CityRail Quiet Carriages

[colinw]

The Sydney Morning Herald -> Sshhh! Turn off your phone, this is a quiet carriage

IT IS the bane of a commuter's life: you settle down for your train journey home and someone sits beside you, pulls out a mobile phone and has a conversation. A very loud conversation.

And if it isn't a mobile phone user breaking the peace, it's likely to be a teenager with an iPod. But there may soon be hope for frazzled CityRail commuters. NSW will consider following the lead of Queensland Rail in introducing quiet carriages to give passengers a break from those less considerate.

Queensland was the first state in Australia to trial the carriages, which are self-policed with signage asking commuters to ''refrain from having loud conversations, talking on their mobile phone or listening to loud musical devices''.
Advertisement: Story continues below

The NSW Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, has confirmed she will ''definitely consider'' introducing quiet carriages to the CityRail fleet, although she added that her focus was on ''restoring services and improving reliability''.

The carriages were introduced in south-east Queensland after a three-month trial last year.

Made permanent in November, there are now designated quiet zones in the first and last carriages of all city services.

A spokeswoman for Queensland Rail said: ''No additional funding was necessary for the quiet carriage initiative.

''A minimal amount of marketing budget was used to promote the quiet carriages through posters on trains and at stations to ensure customers were aware of the new initiative.''

Ironically, customers were initially made aware of the quiet carriages through onboard announcements, but the rail operator now relies on posters to keep the peace.

There is no penalty for breaching the quiet carriage rules but Queensland Rail says it hopes all customers, including schoolchildren, respect their fellow commuters who want to take advantage of the serenity.