Quiet coaches in trains.

[FruitandNut]

You have to row into the middle of an ocean, take a camel ride into the middle of a desert or go to the top of Everest {off season] to get away from noise; then the silence is likely to drive you mad instead.

 

[_angel_]

Oh, and if you book a ticket you don’t have a choice of whether you’re in the quiet coach or not which is a damned pain if you turn up with your laptop and mobile expecting to get some work done and you either have to sit on the floor in the corridor, not do any work or flout the rules.

This kept happening to me when I was travelling with two very loud and autistic kids having to spend the whole journey apologising, because I didn't ask to be in the stupid quiet coach in the first place. And having to go into the hallway with them everytime I wanted to make a mobile phone call was just annoying.

I sort of given up making long distance rail journeys with them now (not because of this tho, it was just another annoyance)

 

[detective-boy]

When it says you shouldn't use mobile phones, I take it to mean you shouldn't have the audible ring tone on, or use the speaker function. If you are just having a normal conversation on one why is that any noisier or more disturbing than having a conversation with the person sat next to you or opposite? And that isn't banned. (I know there are some twats who just shout into them but they should just be baseball-batted at the earliest opportunity anyway ... )

 

[Hollis]

When it says you shouldn't use mobile phones, I take it to mean you shouldn't have the audible ring tone on, or use the speaker function. If you are just having a normal conversation on one why is that any noisier or more disturbing than having a conversation with the person sat next to you or opposite?

People generally speak louder into mobiles, and it is found to be more intrusive. Not using them means, err, not using them.

 

[_angel_]

When it says you shouldn't use mobile phones, I take it to mean you shouldn't have the audible ring tone on, or use the speaker function. If you are just having a normal conversation on one why is that any noisier or more disturbing than having a conversation with the person sat next to you or opposite? And that isn't banned. (I know there are some twats who just shout into them but they should just be baseball-batted at the earliest opportunity anyway ... )

That's what I'd like it to mean, after all, how's talking on to a mobile phone any different to speaking to the person next to you?

But I keep thinking the self appointed mobile phone police will be after me if I do!

 

[Hollis]

With full justification..

"Why are mobile phones annoying?


Andrew Monk, Jenni Carroll, Sarah Parker, Mark Blythe

Department of Psychology University of York York YO10 5DD UK


Abstract:


Sixty four members of the public were exposed to the same staged conversation either while waiting in a bus station or travelling on a train. Half of the conversations were by mobile phone, so that only one end of the conversation was heard, and half were co present face-to-face conversations. The volume of the conversations was controlled at one of two levels: the actors' usual speech level and exaggeratedly loud. Following exposure to the conversation participants were approached and asked to give verbal ratings on six scales. Analysis of variance showed that mobile phone conversations were significantly more noticeable and annoying than face-to-face conversations at the same volume when the content of the conversation is controlled. Indeed this effect of medium was as large as the effect of loudness. Various explanations of this effect are explored, with their practical implications.

 

[geminisnake]

You have to row into the middle of an ocean, take a camel ride into the middle of a desert or go to the top of Everest {off season] to get away from noise; then the silence is likely to drive you mad instead.

Not at all. You could live where I do, where it is nice and green and pleasant and most of all, about 95% of the time, quiet

Actually just realised no you can't live where I do coz then it could get noisy

 

[detective-boy]

People generally speak louder into mobiles, and it is found to be more intrusive.

You got a source for that research - would be interested in reading more about it.

ETA: Just seen your later post. Thanks.

 

[subversplat]

I'd be for installing those mobile phone jammers in those carriages so you can't even physically send a text message.

Am I the only person that relishes a chance to be legitimately uncontactable for a while?

 

[Pieface]

Am I the only person that relishes a chance to be legitimately uncontactable for a while?

nope.

Sometimes I turn my phone...........OFF!!!

Phone conversations are really fucking annoying - you only hear half of it and people talk a hold load of tedious bollocks on the phone. Especially if they're on long train journeys.

 

[J77]

I always used to use the quiet carriage.

People who tap away on their lap-tops in them should be thrown off the train - as a bridge is approaching

My phone's normally on silent anyway - if people want to contact me, they should persevere

 

[FruitandNut]

Not at all. You could live where I do, where it is nice and green and pleasant and most of all, about 95% of the time, quiet

Actually just realised no you can't live where I do coz then it could get noisy

I think there are also rules about more than one in a padded cell

 

[milesy]

Phone conversations are really fucking annoying - you only hear half of it and people talk a hold load of tedious bollocks on the phone. Especially if they're on long train journeys.

and people tend to repeat themselves too on mobiles. they repeat themselves. on mobiles. REPEAT THEMSELVES. CAN YOU HEAR ME? I SAID REPEAT THEMSELVES. sorry, i'll ring you back. I SAID I'LL RING YOU BACK.

