For our prime minister, it’s “one of the most annoying things on public transport”: maybe you’re trying to work, or read, or you’ve finally got your kid to sleep, when someone starts blasting sound from their phone at full volume.
As I sign off this First Edition en route from Glasgow to London (the things I’ve heard on this commute, against my will, I’ll save for another newsletter), I’m hoping everyone has been paying attention.
asserted
everyone → ’ → attention
I’m struck by how few voices there have been suggesting Burnham should be concentrating on more important matters.
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Burnham → strike → matters
It seems to me that other people’s noise, and other inconsiderate behaviour on public transport, has become shorthand for wider concerns about social cohesion, generational conflict and political fragmentation.
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noise → seem → cohesion
Put simply, we are all making much more noise, and have become much worse at listening to what anyone else is actually saying.
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anyone → put → what
For today’s newsletter, I spoke to a bus driver, a transport expert and a cultural critic to find out more.
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I → speak → more
That’s after the headlines.
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That → ’ → headlines
The prime minister has said he has asked regional authorities to impose partial curfews in some cities after the government admitted police had “lost control” in several places during violent weekend protests around the country.
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police → say → country
Andy Burnham has told officials to rip up their plans for how to fix Thames Water and present him with more radical options for what to do with the stricken company.
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Burnham → tell → company
At least 53 people have been killed in a Houthi ballistic missile attack on a training camp for Yemeni government forces in the largest single loss of life since the country’s civil war reignited in September.
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war → kill → September
Israeli police have detained 10 people in a rare raid against settlers, after a weekend of extreme violence in the occupied West Bank including an attack on US photojournalist Heidi Levine.
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police → detain → Levine
Nigel Farage undermined his own claims that a £5m gift was for security when he referred to the money as a reward for Brexit, according to one of his closest aides.
uncertain
he → undermine → aides
In depth: Can a campaign against ‘loudcasting’ make public transport quieter?
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transport → make → loudcasting
When Andy Burnham launched his crusade against unnecessary noise and antisocial behaviour on public transport with a chatty Instagram post recorded on a morning train into Manchester Piccadilly, my first thought was: “I bet he didn’t upload that on the dodgy onboard wifi.”
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he → launch → wifi
The prime minister’s sights were set on the phenomenon described as “loudcasting” or “headphone dodging” – but you don’t need a specialist term, because you know it when you hear the passenger next to you blasting Facebook slop on loudspeaker.
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passenger → set → loudspeaker
Alongside a nationwide campaign encouraging people to plug in their headphones and “share the carriage, not the noise,” Burnham announced new guidance to help local transport authorities introduce fines of up to £100 for nuisance behaviour like vaping, littering and playing loud music or videos on buses.
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authorities → encourage → buses
Train operating companies already have powers to impose fines of up to £1,000 for antisocial behaviour.
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companies → operate → behaviour
If you’re grinding your molars at the thought, you’re not alone.
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you → grind → thought
A hefty majority of Britons, about 88% according to recent polling, consider it unacceptable to play music out loud on a train.
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it → accord → train
Who will actually enforce the rules?
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Who → enforce → rules
It’s still unclear how these new rules would be enforced.
uncertain
rules → ’ → ?
Government officials have reassured bus drivers that they won’t be expected to police passengers themselves.
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they → reassure → passengers
That job will fall on transport safety officers or police officers.
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job → fall → officers
Mark, a bus driver in central London, tells me he and his colleagues simply don’t have the capacity to help.
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he → tell → capacity
He spends his working life in the glass cabinet at the front of the vehicle.
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He → spend → vehicle
He can’t hear every noise or spot every puff of vape smoke on the top deck, and, as well as navigating the city traffic, he already has other things to focus on, such as fare-dodging.
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he → hear → dodging
Mark’s route has become noisier in recent years, though he’s keen not to point out “it’s an all-ages” issue, and not to lay the blame solely with younger passengers.
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it → become → passengers
He doubts whether Burnham can isolate the problem to public transport.
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Burnham → doubt → transport
“It’s a whole society thing: being kinder and more aware of their environment.”
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It → ’ → environment
“It’s not workable without resources,” he says.
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he → ’ → resources
“I don’t really see how it would be enforceable: you can’t have someone on every bus and train.”
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you → see → bus
Here lies the difficulty: fines for nuisance noise on trains are already vanishingly rare, with offenders able to shut up or leave the carriage before enforcement arrives.
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enforcement → lie → carriage
The number of British Transport Police (BTP) officers has fallen by more than 10% over the past two years.
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number → fall → years
The people left to challenge the noisy doom-scroller are, therefore, you and me.
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people → leave → scroller
Transport for London, for example, has done some great work on bystander intervention, suggesting straightforward ways to interrupt bad behaviour without putting yourself in danger, but many of us would think twice about confronting a stranger in the confines of a moving vehicle.
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many → do → vehicle
Not everyone is impressed by the scale of the response.
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everyone → impress → response
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite – a woman resolutely resistant to hoping, again – described the new policy as “well-meaning but wholly inadequate” to tackle the “avalanche of escalating abuse” faced by the transport workers she represents.
“There has been a massive escalation in reported assaults on public transport across the country,” says our transport correspondent Gwyn Topham, who reported earlier this month on the growing number of verbal and physical assaults faced by transport workers and passengers.
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who → hop → workers
In my previous incarnation as Scotland correspondent, I wrote about bus driver Keith Rollinson, who died at Elgin bus station after a violent assault by a teenage passenger.
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who → write → passenger
Thoughtlessly broadcasting your TikTok scrolling is at the other end of the spectrum, but there’s an argument that antisocial behaviour exists on a continuum, and that a “nip it in the bud” approach might prevent more serious problems from escalating.
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approach → broadcast → problems
Zero tolerance policing of course has a mixed record – and if you detect Tony Blair vibes here, so do I.
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you → have → vibes
Dropping a grand for loudcasting your tunes has more than a whiff of New Labour’s respect agenda and the classist asbo culture it ushered in, which singularly failed to tackle antisocial behaviour at its roots.
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which → drop → roots
…and 46 more, not listed.
The Aporia
