Women-only train carriages

I remember those women or ladies-only carriages, I used to get them when I was going to college in the 1970s. They weren't connected to the rest of the train and I think a woman got murdered in one. I remember my mother shuddering when she read that passengers in adjacent carriages heard her screams but could do nothing. Good old tabloids.
Surely, it's much too complicated now with trans people. Although unpleasantly crowded, I'd much rather the current carriages with an aisle and open seating.

Good old Wikipedia, it was much later than I thought and the man has never been found or convicted. An unsolved murder.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Deborah_Linsley

Forgot the link, sorry!

Don't think I would choose to travel in a women only carriage. I can remember when I was a student I used to travel home at weekends from Glasgow. I loved the old fashioned compartments but after spending the journey with a drunk man for company (I was too shy to get up and change compartments) I decided to heed my mother's advice and travelled in the bigger carriage.

Once again it comes across as a blame the victim!! Now it should be safe for ALL passengers to have a reasonable journey. When there is enough staff on the train, even enough staff to be able to get information from once you are on a train it would be better for everyone. I have travelled all over the world alone and have no difficulty in taking myself where I want to go. I do not think I have more rights than others but do think I am as entitled to travel as much as others. Due to back problems I now need some assistance with long platforms or carrying luggage etc and stairs. So I went through all the routine of checking things out and researching all I needed to do and then booked my train. I do enjoy long train journeys and sometimes they are still more expensive than my driving myself. But of course when I am driving myself I know that I will go where I want, when I want and can trust myself entirely. On this carefully researched journey, I stood on a marked area for specific carriage and the train went quite a long way further up the platform and was very difficult to reach the correct door, only helped by another passenger. On the journey back I had been quoted a train travelling directly from scotland with no change but no Scotrail stopped in Edinborough, I had been given wron information, had to spend over an hour and no comfortable place to sit. Not long enough to go out and get something to eat or walk about, so just stuck in station. The actual staff I dealt with tried to help and did there best but I did not feel in charge of my journey, there were very few rail staff to ask questions of let alone find anyone to help me to get to the platform I now needed to walk along and after the total fiasco of their planning I had little trust in their ability to get me where I wanted to get to without delay, hassle, causing me a lot more pain with my back and overall I ended up paying more for a more stressful and problematic journey. Despite having a railcard and at the moment I am absolutely sure that I am far better keeping control of my journeys by driving myself and I know who I can trust. Yes after various phone calls etc I had some refund but it spoilt what should have been a special time away, and am now a widow and live alone. I had planned that trip with the idea that once the covid situation had improved I would hope to go back to doing yha and being free to come and go as I please. Well it would not have mattered one iota, whether it was a woman only coach you would still have arrived much later on a dark evening for a start and I had specifically gone for that train so that I would be early for a meeting of the group in the beginning. Huh I didnt even make the dinner!!! Well just let any man have a go at me and he will get more than he bargains for. As I say I have been around a while . At the very least having a very full heavy shoulder bag which can be held and swung at a suitable level with be quite a deterrent!! The railway companies should stop trying to just make the most money for their shareholders and provide guards and plenty of staff about to provide the service they purport to supply for the actual passengers they still have on the train. If we are going to get highly priced rubbishy food, on a train that cannot even be guaranteed to reach the markers for carriages that they themselves put there and the chance of arriving on time in a relaxed manner is about the same as a snowflake in hell!!

madelaine Scotrail is being taken back into public ownership in April this year ,no more Dutch company or shareholders to answer to .Just the great Scottish public who are very vocal when there are transport issues.

Not worth the hassle. Not able to police it, who's going to eject a bloke who decides he wants sit where he wants? Spend the money on MORE Staff!! Wow! That's a good idea! How about someone who patrols the carriages, checks people have paid, sorts out any disturbance, reassures passengers , can answer queries about the journey for unfamiliar passengers? Maybe they'd have a uniform? And they could have direct radio contact to btp. Hey they could have a title too! What about "guard"? I think I've hit on an idea gang?!!

mummer we have those too ,as this proposal is for SCOTRAIL then the way its run is relevant.We have ticket checkers/sellers on all our trains so why then is the womens only carriage such an issue with people on here.We're NOT inflicting it on England its in Scotland ,where the services will be publicly run from April .

It seems to me paddyann54, that this daft idea comes up in different places now and again (as I said on 16/2 at 12:52:54) and it behoves all of us who think it's completely unacceptable to say so loudly and whenever necessary. After all, as is obvious from several posts, people use the trains on both sides of the border wherever they happen to live. I would be against it on any rail service wherever it was. Scotrail may have guards/ticket inspectors now, but perhaps you didn't know that it has been suggested at times that they are unnecessary.

A lot of thin ends of wedges around, I think.

I discuss issues relating to women in many different countries paddyann.

JillyJosie2

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Deborah_Linsley

Forgot the link, sorry!

But she wasn't in a women only carriage. The link says she probably chose the carriage, which didn't have a corridor, because it was a smoking carriage.

paddyann54

madelaine Scotrail is being taken back into public ownership in April this year ,no more Dutch company or shareholders to answer to .Just the great Scottish public who are very vocal when there are transport issues.

Great news padyann54 and presumably it will mean staffing levels will be maintained and all trains will be supervised.

Women only carriages bother me because I feel it may encourage the idea that women have to stay in certain spaces and cannot mix with men. I fear it isn't really about safety and although I fully understand some cultures have problems with women mixing with men I don't feel that we should actively encourage this.

"Women only carriages bother me because I feel it may encourage the idea that women have to stay in certain spaces and cannot mix with men. I fear it isn't really about safety and although I fully understand some cultures have problems with women mixing with men I don't feel that we should actively encourage this."

trisher, I agree with you about that. Often I disagree with what you say, so it's nice to find something we think alike about!

Thanks Wheniwasyourage For your agreement and your lovely post.
I first became concerned about this some years ago. I was in a local park and it was some celebration. Whole families arrived but the men were in one area and the women in another. The women and children in the play area and the men setting up barbecues in a grassy area. I felt I couldn't go into the grassy area and that made me cross! It's something I don't think we should legitimise in any way/

"Women only carriages bother me because I feel it may encourage the idea that women have to stay in certain spaces and cannot mix with men. I fear it isn't really about safety and although I fully understand some cultures have problems with women mixing with men I don't feel that we should actively encourage this."

I agree too Trisher

I think it is focusing on the the victims rather than the perpetrators!

...as in dealing with the perpetrators

Yes, I agree with Trisher’s POV. If there are guards/conductors anyway on Scottish trains (I don’t know myself, as I’m miles away from the nearest station!) women-only carriages wouldn’t be necessary.

I think this will just create more division concerning the definition of ‘women’. I don’t think they would be as safe as a full mixed carriage. I agree with pp’s - more guards maybe.

I think (hope) that the whole thing will die away again for the simple reason that it would need more rolling stock and they always seem to be a bit short of it already. It would be nice to have longer trains on some routes, but not so they can do this!