 

[Pieface]

We so grumpy

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

As someone who travels to Cornwall at least once a month by train, I think that the idea of quiet carriages is a very good one. AFAIK, you're not supposed to use mobiles at all or personal stereos and what it has meant in practise, IME, is a very much more enjoyable journey than when you're surrounded by amplified noise and one-sided chatter. You can still talk you know, if you are lucky enough to have a companion - and i can't believe someone saying they apologised for having a couple of noisy kids cos thats another thing entirely. You can still use a laptop cos it aint noisy like some dork with an i-pod at ear-splitting volume initt.

This is especially on Sunday evenings, when all I want is some peace and quiet to compose my thoughts after a weekend with my kids. It's only one carriage in crappy class and one in stuck-up class, and I'm all for it. And Hollis quotes research which does help demonstrate how feckign annoying it is to hear half a convo and a shouted one at that.

I think its one of FGW's best ideas quite simply. Altho i agree they could switch off the tannoys cos they're stupidly loud too...

 

[trashpony]

I realised that I am completely misanthropic when some people had the bloody cheek to sit across the aisle from me this morning even though there were other seats available.

It's quite disturbing

 

[Poot]

I realised that I am completely misanthropic when some people had the bloody cheek to sit across the aisle from me this morning even though there were other seats available.

It's quite disturbing

Quite right too. There are rules on where to sit. Everyone knows you should sit as far away from other people as possible. It's written.

 

[suzee blue cheese]

Quiet carriages are a good thing ESPECIALLY now half the fuckers with amobile/ipod/walkman/laptop have relinquished the idea of consideration for other people. I do have a mobile but if I'm using it on public transport, I keep the conversation to bare necessities and talk quietly.

Quiet makes some people nervous: I had a friend who was born and bred in Tokyo. She was so conditioned to people and noise that the idea of the 'countryside' was total anathema to her. The concepts of solitude and silence freaked her out. She needed a certain level of sensory input to feel comfortable.

I like a bit of both. In a confined public space, I'd prefer the baseline to be quiet.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

I always go to a mobile-free coach if I can. Trouble is, when I do, I then start getting paranoid that some bastard is going to use their mobile anyway and there's going to be a confrontation about it. So I never get to relax anyway.

 

[subversplat]

As someone who travels to Cornwall at least once a month by train, I think that the idea of quiet carriages is a very good one. AFAIK, you're not supposed to use mobiles at all or personal stereos and what it has meant in practise, IME, is a very much more enjoyable journey than when you're surrounded by amplified noise and one-sided chatter. You can still talk you know, if you are lucky enough to have a companion - and i can't believe someone saying they apologised for having a couple of noisy kids cos thats another thing entirely. You can still use a laptop cos it aint noisy like some dork with an i-pod at ear-splitting volume initt.

This is especially on Sunday evenings, when all I want is some peace and quiet to compose my thoughts after a weekend with my kids. It's only one carriage in crappy class and one in stuck-up class, and I'm all for it. And Hollis quotes research which does help demonstrate how feckign annoying it is to hear half a convo and a shouted one at that.

I think its one of FGW's best ideas quite simply. Altho i agree they could switch off the tannoys cos they're stupidly loud too...

It really is a shame that they've continued to allow conversations in those carriages. We truely would be getting near to nirvana if they banned all noise and had super efficient, completly silent Noise-Nazis on the doors to enforce it

Imagine only hearing Chickity chick, chickity chick, chickity chick, chickity chick, chickity chick, chickity chick, WOOO WOOOO, chickity chick, chickity chick for your journey. Ahh bliss

 

[elliot]

If they really wanted it to be a quiet coach they'd put it in the middle of the train, not right next to the sodding engine.

Can't say I've ever had a problem with other people listening to ipods etc. in any train carriage, but people with loud ringtones/phone manner are annoying (just because they're on a phone doesn't mean you have to shout). I don't really think there's a difference between the quiet coach and the rest of the train tho..

like anything that first great western ever does, it's a good idea badly executed.

 

[pembrokestephen]

I don’t really see the point of the quiet coach any more. There seemed to be a point when it was the exception rather than the rule to have a mobile, and it was considered rather odd and impolite to even be seen using one in public.

But now virtually everyone has one, and wants to be able to receive calls or let people know the train’s stuck at engineering works etc, who actually WANTS to sit in a quiet coach?

Not blasting other people with the sounds of your ipod/DVD player/laptop is just common courtesy regardless of what coach your in, likewise having an unnecessarily loud and protracted call on your mobile.

When kids, teenagers having a giggle etc are all permitted in the quiet coach anyway, what’s the point. It’s just a ‘luddite coach’ really isn’t it.

Oh, and if you book a ticket you don’t have a choice of whether you’re in the quiet coach or not which is a damned pain if you turn up with your laptop and mobile expecting to get some work done and you either have to sit on the floor in the corridor, not do any work or flout the rules.

Word.

