London trains

No change then .I commuted into London from various points north and south of the capital for nearly 35 years, retiring in 2017.
The appalling habit of taking up a seat really needed by a commuter *who has paid very expensively, normally for
* a * seat with luggage or other sundry bits of stuff, including , I have seen myself, a bouquet of flowers( I kid you not) used to drive me nuts.
I can promise you that if I ever needed a seat myself , taken up by an inanimate object , then that seat was freed up and I sat in it!!
I also experienced on one of the trains bound for the suburb where I lived, three ghastly people saying that I could not occupy the fourth seat of a facing four , because they were keeping it for a friend who hadn't arrived.
Believe me I sat in that seat.Bothered was I not by one iota.
The noise you can't do much about unless its really unreasonable and then you can only ask. It is often a by-product of drunkness so you need to judge the situation.
You just have to suck this stuff up or not use the trains.
If you are on Inter Citys you can book "quiet" carriages to avoid excessive noise and bleeping electronic gadgets.

I use both over and underground a few times each week. I’d say half the time I get offered a seat. If I see bags on a seat I just say, excuse me, as I’m about to plonk my backside down . They quickly move it then!

I use GW trains to London a few times a year to visit family. Also the tube across London. Trains are so relaxing, a seat can be booked when making the booking.
The only time I have ever had any real problem was once, a couple of years back, when I was in a first class seat and some men insisted that the rugby match they were watching on their laptop, needed to be heard by the whole carriage heard this match including all the noise he and his mates were making. These were not 'youngsters' but people in the 30's/40's. I was not at all well at that time, and had hoped to be able sleep that couple of hours on the train, but even when I asked, them, politely to keep the noise down, they did not comply.

On two occasions I have used the late night Saturday or Sunday train home, and it is on those that there is drinking as people return home from evenings out, etc. Always found these good humoured and helpful, but I do not like it. Amazed that they actually sell alcoholic drinks on the trainsw.

Whitewavemark2

My experience is quite different. People are incredibly kind I always find, and I am never left standing, or struggling with shopping etc.

I have to admit I have not been on a London train for quite a while. But I am glad to hear there are still nice people around.

I met my DH on a London train. I was lost, late at night, and asked him for help. He took me home by taxi - that was quite a long time ago (April 1970).

Yes you can book seats if you know exactly when you are travelling and they don't have to delay/re-route/shorten the train etc. I have booked a seat and then found "all bookings cancelled" due to the consolidation of two services.

If you have a standard type of open return ticket (say) an "off peak return" where you catch a number of trains then you could book the outward journey (on most routes) but not the return if you don't know exactly when you will be returning at the time of buying the ticket.

If you know you are travelling and have booked your tickets in advance can you not book seats these days? You used to be able to do it up until 24 hours before departure. But don't do what I done once I made someone get up saying I had booked the seat and the ticket on the seat must have got lost but realised when I got off I was in the wrong carriage 🙊

My experience is quite different. People are incredibly kind I always find, and I am never left standing, or struggling with shopping etc.

Absolutely no excuse for rudeness, people should move their luggage/bags/shopping off the seats and younger people should offer their seats.

I’ve been on train journeys where people have offered their seats to me and some where people haven’t.

We have not had problems when on the train the problem we have is they just don't turn up, they have either been cancelled or broken down or there is a strike.

Sarnia

I haven't had many problems on trains. I often come across some helpful fellow passenger offering to help me and my luggage on and off trains. Perhaps my age and a walking stick prompt some to help and I do avoid rush hour for travelling.

After a very long train journey via Eurostar, all the way from Dijon I paused (probably with an exhausted sigh) at the bottom of a longish flight of steps between Vauxhall Tube and the main line station - for the penultimate leg of my journey home.

I will be forever grateful to the lovely man who, without a word, picked my suitcase up and carried it up for me. Bless you, whoever you were!

