Overheard on the train

[dolorosa_12]

I went into Cambridge after lunch today in order to get my hair cut, and witnessed quite possibly two of the peakest of Peak Saturday Train Experience™ ever. Bear in mind that this all happened within a roughly fifteen-minute period.

1. A group of tipsy young women, wandering around my carriage in confusion, carrying a bottle of sparkling rosé and plastic cups, trying to find their friends (so the whole group could break open the wine), who were allegedly on the same train. The confusion arose because a) this was the final carriage and b) the women had supposedly already walked the entire length of the train.

2. A group of young men who got on at Waterbeach, cracked open cans of lager, and attempted to drink their entire cans before arriving at Cambridge station (five minutes from Waterbeach). While this was going on, they talked with great earnestness and detail about a) what they were going to buy to preload before arriving at the pub (they finally settled on buying rum and Coke) and b) which pub they were going to go to (they finally settled on one of the roughest pubs in Cambridge, about which they also reminisced with great fondness about an altercation with the police they had had previously at the same pub).

None of this was in any way obnoxious, and I found it almost endearing. I hope both groups went on to have enjoyable Saturdays.

(The final alcohol-related event in the trifecta was the group of women — two middle-aged friends, and the young adult daughter of one of them — who showed up at the hairdresser to get their hair dyed and cut around 4pm with a bottle of prosecco that they'd bought at the nearby petrol station. As I was finishing up, they poured glasses for themselves, and my hairdresser — clearly this was going to be their Saturday evening out.)

Comments

[pauraque]

Is there no rule against drinking openly on the train? Or is it just not enforced?

[dolorosa_12]

Drinking on the underground in London is not allowed, but as far as I'm aware, there is no rule against it on long-haul trains (and indeed most largeish train stations have shops selling, among other things, alcohol, and trains that have restaurant cars in the UK and elsewhere in Europe usually sell beer and small bottles of wine). These specific kinds of groups (women sharing bottles of sparkling wine, and men with cans of beer) are so common on Saturdays that it's almost a cliché — as demonstrated by the other comments here from British people. I also always see these exact groups of drinking people every time I catch a train on a Saturday in Germany, and elsewhere in continental Europe.

[tellshannon815]

Isn't it all TFL - just thinking about all that fuss a few years ago with Diane Abbott and her can, wasn't that on the Overground?

[dolorosa_12]

Yes, I think you're right. I'd misremembered it as being on the Tube for some reason.

[tellshannon815]

I once saw a bachelor/stag party getting quite drunk on a train to the point where a woman in the carriage was getting quite angry about it, reported both to the conductor and to the transport police when she got off at Carlisle, but as far as I can remember not a lot happened. Someone from the transport police did get on at Lancaster, was greeted with "Oh, sod off, son!" by the best man, he took all their details but then got off the train after that and they carried on to wherever they were changing anyway. So yeah, there's not a lot that ever gets done about it anyway.