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 agree that a solo traveller has a perfect right to the seat, but shouldn't be spread over the whole table. That said, usually the tables are so small that using a laptop on one is going to take up more than a quarter of it, and I think that is a bit of a 'first come first served' situation.

Those seats were never designed for groups. They are designed for people who need a table. Or really, for anyone who wants a table.

I didn’t get it either @snowmichael

She entitled to take that seat and doesn’t have to move to accommodate others sitting together, but she shouldn’t be stroppy when people sit next to her either

Because I have a 2hour commute and want to work at a table.
Because I'm claustrophobic and dont want to be hemmed in.

Because a group of 4 where it's important that they sit together can book their seats for a longer journey, and if it's a short one it probably doesn't matter as much.

But I don't make a fuss if others sit at the table.

I will make a table seat reservation travelling on my own if available - I wouldn't expect to have it to myself. Whether for a laptop, drinks and snacks, books/magazines etc, it's nice to have a table available to use.

When my kids were younger and my mum was alive we travelled 200 miles to visit her quite often, and we also did a similar length journey to visit my sister a few times. Seat reservations were generally required with the advance bookings I made to get reasonable fares and I always booked 3/4 table seats - you don't have to book/pay seats for under 5s but with a family rail card booking for one child and two adults was much cheaper than not getting a seat for a child, and paying an extra quite small amount for DS2 with that railcard was well worth a small amount of money to know we had the whole set. So much easier to set out all the snacks and any activities needed between snacks we took with us! Our other family train journeys were on routes which don't offer seat reservations/table seats so much, though direct trains to Kings Lynn from London aren't much shorter in time than Leeds and Manchester, despite being half the distance.

I did occasionally have to kick people out of our reserved seats, who presumably hoped I wouldn't turn up/wouldn't ask them to move, but if you are travelling alone or as an adult couple, it's pretty stupid to try to nab table seats in the carriage full of advance reservations (those cheap advance bookings tend to be fairly rammed together) - better to ask if there's part of the train where there are less reservations. And many of our journeys as a family were from end to end of the route, only setting out from my sister's wasn't where the train starts from.

The worst journey was when we were booked into a quiet carriage with the boys aged maybe about 5 and 3 to travel home for Christmas. Not something I asked for and I knew that passengers who wanted peace and quiet for the journey would be very understandably annoyed. I still find it hard to believe that the quiet carriage seats were the only ones available when I booked - I did ring the train company and protest but to no avail.

They all have one thing in common………be they male or female, and regardless of age they all have ‘entitled’ as their middle name

No. I’m sitting at a table because I want to sit at a table. It has never, ever, occurred to me that I somehow have a claim to the other three seats as well. Are you seriously suggesting that you think that? There’s a seat and I’m sitting in it. If people want to sit on the seats around me then that is what, in fact, they always do.

You’re projecting your irrationalities onto someone who simply sitting at a table seat.

More space for working.

If a group needs to sit together they can reserve a table.

None of us here, then. Phew!

Shouldn’t you be posting on the “What can I call my baby” threads?

Agreed. How did this fuss manifest itself op? I think you were irked about it and you saw what you wanted to see.

A better question might be why people who start threads like this feel so aggrieved that the entire world and everyone in it doesn’t align their behaviour to suit their families needs.

Why do you feel so entitled to assume everyone should leave their own preferences aside to suit you @Badbadbunny ?

It was rude of that passenger to huff at moving their bags but I would hazard a guess there was a lot of passive aggressive commenting and outrage from your side at a solo traveller having the audacity not to immediately change their seat to suit you. If asked nicely I will generally move seats in this scenario but when faced with entitlement and outrage, I refuse.

I hate table seats and actively avoid them unless travelling with 2 or 3 people I know. Sitting opposite random passenger/s feels far less comfortable for me, than sitting next to someone facing the same way. I do usually hope for the best and put all my stuff on the seat next to me, but don’t huff and puff if someone asks to sit there. Well, only inwardly!

As a widow who often has to travel alone it is sad to hear that - we are so discriminated against when it comes to travelling especially the single supplements on holidays.

She should not have been huffy - but she has as much right to sit at a table as anyone else.

So do I!

I'd never huff and puff if someone else wanted to sit at the table.

I also wouldn't move to another seat. First come, first serve for unreserved seats.

The huffing and puffing is unreasonable, wanting a table and a window view ok.

It was a very minor error that anyone with basic critical thinking capabilities could have worked out. I called the airline style row of train seats aisle seats in error (to differentiate from the table for four). I hope this clears up your confusion. It really wasn’t the conundrum some people want to make it.

My employer books those tables for me (when travelling alone) as it gives makes working much easier

same here

Almost every time I travel solo by train and book a seat, the default seat it wants to give me is one on a table of 4.

It will be the same people who sit alone at a table for 4 in a cafe rather than a table for 2.

I do too! Means I'll get a maximum of one person next to me rather than three. Unless I need table space for something in particular - or it's a very quiet train and I expect it to stay that way - I'll generally pick an airline seat.

It's 100% inflation since 1984 and Double Seat.

I don't even mind people putting their bags on the seats. But then, I have no problem asking them to move. And most of the time, they're happy to do so. The odd person who acts like it's a crisis.... yeah, those ones irritate me.

I find it much more private in a two seater set up. I’d rather look at the back of the seat in front of me than into a stranger’s face. Even if I book a seat alone I’ll book a window seat without a table. The pull down tray suits me too.