No drinking carriages?
A friend had this experience on a train on Saturday:
" I am still reeling from the effects of a truly shocking trip to Cardiff on Saturday (went to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the musical with my obsessed 4 year old son - and that part of the day was delightful). On both legs of the trip - 9:45am departure from London Paddington and 5:25pm return from Cardiff - we were surrounded by hordes of drunken football fans (yes - knocking it back at 9:45am and in style). The whole train was at the mercy of these drunken, swearing and aggressive men. The buffet car kept serving them alcohol, noone dared to ask them to stop smoking, and the language used was just unspeakable and not what you want when travelling with a small child keen to expand his vocabulary...... In the end I was forced to take my little boy and crouch on the floor by the loos - avoiding the broken glass - in an attempt to protect him. When I spoke to the guard and asked him why these louts weren't thrown off the train, he said it was always like this but he couldn't challenge them on his own and there were insufficient police resources to come to his assistance."
Maybe they should introduce a no alcohol carriage on trains?
posted by Whispering Walls at 7:32 am
5 Comments:
People don't seem to take any notice of "quiet carriages". All these rules, for example, 'no alcohol on the tube', don't solve the problem of excessive drinking. They merely shift the problem somewhere else when really it is something that needs to be challenged on many levels. It is a deeply engrained cultural problem. Politicians keep talking of the need to tackle it yet its been a problem since the gin palaces of London in the 18th Century.
Hi Anon - you may be right that some people take no notice of "quiet" carriages but the old "No Smoking" carriages worked so there must be a chance for a "No Alcohol" carriage. I no longer drink gin, otherwise I may be tempted by a gin palace!
I've witnessed this kind of behaviour too and can only sympathise with your friend. It's a shame that the railway authorities turn a blind eye against it. I guess the guard feels outnumbered and knows he can't throw them off on his own without causing what could be an unpleasant confrontation for himself and other passengers.
I loved Chitty too when I took my sons to see it in London. The child snatcher was so scary.
What a distressing experience for your friend and her son. It makes one despair.
I recently travelled to the South of France on the TGV. Plenty of alcohol and very civilised.
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