Behaviour on trains

I was at the theatre a while back where the young woman next to me ate a cheeseburger, chips and slurped a cardboard cup of cola. However it was more entertaining than the play I had gone to see.

When I was growing up in the 50's and 60's you did not eat, drink, smoke or comb your hair in the street or on public transport. But times have changed and I have no problem with it. Just go with it. The one thing I object to is when people (usually youngish) plonk their shoes or trainers on the seat opposite where someone else is later going to sit.

No bad manners in my eyes to eat something on a bus or train. as for the poster who said putting make up on was like going to the toilet ????
Surely most people eat on long journeys and short ones if they’re running late it helps pass the time away I certainly eat on my regular 2 and a half hour journeys
I personally wouldn’t be skilled enough to do any make up but how can you get offended by that ???
The only thing I have a problem with (but put up with) is bad smelling bodies next to you

No wonder we have the title ‘whinging Poms’

flaxwoven but the lasses did wear their hair in big rollers to go to the shop or even the factory if they were going out that night ??

Love your posts Maw and BradfordLass it’s good to have a laugh!

I am on Londons Paddington Station now waiting to board the 14:30 service for Weston Super Mare. The problem of passengers bringing food and drink onto trains hugely increased when the Buffet Cars on many services were removed a few years back.

Prior to that many passengers would board the train and then get a drink and food from the buffet car and sit in that cartridge while they consumed that. Now however, passengers purchase food and drink from the many fast food outlets at terminus stations and take it onto the services and then sit in any carriage of the train.

Certainly, I always loved the Buffet Cars, as if travelling at the end of a long day a drink could be obtained (example, a nice glass of cider) and often some good conversation with other passengers if you had to stand in the Buffet car which was often the case I found.

On a long train journey my daughter and I were kept entertained by watching a woman give herself a full make-up and body treatment (just short of waxing her legs). She even managed to apply individual false eyelashes. In between the various applications she managed to eat a healthy salad and produced a miniature bottle of gin to go with the tonic purchased from the drinks trolley. Amazing.

Putting on makeup wouldn’t bother me, but my friend once sat opposite a young woman who got her mirror out of her bag and proceeded to squeeze her spots and blackheads! ?

On a hot packed train I sat next to two men eating a tray of sushi ? A couple of times I’ve had the pleasure of a full makeup demonstration ?

???? gilly Whay would anyone think that’s acceptable in a public place??!

As pointed out by others, the woman ("City worker") who aggressively berated the egg-eater has been found guilty and fined £1,500 for her behaviour. City worker leaned into egg eaters face and told her she (egg eater) was disgusting, adding "you don't know who I am. Be careful. Do you want to go outside". That's just wrong! A 50 year old professional woman to behave like that!

Make-up - no problem. I travel every day on the London Underground and my biggest problem is people with strong body odour. It's just vile and unnecessary.

Flying to Spain in February a guy got on with a tupperware container of - fish (probably tuna) salad! But each to his own!

I very, very rarely travel on a train.
Reading through all these posts, I’m pleased I don’t have to.
Was never a commuter on public transport when at work either.
One of the joys of living in the country, driving to work on a beautiful summer’s morning.
Not so good in the depths of winter, negotiating snowy, frosty, untreated country lanes.
So no experience of make up artists or boiled egg eaters.

On my way home last Saturday, I had to change at Newcastle because the train went from there straight to Berwick. On the Northern trains, a regular announcement includes a request for passengers to keep their feet off the seats.

00mam00
On my way to London a few days earlier, our train was delayed by almost two and a half hours because someone had been struck by a train earlier that morning and all the following trains had to queue while the line was cleared. To make matters worse, our train then terminated at Peterborough and we all had to get off and wait for the next one. Almost everyone tried to squeeze into that, already busy train even though yet another train was announced as following six minutes later. Not wishing to stand for 50 minutes, I waited. I found an unoccupied seat but it had a bag on it and the tray table was down with a newspaper on it. I asked the person in the other seat, 'Is this anyone's seat?' I got a proper toss of the head and an audible 'humph!' as she moved her stuff so I could sit down! I assume she had bought only one ticket!

I was once on an old ScotRail train which didn’t have tables just 3 person bench seats facing each other. A mother got on with 2 young children and a Chinese carry out. She then spread the various containers of food along the seat opposite me and the 3 of them tucked into a buffet meal.
I didn’t know whether to be horrified (I wasn’t) or concerned that the train was so old and the seat so dirty that it was really unhygienic not just for eating off but also for future passengers who might end up coated in sweet and sour chicken.
Non- stop sniffers on public transport ~ now they really disgust me.

