Bags on train seats!?

Keith

Guy on my train last night thought the train seat opposite him was so he could stretch his legs and use it as a space for his knees to rest against, his face when I asked him to move was like he'd walked in on me and his mother.

He sit sat slumped in his suit with his knees against mine for the journey home.

mikey72

flyingscotno1 wrote: »

I used to commute by bus in Glasgow and there was a regular student on the 16.38 who always without fail put a bag on the seat, earphones in and ignored you to everybody's annoyance. One day the bus became quite full and a building site worker walked up to him, he ignored him naturally, so he pulled his earphone out, said "did the bag pay for a f***** seat" and threw it at him. Needless to say everyone on the bus had a good chuckle as he made the guy as uncomfortable as possible. Lesson was learned and when it was busy it sat on his lap most times on!

If it's on a seat I'll think nothing of picking the bag up, saying "is this yours" and passing it them as I sit down, if they don't move it fast enough. No one has ever complained.

laurel7172

I think having children makes you shameless about such things. Usually we need three seats out of the four around a table and do the cheerful bustling up thing to turf the commuter with three seats out of the two to which he isn't entitled. I did once have to put a child on the seat with the bag (a polite request having been refused), but the hint was taken very quickly after that. Fortunate, because my next move would probably have been child plus chocolate...

billy_the_kid_2

One thing that annoys me more than non moved bags on seats is people that put their feet on seats opposite. It must be a sign of getting old, as my parents drummed this into me. I now seems that everyone is doing it, not just the young.

rev_henry

billy_the_kid wrote: »

One thing that annoys me more than non moved bags on seats is people that put their feet on seats opposite. It must be a sign of getting old, as my parents drummed this into me. I now seems that everyone is doing it, not just the young.

A couple of years ago Merseyrail sent inspectors with cameras to film and prosecute people doing this as its actually illegal under Railway Byelaws I believe.

johnnyroper

clairetelche1 wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone else gets as wound up as me about people taking up seats on public transport (mainly the Metro for me) with their shopping bags / rucksacks / cases...

I start my Metro journey about 1/4 of the way into its route and there are very rarely any seats free. Doesn't really bother me - I'm usually happy to lean against a seat edge watching the wourld go by etc...

However - when I got on the other day a young lad was taking up a seat with his suitcase. I noticed the 'free seat' when I boarded but waited until a few minutes into my journey to see if someone nearer to it would ask him to move it. Several people were standing and yet no-one asked him to shift the case!

After a few minutes I thought '!!!!!! it' - I don't want to stand for 35 minutes if I don't have to and moved through the 7 or 8 people standing by it and politely asked him to move it. His reply was that there was nowehere to put it and I politely told him that I had paid for a ticket and would like him to move it.

Eventually he did (and put the case on his knee) but proceeded to giggle with his girlfriend all the way to town about how he couldn't believe the cheek of me asking him to move it and making him uncomfortable!!

Grrr - what are your views, would you ask him to move it or was I just being arsey?? This happens quite often and I'm always amazed that people will pay for a ticket and stand for an entire journey because someone is using a seat for their bags!!

Rant over - was just wondering!! Lol xx

I work for one of the TOC's and see this happening all the time along with the equally sellfish to$$ers who insist on putting their dog on seat next to them,it always seems to be a dog that loses loads of hair so even when they have got off the seat has that much hair on it people do not want to use it then.

if you get a train with decent crew on it then they will tell the pax to remove whatever is on seat,but i would also encourage people to do what the OP did and get the other passenger to give up the seat,that way they might not do it in future.

johnnyroper

Sublime wrote: »

If he was naive enough to say in front of me that I was rude, and had made him uncomfortable (bless!), I would have let rip with exactly what he could do with his suitcase, if his knees were an unsuitable place to [STRIKE]shove[/STRIKE] put it.

A train ticket buys one seat, (not one for your luggage, and one for you).

Good for you! :T

a train ticket does not buy a seat on train,it buys a place on train from point a to point b,if you can get a seat then great.
if it bought a seat then there would be loads of compensation claims going in to the toc's as so many people have to stand only.

Person_one

Sublime wrote: »

If he was naive enough to say in front of me that I was rude, and had made him uncomfortable (bless!), I would have let rip with exactly what he could do with his suitcase, if his knees were an unsuitable place to [STRIKE]shove[/STRIKE] put it.

A train ticket buys one seat, (not one for your luggage, and one for you).

Good for you! :T

Actually, a ticket just buys you passage on the train, no guarantee of a seat as I experienced to my delight on a 3 hour tilting train journey last week.

Bags don't even pay for passage though, so I agree that he was very rude. It can be hard travelling by train with a giant bag but you either just get on with it knowing you may have to be uncomfortable or you cough up the extra for a taxi.

I regularly ask people to move bags, I don't think any have minded too much. We all sort of hope nobody will sit next to us but most don't begrudge it too much when someone does.

vikingaero

I would have sat on his case.

TimothyEBaldwin

In my experience passengers always remove luggage from seats if asked, though I don't understand why they put it on their laps rather than in the available luggage space. I have also often encountered the opposite problem, passengers who refuse to remove themselves from the luggage space despite there being plenty of seats.

Had to fetch the Train Manager once on a Eurostar train when passengers piled up luggage against a couple of doors!