Train Etiquette

Trains

I use trains a lot.  I like using the train.  I've typically found driving quite stressful so where possible using the train has been a better option.  The downside is (as it always has) other people.  I have always thought that there was an etiquette to being a train passenger - but apparently that's just me in the main.  I find myself constantly amazed at the things I see and hear people do and say.  In no particular order:

• Passengers accusing other travellers of taking their booked seat for it to turn out that they're on the wrong train, or the wrong time train, or even on a couple occasions - the wrong date!
  
• Passengers that think its perfectly OK to consume their own seat, the seat next to them and all the table space in front of them and think that no one else will mind.
  
• Passengers that let their kids run riot on the train - almost feral behaviour at times, treating the idea that they're on the train like the they're in a playground somewhere.
  
• Passengers that feel the need to commentate on the whole trip - everything they see out of the window needs to be narrated for the rest of the passengers.

The train operators don't help.  They tolerate some passenger behaviour for their own sake, not the sake of other travellers.  They also act in a manner that can sometimes leave passengers in a negative frame of mind even before they have got on the train:

• Allowing families with small children to book seats in the quiet coach - thereby defeating the purpose of the quiet coach.
  
• Leaving passengers stood in wet and cold conditions - not allowing them to board until the set time and thereby creating ill feeling before dealing with each other after boarding.
  
• Cancelling trains under circumstances that make no sense (I recently had a train cancelled at the departure time because of a "lack of train crew" - something they would have clearly known some time before the departure time but waited to inform the passengers).

Back to the etiquette.  There should be a clear set of guidelines for the passengers about what is acceptable and unacceptable once on the train.  Personally I've never been afraid of speaking to another passenger about the issues caused by their actions on the train - it would just be better if I had something to point at in a more official sense.

This probably makes me sound like a bit of a train-nazi in some senses but I spend a stupendous amount of time and money (about £5k a year) on train travel and for me its a serious issue that can easily be dealt with - so why not deal with it if the establishment would like more people to travel on trains.