

….well, take a table then……..

I quoted you because you said disabled people should take the priority seats? I am disabled and was explaining why I can’t do that.

that is not what I said.. I said there are USUALLY priority seats available for those that are disabled. If you would like a table for your laptop, then take a table!

There are usually priority seats.

However, the spaces they are in are usually occupied by suitcases the size of a refrigerator, unfolded foldable bikes, empty buggies and men who are apparently severely disabled with a particular form of deafness and blindness which renders anybody with a disability completely invisible to them.

I don’t find that to be the case and I frequently travel by train in London and outside of London.

Experience of trips to hospital appointments in London and visits to family in Devon are why I say this.

you could of course ask people if they could move their things