Article: Train bosses urged to give peace a chance, or at least a carriage

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

Train bosses urged to give peace a chance, or at least a carriage

Train bosses urged to give peace a chance, or at least a carriage
Deborah Gough
November 14, 2010

THERE'S a businesswoman yelling into her mobile at a minion whose job's on the line; a teenager crying into her iPhone about the loser who just dumped her via text; the doof doof coming from the iPod headphones of the student sitting four rows ahead. You can't concentrate on your novel; can't even think straight. All you want is a bit of quiet time on the train as you head home from work.

You're not alone. A leading public transport expert and a prominent historian are calling for all metropolitan trains to have a designated ''quiet carriage'' similar to those used overseas and being given a trial in Queensland.

A Sunday Age straw poll found large support for the idea.

Monash University's Chair of Public Transport, Professor Graham Currie, and Dr Simon Smith, a historian, author and lawyer, both want Melbourne to begin a quiet carriage trial.

Dr Smith, who raised the issue with his local MP, said because carriages were confined spaces, music blaring into iPods and other personal music player headphones could often be overheard by other passengers, while loud talking, especially on mobile phones, could be disturbing to others.

''Because this is a relatively new technology and really being embraced we need to retrofit the manners that go with it,'' Dr Smith said.

The introduction of quiet carriages would create a chance to cement some ground rules for the public use of personal audio devices and mobile phones, he said.

In the Queensland trial, which began in August and will end this month, the last carriage has been designated a quiet zone. A Queensland Rail spokeswoman said feedback had been overwhelmingly positive.

A spokesman for Queensland-based public transport advocate group RAIL Back on Track, Robert Dow, said the trial had been so successful that Queensland Rail might expand the silence to the first and last carriages.

Mr Dow said signs and platform announcements directed passengers to the quiet carriage, where posters and two on-train announcements on every service reminded passengers about the no-noise policy. While there was no explicit fine for being loud in a quiet carriage, Mr Dow said, transit officers could ask a noisy passenger to be quiet. If they persisted, they could be fined for ''obnoxious behaviour''.

''People were sceptical at first, but it's been really popular,'' Mr Dow said.

A London rail operator has put mobile phone and Wi-Fi signal blocks on some carriages. One German city has gone further and banned mobile phone use on its trams and buses, but allows text messaging.

Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen supported the idea and Professor Currie said quiet carriages would be a low-cost way to improve the travel experience for some passengers, especially older or ''more sensitive'' travellers who were easily upset by certain behaviours.

Sarah Hinchliffe, of Malvern, said the noise on trains was ''terrible'' but did not think quiet carriages would be ''do-able''.

Jade Hollamby, of South Yarra, and Nicole Semcan, of Ringwood, said they often wore silent earphones to block noise and deter others from talking to them.

Both V/Line and Metro Trains said there were no plans to introduce quiet carriages.