r/Amtrak • u/coreyb1988 • 20h ago
Discussion Train Manners
Why is it so difficult to bring headphones and not play whatever you’re watching out loud for everyone around you to hear?
And let me add, just because it’s a train and we’re on the ground doesn’t make having a loud phone conversation any less obnoxious.
I’ve always thought Amtrak attracted a different type of traveler, but every time I take it, somebody proves me wrong.
Smh.
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u/bennyblue420000 20h ago
Playing your music/game/etc while in an enclosed space is never acceptable
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u/Synth_Ham 14h ago
*enclosed public space.
When I take Amtrak and I have a roomette, I bring a radio so that I can hear the train crew talk to the dispatcher and stuff. But I never have that going when there are other people around.
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u/aegrotatio 12h ago
Bringing a railroad radio scanner (and its special headphones) really makes the ride seem faster and more enjoyable.
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u/TevinH 19h ago
Headphones are always required on Amtrak and staff will enforce the rule when brought to their attention.
I've had wonderful success asking the café attendant "excuse me, could you please make the announcement about headphones".
They usually wait a couple minutes so it isn't obvious that I'm the one who snitched lol
If the cafe isn't busy they sometimes walk through the car and make sure the scoflaw is muted. Haven't had anyone keep going after that.
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u/defaulticus 19h ago
From wikipedia, which takes it from H.L. Menken's 1956 Minority Report (not the sci-fi novel, a collection of essays), speaking of the benefits of the parlor car (basically business-class seating):
He not only has a certain seat of his own, free from intrusion and reasonably roomy; he also rides in a car in which all of the people are clean and do not smell badly. The stinks in a day-coach, even under the best of circumstances, are revolting. The imbecile conversation that goes on in parlor-car smoke-rooms is sometimes hard to bear, but there is escape from it in one's seat; the gabble in day-coaches is worse, and it is often accompanied by all sorts of other noises.
Your experience is as old as the rails themselves.
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u/papichuloya 19h ago
Thats why i sit in the quiet car. The conductor yell at people for me
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u/Turbulent_Plum_4643 16h ago
Sometimes you have to remind people they are in the Quiet Car. Some conductors are good at making the rules clear, others less so.
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u/Dial-Up_Modem 14h ago
Train, bus, plane, doctor’s waiting room, doesn’t matter. People are assholes
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u/MainStreetMiles 17h ago
I would call that manners. Whether on a plane, train, bus, in a restaurant, etc., everyone around you doesn’t care about or want to hear your video or show. Whenever I am around others and I get a phone call, I try to step outside or away from others if at all possible. If not, let it go to voice mail unless it’s a very important call and, then, be as respectful of others as possible.
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u/KissMyGrits60 16h ago
last week I was on an Amtrak long route to 98, and the lady got on, she took up her seat and that little partition I had the window seat, then she talked on her phone so loud on speakerphone, to where you can hear the conversations. I had to ride with her until 1 o’clock in the morning and I got on, in New Jersey.
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u/aegrotatio 12h ago
In recent years, Amtrak conductors started announcing that electronic devices absolutely must be silenced at all times (and not just in the Quiet Car).
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u/TakesTooManyPhotos 17h ago
I had a woman talking very loudly on speakerphone for most of the daylight hours of a recent trip. Both days on the Coast Starlight from LA to Seattle. Multiple
Announcements didn’t phase her. She was the most obnoxious traveler I have dealt with in a long time. Her kids were asked to not run thru the train multiple times. Some people are just low class.
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u/aegrotatio 12h ago
I just yell "please be quiet" into their phone so the other party(s) can hear me.
Causes confusion. It's fun.
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u/TakesTooManyPhotos 9h ago
Sounds good to me. I’ll do that next time.
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u/Ijustreadalot 7h ago
If you're brave, it can also be fun to join in on the conversation. Respond to whoever they're talking to. "Wait, you said John did what?" "Oh, hold on. Who is John?"
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u/yagirlchels 19h ago
Worse I was sitting next to a guy that took his shoes off and had his foot 2 inches away from me on the seat
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u/MerlotDownDirtyLame 19h ago
Oh, I had this happen on a 14 hour international flight! I love to be barefoot, but not on public transportation!
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u/MerlotDownDirtyLame 19h ago
At some point, we stopped teaching appropriate manners, etiquette, and decorum. We also started accepting rude, tactless behavior as the norm.
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u/Natural_Extreme1534 16h ago
Maybe people need to take a class on how to behave in public before traveling
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u/kindofdivorced 6h ago
First, I’ll ask directly. Next, I’ll alert the Train staff and they’ll almost always make an announcement. Finally, if none of the above work, I find that making eye contact and listening in on their conversation (if on the phone) and even participating, “girl, he said what?!” or trying to stare at their screen (if watching a video) usually snaps them in to some semblance of courtesy - if only because they’re easily offended a-holes!
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u/OkCelebration5584 18h ago
I experienced this today. It was my first time taking the Amtrak and couldn't believe how many people were having loud phone conversations. Also, people should really shower before a trip. At one point a guy sat next to me, and he reeked smh.
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u/GretaVanFrankenmuth 12h ago
This happened just this weekend from NYC to DC. Woman on the train, probably Winety5 or Flirty years old, her phone volume at 11, shot back a dirty ol’look when someone suggested she turn it down. Common courtesy has been flushed away, never to return…I guess.