I’m glad some of you have had better experiences! I do wonder if it also differs according to time of travel….we have to go at weekends.

I haven't had many problems on trains. I often come across some helpful fellow passenger offering to help me and my luggage on and off trains. Perhaps my age and a walking stick prompt some to help and I do avoid rush hour for travelling.

That’s one thing about trains in places like Singapore. Young people always offer their seats to older people and everyone is super polite. Here in Australia it varies. Mostly people don’t eat or drink on trains, you are not supposed to but of course some do, usually young ones. The schoolchildren tend to be polite and will offer older ones a seat. I don’t remember seeing bags on seats, not a nasty habit that has reached here yet.

I think the tube is generally more civilised than long distance services. I think that's because if you stand up on a packed train you may be standing for two or more hours so you may think twice - especially at the end of a long day.

In terms of bags on seats I'll always ask them to move them so I can sit down, as Witzend does. If they are in a place I'd prefer to sit I will ask even if it's not the very last seat.

Cheaper trains out of Euston in my direction are often stuffed full - so whilst the person might be fed up initially by having to move their bag, within a few minutes it would no doubt have happened anyway.

Lots of trains have "shrunk" over the years it seems to me. The loss of just one carriage can make a significant difference.

I travel on the train to London Euston fairly regularly to see family and it is always so crowded. Yes, people are more reluctant to give up their seats. One one occasion, I was standing next to a heavily pregnant woman who was close to collapse as she was so hemmed in and I asked if anyone could give her their seat. The only person who offered was a little Chinese girl. All the men just stared out of the window or at their phones.

My son tells me since he's been back in the office 3 days a week, trains from his neck of the woods, The Chiltern Line, into London, have got progressively worse. This was previously a good service, now when the train turns up at his station, they frequently have only 3 carriages and it's every man, or woman for themselves, often not being able to get on at all, deeply frustrating particularly as the costs of commuting are extortionate. It has been mooted that livestock would not have to put up with these conditions that commuters do.

There are of course very inconsiderate people, possibly more so now that individuals have the ability to play something loud through their phone so everyone else has to listen and the phone calls, not brief ones, they're ok, but the detailed ones about "what they did last night" for example. Yes! "shut up no one cares" and then there are those who set up office and treat that as their own personal space, and if anyone has the temerity to ask to sit down where their stuff is......the hurrumphing and sighing is enough to want to ask "did you pay for several seats then?" I don't think you are in the minority, it's one of life's trials and I'm sure others have the same opinion, thank God not everyone is oblivious to those around them though. .

Same as Gingster. I’m offered seats on the Tube and ordinary trains. I don’t think I look too old and decrepit!

Gingster

I’ve found the complete opposite Stillness when my friend and I travel into London and back, usually in rush hour.
Someone always stands up and offers their seat, on the overhead and also the tube.
I’ve had two or three people all stand up at the same time, offering.

I have had this happen to me too on many occasions. I must like a little old lady who needs it. I do!

Just ask the person with the bag/feet on the seat 'is this anyone's seat?' They sometimes just need reminding that they are being thoughtless and selfish.

I never have any hesitation over politely asking someone to move their bag/s from a seat, if there isn’t anywhere else to sit. There may be the odd eyeroll, but nobody has ever refused. TBH I can never understand people who stand there silently fuming, because they won’t ask.

Of course people should move bags without being asked, if others are having to stand, but there will always be some who won’t.

I have no need nowadays to use the overground but I also find on tubes people willingly give up their seat for me and I am always very grateful and tell them so.

I find on buses people use seats for their shopping but I ask them to remove it.

What I do find embarrassing is even traffic stops to allow me to cross a road, In one area where I live we are very short of peedestrian crossings.

I’ve found the complete opposite Stillness when my friend and I travel into London and back, usually in rush hour.
Someone always stands up and offers their seat, on the overhead and also the tube.
I’ve had two or three people all stand up at the same time, offering.