Bags on train seats!?

custardy

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

If im honest that would have riled me
i would most likely have quietly asked him if wanted to see what being truley uncomfortable was like

I dont know about others, but generaly i find if you just go up to the seat and stand by the offender they move the bag or whatever of the seat

custardy

delain wrote: »

I don't know about trains (Can't be easy to get a wheelchair on one) but on the buses here people move for wheelchairs without being asked mostly. If there are 2 buggies the driver might say the bus is full, but then he'd otherwise have to throw passengers off who've already paid.

Even being pregnant and in considerable pain a lot of the time (I have SPD) I would still move if I saw someone with crutches get on.

I don't move for the old witch though, especially if I'm the only other person on the bus and she just has to sit where I am, especially if 2 days before I've seen her make someone else move because she just had to have the opposite seat, which just so happened to be the only occupied one!

She is politely yet firmly reminded how much she wanted that one last time and how lucky that it's free today

here in Edinburgh the buses are pretty good
there is a dedicated wheelchair/buggy space
you can have 1 buggy up and one buggy folded down
if a wheelchair comes on then they have priority (rightly so) and the 2nd buggy must be folded down
though for me if i see the bus is packed and there are people sitting in the buggy space(some have fold down seats) then i let it go by than displace people.
some double deckerws have a wheel chair space and uggy space
when im using the bus with the buggy then im generally not under any time constriants,so its no issue to wait for another or just walk

also the front seats are marked as priority for older passengers

delain

custardy wrote: »

here in Edinburgh the buses are pretty good
there is a dedicated wheelchair/buggy space
you can have 1 buggy up and one buggy folded down
if a wheelchair comes on then they have priority (rightly so) and the 2nd buggy must be folded down
though for me if i see the bus is packed and there are people sitting in the buggy space(some have fold down seats) then i let it go by than displace people.
some double deckerws have a wheel chair space and uggy space
when im using the bus with the buggy then im generally not under any time constriants,so its no issue to wait for another or just walk

also the front seats are marked as priority for older passengers

We have an hourly bus service so I'd be annoyed if I had to get off with a buggy! I would though, because it's easier for me to walk home than it is for a disabled person.

custardy

delain wrote: »

We have an hourly bus service so I'd be annoyed if I had to get off with a buggy! I would though, because it's easier for me to walk home than it is for a disabled person.

well this is in the city so its generally more frequent and its rare for a buggy to be put off
for me,i im on the bus and see a parent on their own with a little baby, then i will fold my buggy down or get off(i dont mind walking a few stops to save them folding theres with a little one(my boys 2)
i general the Edinburgh set up seems to work quite well once you learn the 'rules'
though i dont rely on the bus as i drive,i do use the bus more than the car

delain

That's nice of you

My twins have autisitic tendencies and developmental delays and had a buggy until very late. I did get sick of explaining to people in the end, and if you folded the buggy they'd try to run about the bus and have to be held down and scream the whole way home.

They're much better now, thank god!

chuckley

aaaah see i always put my suitcase on my lap if im not near a luggage area, or i put it sideways to the outer seat and i sit there. I never take up seat space unless its an empty train.

when others do stuff like that though, i just stand there till they move.

joolsybools

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

No I don't ask people to move as I don't talk to people I don't know but if I could I would. However when people have obviously noticed you on your crutches than ran past you to get the last seat that is just wrong! This has happened to me a lot in London when I go - the tube is the worst for it from my experience.

delain - with regards to wheelchairs on trains if there isn't a ramp that you can use they say to go on backwards (the back wheels are bigger on self propel like I use). I don't go out without my partner so that's not a worry.

dgm24 - they also said about the seats being made wider "If the bus and train companies made the seats wider" so I don't see how my comment was bizzare to be honest.

There are priority seats on the tube so you should ask people to let you sit down on those ones. All you need to do is say "Can I sit down please"

clairetelche1

I'm FURIOUS!! Just travelled home from work - Metro was full and people were standing. father and son obviously travelling home from holiday taking up 2 seats with their cases. Elderly lady asked them to move bags from the outside seat - which they reluctantly did. I waited 3 stops to see if they'd develop some manners / get off but no joy so I thought '!!!!!! it, I'm asking'. Conversation went like this:

Me: Do you think you could move your cases please?
Him: No, there's nowhere to put them
Me: So you're refusing?
Him: Yip
Me: I think that's really selfish, I've paid nearly £4 for my ticket and shuoldn't have to stand so you can have a seat fro your bags.
Him: Oh well
Me: That's a really good example to set for your son
Him: Yip

Everyone else around me put their heads down, the Metro is not staffed by anyone other than the driver - 3 carriages away - realistically (and I know people will start saying 'I'd have thrown his bags off... ' etc but not really a viable option as a woman on my own) what could I have done / said??? After he got off (like 10 stops later) a few people said ' well done for trying..' but that was no help - maybe if someone had backed me up he's have been taught a lesson.

Not the seat which was the issue - i usually stand on the journey due to lack of seats but it was the out and out rudeness / selfishness that stung me - is this really what our society has stooped to??

eschaton

clairetelche1 wrote: »

I'm FURIOUS!! Just travelled home from work - Metro was full and people were standing. father and son obviously travelling home from holiday taking up 2 seats with their cases. Elderly lady asked them to move bags from the outside seat - which they reluctantly did. I waited 3 stops to see if they'd develop some manners / get off but no joy so I thought '!!!!!! it, I'm asking'. Conversation went like this:

Me: Do you think you could move your cases please?
Him: No, there's nowhere to put them
Me: So you're refusing?
Him: Yip
Me: I think that's really selfish, I've paid nearly £4 for my ticket and shuoldn't have to stand so you can have a seat fro your bags.
Him: Oh well
Me: That's a really good example to set for your son
Him: Yip

Everyone else around me put their heads down, the Metro is not staffed by anyone other than the driver - 3 carriages away - realistically (and I know people will start saying 'I'd have thrown his bags off... ' etc but not really a viable option as a woman on my own) what could I have done / said??? After he got off (like 10 stops later) a few people said ' well done for trying..' but that was no help - maybe if someone had backed me up he's have been taught a lesson.

Not the seat which was the issue - i usually stand on the journey due to lack of seats but it was the out and out rudeness / selfishness that stung me - is this really what our society has stooped to??

If you go back to page 1 you should have done what the Scottish guy did and asked him if his case had paid for a !!!!ing seat and then threw the case on top of him.

delain

I was reminded of this today, when I was waiting for the bus. I'm 7 months pregnant and an old lady asked me to move! I had my bag on my lap so I don't think she had realised, she looked mortified when I stood up :rotfl:

Then, when I eventually got on the bus, the driver shot off too fast and a different older lady actually fell and landed on me! Not public transport's finest day especially after this morning when I got on a bus with dodgy brakes and got thrown against the seat in front with quite some force. *sigh*