Passengers get ruder and selfish

in General by Jon C — March 18, 2009 at 12:24 am | 0 comments

What is happening to people’s manners in this recession?

Passengers on Auckland trains seem to be displaying more selfish attitudes by the day.

This morning, a young woman was blasting - and I mean as if broadcasting from the Sky Tower at full volume to rise above the train noise - her interpretation of good music, namely gangsta rap, to the whole carriage by holding up her mobile phone speaker so we could all enjoy it.

She totally ignored a couple of polite suggestions from people around her to turn it down. Passengers got restless and closed their books as they couldn’t concentrate.

Tomorrow I’m buying some earphones from Dick Smith and will carry them in the hope I strike her again and give them to her as a present that will no doubt be rudely rejected.

Tonight the train was very crowded but one young man occupied two seats - placing his normal size student backpack on the seat next to him. He was busy reading a study book.

I very politely asked if I could occupy the seat that had his backpack on - and he continued to ignore me.

So I suggested that was fine by me but I would ensure when the train guard came he would pay for two seats.

He swore barely under his breath and reluctantly put his bag on the floor under his feet but at an angle at which I had to almost sit sideways.

I’m a big fan of getting on with fellow citzens / passengers and would hate us to get like Melbourne but maybe someone needs to be enforcing good neighbour rules.

Last year, the Victoria Government issued 18,347 fines to the city’s train passengers for what it judged bad behaviour earning the state a not-to-be-sniffed-at cool AU$3.1m.

Inspectors each day fined around 50 train passengers $160 each just for having their feet on seats!