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.

I could and I have...which leads to the joke about them being unable to see or hear me.

Yep I like the space for my crochet.

Don't take more than my fair share though and don't care if soneone else sits next to me.

I was once shocked when we were seeing dp's then elderly mum and aunt off from London on a train to Kings Lynn - this was some years ago - it would have been a train with lots of commuters and people travelling - the route goes through Cambridge. DP's mum found a seat at a table with at least one empty seat remaining, but the aisle seat was occupied by commuter man who really didn't want to move to the window seat or even let her in. I thought that was outrageously rude.

Otherwise, when we had children and were travelling with seat reservations I regularly asked people to move out of our seats - on that journey they were stupid to sit in a carriage full of seat reservations and to grab reserved table seats which weren't theirs. In a lot of cases this was in one of the fullest carriages on trains which had lots of choice of standard class places elsewhere, because those advance cheap tickets were rammed into one carriage at the furthest end of the station platform from the concourse.

I also wished when travelling with just one baby sometimes that someone wouldn't insist on sitting in the one seat we hadn't booked (and they may well have had seat reservations and been in their rights, but again, there were probably other seats including table seats about).

I don't think families actually get automatic priority, but if you're travelling with kids you're more likely to need to plan your 200 mile train journey in advance.

And the worst occasions were when all the private companies who kept being handed the East Coast route screwed up and cancelled trains and we had to scramble for any seats and split up on the train.

I think it’s fine to take the table but not to huff and puff when others join you.

I think people on their own have as much right to use a table as those in groups. But obviously only to one seat at the table.

Personally I go for the smaller spaces - a pair of seats or if I can find a seat on its own I’m extremely happy - to minimise the chance of people sitting around me. But I wouldn’t expect a table to myself!