Andy Burnham has announced a campaign against nuisance behaviour on public transport, including “headphone dodgers” who play loud music.
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who → announce → music
“We’ve all been on the train when someone starts blasting music or videos from their phone,” Burnham said in a statement.
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Burnham → start → statement
“It gets on your nerves and can quickly spoil the journey.”
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It → get → journey
Six people share their views on Burnham’s new campaign and recount their experiences of antisocial behaviour on public transport.
‘It saddens me that we have lost a basic sense of politeness’
I live in London and commute daily on the tube.
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I → share → tube
Even yesterday, sitting next to me was a guy playing videos out loud, which is the most common issue.
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which → sit → videos
I’m interested in what has caused a sudden change to our social contract that allows people the psychological safety to completely disregard others.
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that → ’m → others
It’s not top of the list of worst behaviour; it’s in the same bracket as leaning on poles so no one can hold them, leaving your bag on the only seat left, leaning your arm on the fold up chair, or man-spreading.
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one → ’ → chair
It mostly saddens me that we have lost a basic sense of politeness.
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we → sadden → politeness
I’m not sure Andy Burnham’s announcement will do anything.
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announcement → do → anything
If you’re already playing very loud videos in public, presumably you don’t care very much about what you should be doing.
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you → play → what
You never really see police or “safety officers”, so who would enforce it?
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who → see → it
I’m glad they aren’t making the tube workers or bus drivers try to enforce it though; it would make their days hell.
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days → ’m → it
Claire, 41, London
‘Almost every bus or train journey has someone blaring music’
I get the train five nights a week to work and nine times out of 10, there is somebody taking phone calls on speakerphone, blasting videos or music, even in the so-called quiet carriage.
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I → have → carriage
Everyone’s too scared to ask them to move to a different carriage or turn it down, so it’s a regular occurrence.
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it → ’ → it
It makes my journey a nightmare.
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journey → make → ?
No one enforces anything.
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one → enforce → anything
I doubt this new law will change this.
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law → doubt → this
It should include phone calls too and people putting calls on loudspeaker.
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people → include → loudspeaker
It doesn’t go far enough.
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It → go → ?
Margaret, 49, Weston-super-Mare
‘Commuters shouldn’t have to put up with it’
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Commuters → have → it
I think this is a great step to protect public spaces as shared spaces, and to show people the boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
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this → think → behaviour
The last time I asked somebody who was playing reels aloud to use their headphones I was called “a piece of shit” and decided not to ask anybody that again.
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I → ask → that
But commuters shouldn’t have to put up with it.
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commuters → have → it
Of course, the question is whether and how this will be enforced consistently.
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this → enforce → ?
Ben Ellis, 38, Edinburgh
‘I’m sick of being the bad guy who points it out’
I’ve always challenged this behaviour by asking people if they have headphones.
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they → ’m → headphones
If they say no, I ask if they can turn the sound off.
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they → say → sound
Most of the time this is OK, but I have had repeated incidents where people refuse.
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people → have → incidents
I’m stubborn and confident, so I’ll explain that it is not normal or socially acceptable to subject other people to jarring video scrolling.
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it → ’m → scrolling
Only once in this situation did a train guard ask someone playing football at full volume to turn it off.
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guard → ask → it
And I can’t blame them.
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I → blame → them
You’d be arguing with idiots for 90% of your shift if you did.
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you → argue → shift
I’m sick of being the bad guy who points it out.
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who → ’m → it
It seems like people of all ages have forgotten basic decency and consideration.
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people → seem → decency
I had a run-in with a teenage kid who was watching TikTok or something, and he said, “What do you mean?
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you → have → What
If you were watching Netflix on your phone, wouldn’t you have the volume on?”
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you → watch → volume
So there’s a range of understanding of what people think is appropriate behaviour in a public place.
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people → ’ → place
John, 43, Sheffield
‘Football fans on the trains can be difficult to deal with’
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fans → deal → trains
One of the bigger issues that never gets addressed is football fans on public transport.
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that → address → transport
I’m a football fan myself, but fans on trains can be extremely offensive, oppressive, aggressive and difficult for people to deal with.
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people → ’m → trains
One time that springs to mind was a bunch of fans on a two-carriage train.
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that → spring → train
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
