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 they've paid the same price for a ticket as everyone else

The OP is probably more upset over this than the family who wanted to sit down!

As most other people have said, the single passenger is well within their rights to sit at a table (but not to gatekeep seats or huff if others join) and the world is unlikely to end if a single family member has to sit elsewhere for the duration of a train journey.

Titles don’t all the information 🤦‍♀️. Read her actual comments in her post. No wonder the country is going down the toilet if this is the level of comprehension, “well, it wasn’t in the one sentence I read so how would I know.” Jeez.

On some trains you can pay for a table or certain seat so if someone else wants to sit there you have a right to huff and puff, if the seat or table isn't paid for by them they need to get over it

Look at the heading.

And at the massive and unwarranted generalisation in the first sentence. Because apparently it’s only solo travellers who do this.

Table seats are normal seats

You can't reserve seats on trains around here.

huh? A group of 4 sitting at a table wouldn’t be joined by anyone else, so wouldn’t have the opportunity to huff and puff when someone else sits with them? So… obviously groups aren’t going to be the subject of this post.

The first sentence of her post explains her actual issue - single people sitting at a table AND huffing when others join them. Not just single people sitting at a table. It’s the reaction she is complaining about.

How can an aisle seat be by the window?

I guess I meant one that didn’t feel like a treat or prize.

Perhaps lack of politeness and a ready willingness to criticise might also be relevant?

Yes this is spot on. I travelled on a train a few months ago with my mum and daughter where a man had a laptop, phone and coffee cup spread all over the table and his bag next to the seat he was on. He was clearly expecting that to be enough to keep the table to himself and made a bit of a song and dance about moving everything and still took up the majority of the table.

Normally his plan might have worked but we had three of the seats reserved and I wasn't going to find alternative seats just for his comfort. Also apparently the seat reservation sign wasn't working when he got on the train. Strangely it was when we got on. Fancy that!

You don’t pay for seat reservations. Some operators allow you to book certain seats but you aren’t charged for this.

Claustrophobia.

The seats without a table in front are very crammed in and a lot of people don't enjoy it.

Choosing a seat at a table is perfectly reasonable, but huffing when people want to use the other three seats is not.

The airplane types. Yes ok it’s not an aisle seat. Hope that has cleared up your confusion.

The table is not for groups It is for 4 travellers.

Oh no, my go to travel snack in a tuna baguette. I do sometimes wonder if people find it smelly and antisocial. Would that bother you?

I genuinely hate people who put bags on bus/train seats or tables.

But if I wanted to work at a table on a train, then I will do. If someone has reserved the table seats for their family of 4, then I won't go near it. Unlike some, I don't sit in reserved seats. But if the family hasn't reserved the 4 table seats, why should others get up? That's so entitled. (of the family)

I often take my 3 dc on a 3 hr train journey. I often find the huffing when we join a solo traveller at a table quite amusing tbh especially when dc start using the table to draw etc. I dont mind at all but do when solo traveller thinks they can use half the table etc

She was probably flustered by having to reorganise her laptop, papers, etc (particularly if you were giving her stinkeye just for being there), and maybe she's one of those unfortunate people with resting bitch face.

But even if she was being as rude as all get out, she's still only one person. She's not every singleton-at-a-table.

Those twosome seats are awful and claustrophobic. I always sit at a table but would certainly expect to share it.

Yabu. Why would a couple not take one of the many empty twosome seats you said there were? The family can split between two of the empty twosome seats rather than crowding the woman on her table and sending one of them elsewhere

I sit at a table, it's easier to work, more leg room, and I feel less sick as can see out the window better

Her bags have no business on seats while other passengers need them, but she can otherwise sit where she likes.

I'm not going to apologise for my existence as a single traveller I didn’t realise this was such an emotionally charged topic!

When travelling solo, I always prefer the airline seats so like OP, when I see a solo traveller sat at a table I always wonder if they are trying to ‘claim’ it for themselves. Most of the time they are not working on a laptop.

Let’s be honest, when a group of 4 is looking for seats and there is a table with only one seat taken but plenty of other seats available, this one person looks selfish. These tables were originally designed for groups, not to be « premium seats ».