Sunday, November 18. Today's New York Times publishes an essay by Tim Kreider: The Quiet Ones. Mr. Kreider likes the quiet car. He writes "Amtrak's Quiet Car is our last bastion of civility and calm. And we will defend it. And he describes his effort to stop a couple who, in a quiet car, were having a conversation he found too noisy.
I like quiet cars both on Amtrak and on New Jersey Transit. For several months I reverse commuted between Newark and Trenton, NJ. Quiet cars were a Godsend. Cell phone calls are the worst of all. If I needed to call my wife to say I was running late I would step outside of the car to do it. While ridingI would read my paper or a book or, in the evening, doze off for my 2 hour ride. Occasionally someone would violate the rules and always there was another passenger to quickly remind the violator to be quiet.
Mr. Kreider ends up by telling aoubt the time he recieved a quiet car rebuke. He was not talking; he was typing on his laptop and a neighbor found it intrusive. He as surprised has he regularly typed on his laptop and no one had every said anything to him before. He did not leave the quiet car to stop typing but he did change his seat to be farther away from the aggrieved quiet car passenger.
In the end Mr. Kreider seems to agree with his critic. He wants "Barbarians who would barge in on our haven with their chagger and blatting gadgets." to be quiet. But he never says whether he has stopped typing or only offers to move if anyone objects.
I myself, as much as I like quiet cars, never confront offenders. Maybe I should. Does anyone here have any experience with violations of quiet car policy?:
A few years ago I roade in a quiet car from New Haven to New York. A passenger began to talk on her cell phone. One of the trainmen put a quick stop to it.
The best way to resolve the issue of someone failing to obey the policies and procedures of a transport agency (Amtrak) is to bring the violation to the attention of a responsible agency employee. Taking it upon yourself to remind the offender of the agency's policies can result in a nasty pushback.
Several years ago, whilst on a flight from Dallas to LA, with a stop in Albuquerque, a passenger noticed that another passenger had not stowed his carry-on under the seat for take-off. Apparently he attempted to tell the passenger of the rule. A nasty altercation ensued; apparently the offender did not like being told of the rule by another passenger.
Sam,
You are right about the possibility of an altercation if an individual passenger attempts to correct someone. Yet I continue to hope we can resolve our differences by simply discussing them with our neighbors. No doubt it can be a false hope at times. But it can work too. I have at times asked a fellow passenger for a little assistance, for example if I might put a bag on the overhead rack when it was in my way. That has worked for me.
As for your plane experience, was the offending person's bag endangering the other individual? If so the correction was justified. If not, well it is not my business to police others on a plane or a train. Certainly if this is a problem plane personnel can police their own passengers; if they don't, well maybe there is a reason for that.
But in closing, I agree. I don't want any altercation on any kind of public transit or anywhere else either.
John WR As for your plane experience, was the offending person's bag endangering the other individual?
As for your plane experience, was the offending person's bag endangering the other individual?
The FAA requires that carry-on bags be stowed under the seat or in the overhead compartments. If the airplane experiences an emergency during takeoff or landing and, as a result runs off the end of the runway, thereby stoping very quickly, anything left on the seats can become a missile inside the cabin. It can endanger anyone on the airplane.
Interestingly, the same forces would apply to an infant being held on the lap of an adult, but the FAA does not prohibit this practice. I am not sure that I understand the rationale, unless the FAA believes that the adult can hold onto the child. I suspect, however, that politics has a lot to do with it.
I guess Amtrak has spoiled me, Sam. When I go to Providence I buy my breakfast at a favorite coffee shop in New York Penn Station and take it with a book or newspaper to the train and ask one of the train personnel to direct me to the quite car. I never have to think about the FAA or TSA or Homeland Security or any of those agencies, at least not so far. There aren't even any seat belts to bother with. I just sit back, relax and enjoy my ride.
I had a guy answer his cell phone in the seat in front of me in the quiet car and proceed to talk business without leaving the car. I simply pointed out the guy to a passing conductor who immediately told the offending person to leave or shut off his cell phone. That ended the problem.
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