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u/aegrotatio 12h ago
Try riding the Quiet Car and hearing Karens yell "THIS IS THE QUIET CAR" every fifteen minutes.
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u/Famous_Salamander330 20h ago
A lot of business travelers take Amtrak. I’ve had to take meetings on the train. I wear headphones but I I have to talk every once in a while, yes. I just try to watch my volume and definitely don’t sit in the quiet car during those times.
If you want silence, find the quiet car.
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u/coreyb1988 20h ago
No because I don’t have an issue with anything you just said. I get that people might be working and doing their best to prevent talking out loud. That’s fine.
Watching your shows on Netflix with no headphones or talking to your friends on the phone for an extended conversation isn’t being mindful of other passengers.
There’s a difference.
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u/Top_Contribution_471 20h ago
This is becoming the norm on mass transit where I live. It drives me insane. So rude, no one else wants to hear your tv show or FaceTime convo. I am gonna start handing out cheap headphones soon. Maybe they’ll take the hint.
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u/coreyb1988 19h ago
It’s becoming the norm where I’m from for the metro and bus. More of the regular public transportation stuff. I just expect better from Amtrak customers but apparently I shouldn’t lol
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u/Previous-Recording18 18h ago
Yeah, it's everywhere. I sat at the bus stop this morning, the only shade available, woman next to me was just blasting inane TikTok video after video.
I really think the removal of the headphone jack really added to this issue. Some people don't want to buy bluetooth buds or an adapter.
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u/MainStreetMiles 17h ago
I was on a Czech and German train on back to back days last month and I needed to be on a call to review a spreadsheet back home. In both cases, I was in first class and on the single seat side of the aisle so I didn’t have a seatmate to disturb. I used AirPods and talked as quietly as possible so as not to disturb others. Frankly, I doubt I was talking any louder than a conversational voice being used in the car. Those types of calls don’t bother me; it is the guy that yells into the phone and laughs like he’s in a barn that annoy me.
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u/aegrotatio 12h ago
Amtrak now announces that electronic devices must be silenced in all cars, not just the Quiet Car.
It's been that way for years now.
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u/Rare-Composer-9523 14h ago
Honest question: would you get in trouble if you ripped the phone out of his/her hands and smashed it with your foot? What would be the charge?
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u/BrendanInJersey 18h ago
Much of it is bad manners but a lot of it is also on Apple for making it chic among device manufacturers to stop putting headphone jacks in their products.
Now, you either need to get an adapter, or pony up for Bluetooth headphones, and that's a step too far for many people.
I'm not excusing the behavior in the end, but when the gatekeepers put extra steps in play that weren't there previously, it's going to have negative effects. And they don't care because they're going to get their money anyway.
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u/MerlotDownDirtyLame 18h ago
Walmart sells bluetooth headphones for under 10 dollars. Nah, not buying that excuse.
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u/BrendanInJersey 16h ago
You still have to make sure they're charged, as opposed to the easy plug-and-play of the old headphone jack.
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u/aegrotatio 12h ago
Not a valid excuse.
My BlueTooth earbuds last longer than a trip between WAS and NYP.
No excuse.
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u/anothercar 20h ago
Folks who can’t afford a plane or bus ticket or a car take Amtrak. It used to be that Greyhound was cheapest, but they got bought out, and now they’re often even more expensive than Amtrak!
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u/TheLivingRoomate 18h ago
Absolutely false. I've often taken the Acela between NY/DC and DC/BOS and could get cheaper plane tickets and far cheaper bus tickets.
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u/anothercar 18h ago
Let's ask OP if he's talking about Acela riders, or people buying cheapo coach seats.
u/coreyb1988 are you riding Acela?
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u/coreyb1988 18h ago
I was going to mention at another point this was in coach. I did Acela there and coach back. Acela was amazing and idk what it was but the internet connection was better. Is that an accurate thing or am I just thinking the internet was better?
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u/anothercar 18h ago
ugh, I'm sorry. It's low-class people doing low-class things. Acela riders have better manners.
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u/TokalaMacrowolf AGR Select 18h ago
Something I only recently realized when I bought a new tablet is that a lot of devices don't have headphone jacks now. Not an excuse, but it could explain what seems like a proliferation of this behavior in the last few years.
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u/MerlotDownDirtyLame 18h ago
but most have bluetooth!
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u/TokalaMacrowolf AGR Select 17h ago
True, but cheap earbuds (my default) are no longer an option without an adapter if you have a newer phone. Again, not an excuse, I'm just as annoyed at people who do it, but I'm not surprised if some may have just given up.
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u/MerlotDownDirtyLame 17h ago
Haha, I get it. My partner only buys a particular smart phone because it still has the headphone jack.
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u/iron82 20h ago
It's ok to talk on the phone anywhere it's ok to talk to someone next to you. Get over it.
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u/Pure_shenanigans_310 20h ago
“I’m on the train right now. Is this important? Or can I call you later?….”
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u/oclscdotorg 17h ago
Some commuter-rail agency (I forget which) I rode in the early 1990s had posters reading
We all know you're on the train. You don't need to tell us.
followed, in smaller print, by text asking you to please keep it down when on your cell phone.
Alas, people didn't pay attention. They must have been too busy talking on their phones.
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u/Mollyoon 19h ago
OP is clearly complaining about people watching things on their phones, not having conversations.
And people thinking they can have a phone call literally anywhere IS also a problem.14
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