Train Ettiquette
Posted by: LT17
22nd Feb 2011 12:10pm
However, I'm wondering if anyone else is frustrated with the following types of behaviours on the train, or whether it is just understood and unnoticed, that these simple gestures of kindness no longer exist
- People pushing in front of you to be first on the train, just as the train arrives, when you have been waiting patiently at that spot for some time
- Men sitting next to you with their legs spread far apart, so they take up half of your seat.
- High School students who pay a portion fare and still sit down
- People talking loudly on their mobiles
- People who have sat the entire trip, not waiting until those who have stood the entire trip get off the train.
Am I the only one?
Pegasus
- 28th Oct 2011 07:47pm
Ha, obviously you are in Auckland. At first I tthought Brisbane because Newmarket is a Brisbane suburb but then it doesn't have a train station. I worked for NZR (as it was then) for 1/2 day about 40 years ago and things din't seem so bad back then.
We have the same problems in Brisbane (I don't travel by train or PT fortunately) and even years ago when I lived in Sydney the problems were overcrowded trains and buses, being squished up against someone who absolutely reeked of garlic and having nowhere to go and on an express that didn't stop for 20 mins. When I lived in Sydney - 1960's to 70's and had to catch a train home from the city I found a trick was to catch the train in the opposite direction for a couple of stations to where my train originated and get on there - at least I could usually bget a seat for my 1 hour trip home.
In Brisbane QR have introduced 'Quiet Cars' where mobile phones, radios and loud conversation is banned - maybe Kiwi Rail could learn a lesson from QR. There have been instances here of people being ejected from the train for bad behaviour and we have POLICE patrols on night trains to curb violence and other unsavoury behaviour.
When I was a kid (and I am now a grandfather) my mother always made me get up for a lady or old person and I was taught respect. Trouble is this generation of teenagers and young adults (generally speaking - there are exceptions) never got taught RESPECT. My son hated the word respect, now he is a parent with a teenage daughter and demands respect from her. He gets what he gave.
We all need to stop and look at the way society is going. If we continue this way it will end in more gangs and gang related violence because no-one will give an inch. Our legal systems are also to blame - punishment never fits the crime.
Some years ago I read in a magazine a letter from a woman who was obviously of my generation commenting about children's behaviour. She said her father was a Police Sgt in a country town. If Little Johnny got caught pinching lollies at the corner store he was handed over to the Sgt. who gave him a No. 11 where it hurt, took him home to his father who gave him another one and grounded him for 6 months.
Now the law says you can't even smack your children and the kids tell the Police and their parents to go get ****ed and nothing happens to them as a result so they just keep up the bad behaviour and by the time they are adults they have often been in prison at least once.
We have to start by looking top the past for how to shape the future. Change our own standards and behaviour. often financial pressures mean both parents are working long hours and kids are left to their own devices. We use TV as a babysiutter and give our kids rewards for bad behaviour so what do we expect? What have we taught them? If you want something, chuck a tantrum and you'll get it just to shut you up.
Help Caféstudy members by responding to their questions, or ask your own in Café Chat, and you will get the chance of earning extra rewards. Caféstudy will match these and donate equally to our two chosen Australian charities.