I think "quiet coaches" are a hangover from the politics-of-envy which dictated that anyone using a mobile phone in the 1980's was a "yuppie" and deserved to be sneered at. Nowadays, even grannies have them. And they're well enough established that there's an etiquette about their use - don't annoy others, speak quietly, go elsewhere like the vestibule on a train if poss.

All quiet coaches achieve is to give the busybody nazis who aren't happy if there isn't SOME way they could be bossing people around something to do,

 

[pembrokestephen]

When it says you shouldn't use mobile phones, I take it to mean you shouldn't have the audible ring tone on, or use the speaker function. If you are just having a normal conversation on one why is that any noisier or more disturbing than having a conversation with the person sat next to you or opposite? And that isn't banned. (I know there are some twats who just shout into them but they should just be baseball-batted at the earliest opportunity anyway ... )

Hmm. I've found myself being given a hard time by a can't-mind-their-own-business nazi about this, though. She started looking askance at me when I began to type a text (a fucking TEXT, I ask you...? ) into my mobile, and glancing pointedly at the sign on the window.

When I actually had the temerity to answer a call (on silent/vibrate!), my conversation was punctuated with "tsk" and "tchah" from her, sufficiently loud that the person on the other end of the phone could hear - I had to tell her what was going on .

And then, quietly, pointed out to said nazi that she'd made more noise fussing about my phone call than I'd made on the damn phone.

It's just stupid.

 

[pembrokestephen]

I'd be for installing those mobile phone jammers in those carriages so you can't even physically send a text message.

Am I the only person that relishes a chance to be legitimately uncontactable for a while?

You can achieve that by switching off your OWN mobile phone. Allow others the choice to remain contactable if they should so choose: that's none of your business.

If 100% of the people on a train can exercise a choice, 100% of the time, as to whether they can be in a "quiet coach" or not, then perhaps you have a point. There's been enough posts on this thread about situations where that isn't the case, though, and often people NEED to be contactable, even if that might not correspond with your wishes.

 

[bigmac]

Regardles of the rights and wrongs of it as debated in the previous posts, I can't really see the point of the quiet coach, not because I don't like the idea of a quiet coach, (I do) but because I just don't see the point of having rules which are never enforced. Indeed I don't see how they could really be enforced anyway without the guard (or train manager or whatever they like to be called these days) being in the said coach for the duration of the journey.

 

[icemachine]

I can usually be found in the quiet carriage as I have an aversion to Trigger Happy TV syndrome. It's so much more courteous to text-yell 'I'm on the train!' (on a phone set to vibrate of course) than for all your unfortunately squished fellow passengers to hear what you're planning to buy in Sainsburys, who you've bonked in the past couple of weeks and whether the ointment's working or not.

...Imagine only hearing Chickity chick, chickity chick, chickity chick, chickity chick, chickity chick, chickity chick, WOOO WOOOO, chickity chick, chickity chick for your journey. Ahh bliss

Chance would be a fine thing...if it wasn't for all this cursed welded rail

 

[pembrokestephen]

I can usually be found in the quiet carriage as I have an aversion to Trigger Happy TV syndrome. It's so much more courteous to text-yell 'I'm on the train!' (on a phone set to vibrate of course) than for all your unfortunately squished fellow passengers to hear what you're planning to buy in Sainsburys, who you've bonked in the past couple of weeks and whether the ointment's working or not.

In general terms, I agree with you, but I think that the question of this kind of behaviour is a matter rather more of courtesy than legislation.

If it could be policed properly, a "quiet carriage" would be a great idea, but it seems pointless to me simply to target mobile phone users and the owners of iPods - if you want a quiet carriage, make it a completely quiet carriage.

There's an interesting parallel, at least as far as fGW go, regarding the "Family Carriage", which I assume to be the opposite - a carriage where you (or your kids) can be noisy. It's a lot easier to police (after all, we don't get upset at people sitting quietly in the Family Carriage, do we?), but I wonder how often a family gets onto the train and finds themselves unable to find space in the Family Carriage, or are 4 coaches down and don't particularly want to drag 2 kids, 14 bags and a pushchair down the aisle to find it. Do people in the non-quiet non-family carriages look down their noses and go "tsk" at families in the "normal" carriages?

 

[friedaweed]

Sat in one now and there's a lovely Asian guy who looks a bit like the shake hands man from Bonsai totally blaring out whilst everyone else is being quiet.

He's got his massive headphones on with some banging tunes pumping out and he's taking calls every 20 minutes and talking so loud the whole carriage is smiling.

There's at least 2 passengers near me who aren't happy but he's totally oblivious

 

[19sixtysix]

In the quiet carriage I put my headphones on and started my movie. All was well except I forgot to plug the headphones into the computer which I turned up so I could hear it

 

[dessiato]

Another 13 year thread bump.

Last summer I took some students to London. Some sat in a quiet carriage. I, rather loudly, told them that to sit where they were they had to be quiet. I then apologised to the other passengers. I got the most confused looks.