Private Transport

I travel on public transport daily, during peak hours, mostly.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people think that public transport is their private domain & you, as a fellow passenger, are impinging on their space when you get on the same carriage. I don't just mean the anti-social folk who immediately put their feet up, or leave rubbish behind as if no-one else matters, but those who notice you & treat you with disdain directly.

Let me give you a few examples.
I live at the end of the line. This may make for a long trip, but it usually means I get the pick of the seats. The best seats are the two singles seats at the back of a Waratah-style carriage (one behind the other). I don't like the one right at the back, because I find it too cramped, but the one just in front is perfect - my ideal seat.

I used to have a very good travelling relationship with a woman who would take that cramped seat by choice. Although we would often be the only ones in the upper area of the carriage, I don't think either of us thought it strange that we sat so close. That woman has moved on (or gone on a long holiday).

One morning, I arrived to find a different woman sitting in that cramped seat. I sat down in my accustomed seat in front of her, & heard her mumbles of frustration as she proceeded to get up & move to the other end of the carriage. She was still talking to herself about my apparent breach of etiquette after she was settled so far away. I can imagine that the complaints started up again within five stops when the train gets crowded enough for her to have had someone jamming their knees into hers.
Some people are never happy.

On that very day, I was catching a country train home that gets me the last hop - a ride of about two minutes. The train is only two carriages long, & there are rarely two people sitting together beyond my stop, as far as I can tell. However, people have come to expect that they will sit alone & don't take kindly to such interlopers as me taking up one of their three seats.

On this occasion, one person was taking up six seats because their large bag was filling the floor between benches to the point where the direction the seat faced couldn't be changed. This meant that there was a chap facing the wrong way on a three-seater of his own. As the train pulled out, I realised why he was sitting on the aisle side - his wife was on the other side of the aisle, facing the same way, filling another four seats with more of their luggage.

I can imagine an old-fashioned ticket inspector "Could you show me the tickets you bought for these packages?"

A total of three people filling thirteen seats in what was effectively peak hour. Admittedly, the only people standing were those, like me, with a two-minute journey ahead of them, but a little common sense & courtesy wouldn't go astray.

On another note of amusement/frustration ...

Every time there is a delay on a train, I hear "I shouldn't have to pay for this!" from someone in a tightly-packed peak-hour journey. One of these days, I will find the owner of the voice & ask them "How much would you be willing to pay to not have the occasional delay?" or else point out that this is exactly the service that they're paying for.