Alcohol on trains?!

[frankiesamson]

Can someone tell me why virgin trains in the uk allow people to drink cans of beer & alcohol stinking the carriage out? Am I the only person who finds this disgusting & unnecessary

All trains do. I agree it’s weird - you can’t drink on buses!

Dh sat opposite someone who drank a full bottle of wine in 30 mins on commute home recently. Just weird.

I love a couple of cans of g&t if I'm on a long train journey, kick starts the weekend. :)

I occasionally like to relax with a beer or wine on a long train journey, so I don't share your opinion on this. I don't get plastered, though - I agree that if people get to the rowdy stage of drinking, it can be annoying.

Re. smell - it's only one of many smells you might encounter on a train, some more pleasant than others. I'd say food is usually more pungent than alcohol. Some passengers are more pungent than alcohol!

It isn't just Virgin trains, most do unless they have restrictions for football matches etc. I don't mind it at all and indeed have done it myself when off for a weekend with friends. If you have a long journey and want to use it as part of your socialising it is fun but i do think you need to be mindful of others in the carriage and not be too loud and obnoxious. The smell doesn't bother me. It is preferable to a stinky kebab or egg sandwich i think!

I travel on a commuter route and it is fairly common to spot an office worker drinking on the way home. Cans or those mini bottles of wine. Frankly they always look a bit desperate and a bit seedy.

On long distance trains it is a bit antisocial in my view.

Train drivers are in a separate compartment, separate from passengers. There is almost zero risk that a drinking passenger could interfere with the safe running of the train.

Completely different on a bus.

I fail to see why it matters what someone else is drinking on the train. I agree with other posters that food is much more likely to stink out a carriage, as is the on board toilet (should we ban all train toilets?).

Finally, you have the option to move to another carriage, or get off the train.

I find people eating smelly hot food on trains more offensive.

All train companies allow this.

And smelly food, strong coffee, BO, spraying of scent etc. Plus if you're really unlucky, the smell of effluvia if the loos aren't working well.

If you're on a route which is regularly the scene of excessive drunkenness, I think a complaint about that (rather than the smell) might be more productive of the result you seem to want.

I have never found the smell of alcohol to be so strong that it stinks a train carriage out!

I have been known to partake in a little snifter on my way to an evening out or an away day/holiday...

The only time I've ever noticed the smell of alcohol in a train was when the local races were on and we seemed to be the only passengers NOT drinking on the train. Never noticed it when it's just the occasional drinker.

Why do you find it disgusting? Surely it doesnt affect you and if they were drinking it out of different bottle or were in the seat behind you then you wouldnt even know.
I don't drink, my husbands a recovering alcoholic and If I could I would have alcohol completely banned but I can't say I'm offended by alcohol on trains more than anywhere else.

You're not allowed to drink alcohol on trains (or in public places like beaches or parks, so no picnics with a bottle of wine etc) where I live so I think I'd find it strange.

But as long as the people aren't staggering around and being obnoxious, I can't say it would actually bother me.

I really dislike it, I was on a Virgin train last week and there was a big group of men (with children) knocking back beer at about 11am, they were really loud and I was so glad I wasn’t in their carriage! I suppose I just think that it makes people erratic and unpredictable and I feel uneasy around it.

Most people don’t do it, thank goodness.

That's the best part of the week. Opening a can of G&T on a Friday evening. So YABVVVVVU

The almost indiscernible smell of alcohol is about number 76 on my list of irritating train behaviours. Don’t make me list them.

You can’t drink on local trains in London but the minute I get on a virgin train to the north there is the pop, hiss of my M&S g&t opening. I don’t force other passengers to sniff it or breathe in their faces. Less annnoying than kids/adults watching shit on their phones without earphones. Don’t go to York, I got on an 8.28 train to lkx last week and everyone was drinking prosecco on their way to York. I was drinking (too hungover) but it didn’t bother me. They shared their muffins but not the booze. It was fine.

The problem with public transport, I find, is that members of the public use it

It’s legal, so they can if they want. I tend to find the smell of coffee worse, though beer that’s hot warm does get increasingly stinky.

To come back to your question of why Virgin allow it - I'm sure one reason is that they have a huge mark-up on their tiny bottles of crappy wine!

I fail to see why it matters what someone else is drinking on the train.

You've obviously never been on a train with a group of people getting steaming. Last train I got from Glasgow to London was full of people headed to Blackpool, they were pissed, rowdy and loud by the time we got to Carlisle. Thank fuck they all got off at Preston.

Similar experience on a train from Aberdeen back to Glasgow with a load of oil workers heading home after three weeks on the rigs, they were drunk, leery, abusive and hideous.

People getting drunk and rowdy and misbehaving is unnacceptable.

Someone having a peaceful quiet drink and not disturbing anyone is fine and normal.

The smell is neither here nor there, there are much worse smells to be encountered on trains IME.

You can drink on trains not just virgin trains Not sure how a can of beer or gin stinks the carriage out tbh

Maybe public transport isn’t for you, learn to drive and drive everywhere is the answer for you!

I recently travelled from Wolverhampton to Euston on a Sunday morning. My train left at 09:05 in the morning
There was one passenger on the train who drank 4 cans of beer which he had brought with him and then purchased more on the train. We got into Euston at 11:30 and he staggered off the train
He surely would not be enjoying the rest of the day

If I'm going somewhere I often get train beers

I obviously wouldn't on the way to work etc but don't see an issue with it at all otherwise. Can't really see why you would either? So yes YABU. As others have said, all train operators allow alcohol on board (even if they don't actively sell it). It's more akin to a plane than a bus, so.do you have an issue with people having a drink on a plane?

There are a great many smells on a train, alcohol is actually a pretty pleasant one (over sick, beef crisps, curry, McDonald'sn train toilet etc).

Being drunk and rowdy on a train and drinking on a train are different things. I have no problem with people drinking, i have been known to have a train beer or a train m&s g&t myself, many a train plastic bottle of value vodka and squash as a teen.

I don't even mind if they end up being a bit rowdy but I hate the loud group of v. drunk, vommity men that always appears. Or the lone leery, drunk man. But that's more than just a drink on a train, thats many many drinks before and after the train.

I can't think of anything nicer. On my very occasional train journey, of wine. What business is it of yours?