Even modern trains do not run that smoothly so I think putting on makeup would be a bit risky. I have seen a girl putting on makeup whilst driving coincidentally in Essex.
As for the noisy caller, try taking out your own phone, pretend to make a call and very loudly repeat everything the offender says - works every time!

No problem with make up (did it myself for years when I commuted to work) saves so much time. Biggest issue is noise and very smelly food.

Ah Grandad1943 you brought back happy memories of my trips from Paddington to Weston-super-Mare as a youngster (talking late Fifties, early Sixties here). Sometimes we were treated to lunch in the Dining Car by a wealthy patroness (long story!) - what an experience - attentive waiters, white tablecloths, silver-service, and there's nothing like trying to consume Brown Windsor Soup on a train.

Oh Mi...laughing at some of posts. I think we all have had 'annoying' people on trains (not for eating or putting make up on for me though)

On a train to London from Liverpool a clear high flying business woman (so she thought) was sitting on an aisle seat with her back to the aisle and a laptop on the vacant seat beside her. This woman then proceeded to phone dozens of people talking loudly about a colleague who had abused his expenses! She even named him and started with the conversation with "Hi Mike (etc) This is Elizabeth from X. Did you see what Bob Smart (she named him) put in for his expenses. I am demanding an investigation. This went on for several stops with more and more people joining the train and tutting as they stood up in the aisle.

I was sat on the other side of the table to her and she never stopped for breath - just went on and on dialling and redialling. Eventually, I caught her eye and said "Come on I am dying to know what Bob Smart did with his expenses at (and named the firm)".

She did have the grace to redden a bit and finish call, shut computer and move over so someone else could sit down beside her!

Totally bloomin AMAZING - what? did she think? we were A) all deaf B) she was entitled to two seats somehow.....

Guess it was entertaining though hahaha

Why is applying makeup on public transport such a habit now. Haven't people worked and travelled in public transport and worn makeup for decades. Early starts too have gone on just as long. It's another example of 'entitlement' generation that they feel they can basically use transport fir whatever they want and whenever they feel like it.

As a sufferer from travel sickness, I do have a problem with smells on public transport. So many people eat smelly fried food such as burgers, chips or fried chicken on buses and it makes me feel quite ill.
I have been on a train with someone doing their nails and that smell just makes me cough and wheeze. Worst of all is sprays such as deodorants or Impulse. I just can't breathe if people use them. Lots of people are asthmatic or travel sick and it's a big problem.

I don't often use trains,but have seen young women putting on makeup on the bus,for the whole of a 40 minute journey.It fascinates me how they manage to do it,and also how long it takes them,I don't think I have ever spent that long putting on makeup

I have been one of the offenders.
I have put make-up on whilst I was on a train, although I wasn’t on a table seat. Don’t think I would have done it I had been. Smelly food is a bit antisocial though.
Still, I’d rather sit opposite someone quietly putting on make-up which she would tidy away after than someone littering the table with empty food packets and banana skins. Or worst of all using foul language freely.
Using a laptop on a train takes up room, but not many would people would have objections to that.
Is it the person applying the make-up the insular one, or those that object wishing to be insular? Just asking.
I must admit I don’t think about putting on perfume before I travel, although it is quite subtle.

Women in films in the 50's and 60's often produced a compact and reapplied their lipstick with great panache. I sometimes do that myself (anyone know an affordable lipstick that stays on now that Boots has continued my Natural Collection and my stash is running out?). I always feel slightly shifty though despite the old movies....(BTW my mum regularly did it too...

Hetty58.... I would rip my arm off to be able to ‘read a book...good or otherwise’ on a train., but between the never ending loud mobile conversations carried on ...the kids running up and down the open plan carriages with apparently no concern from negligent parents ..(.due to the fact they are the ones on the mobiles )...the tinny music coming from the idiots’ headsets....and the constant munching and slurping of copious amounts of food ....(it seems people can’t go 3 hours without eating)....I find my concentration levels can’t cope. Perhaps it’s my bad , inconsiderate behaviour that’s causing the oroblem

What annoys me is people who sit in aisle seat with a bag etc. then tut and sigh when you ask to sit down ?