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Poll
Question: What is your view of talking on trains?  (Voting closed: January 28, 2024, 10:58:32)
Gosh - I hadn't thought of that - 0 (0%)
I never have a conversation on a a train - 0 (0%)
If I say something on a train, I know it may not be private - 26 (70.3%)
Talking to an accomplice on a train is a great way to spread rumours - 3 (8.1%)
I love listening to other people's conversations - phones especially - 5 (13.5%)
People on trains should be like children - seen and not heard - 3 (8.1%)
None of the above - 0 (0%)
Total Voters: 27

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Author Topic: Are you overheard? Who hears your conversation on a train?  (Read 1085 times)
grahame
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« on: January 21, 2024, 10:58:32 »

From myLondon

Quote
A London Underground driver has made what she calls a 'public service announcement' to warn passengers their conversations are not always private on Tube trains. The TfL» (Transport for London - about) worker, posting to TikTok under the user name WhereToAdventures as she also posts about days out and food spots in London, has revealed that if you sit in certain seats in the first carriage she can here everything you're saying.

She says in her video, which features a train arriving at West Finchley: "This is a public service announcement to let you know that, as a Tube driver, if you sit in either of these seats I can actually hear your conversations." The seats she is referring to are the two that sit opposite one another and butt up against the wall panel where the door to the driver's cab is.
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johnneyw
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« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2024, 18:18:00 »

Although I  didn't vote for "seen, not heard", there's been a few instances of people doing a convincing impression of Dom Jolly on a cellphone over the years which tempted me toward that option.
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bobm
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« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2024, 18:21:29 »

Best thing I have overheard on a train

"When does this train call at Oxford" (as we approach Newbury on a West of England Service)
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Mark A
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« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2024, 20:58:09 »

A Sunday morning at Peterborough: 1980s. Another passenger glanced across at a DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) some distance away, sitting in a siding, preparing for duty and emitting copious amounts of Sunday morning blue smoke: "Those steam engines really are dirty, aren't they?"

Mark
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JayMac
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« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2024, 21:27:26 »

Most often I'm to be found talking to Finn. And that's despite the fact he's now deaf.
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« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2024, 21:38:25 »

A few years ago I overheard someone asking the person at the other end of the phone line to do something in their house while they were out. A potential intruder was given the opportunity to learn where they lived, when they would be away, how to find the spare key, and how to avoid a reaction from the dog...
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eightonedee
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« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2024, 22:28:25 »

Many years ago, I was sat with what my wife calls "one of my commuting friends" on the North Downs line as we both commuted to Guildford, he being another professional person working in the property sector. In our carriage, but some way from us, was someone was talking loudly on his mobile phone. We both worked out from what he said who he worked for - no doubt had we been closer we would have worked out the project he was discussing.
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eXPassenger
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« Reply #7 on: January 22, 2024, 09:59:01 »

This is a plane comment not a train,

Years ago a colleague was in Australia and flying to a potential client to make a pitch.  He realised that the 2 people in the row behind him were discussing their pitch for the same company.  He put his seat fully back and listened intently.

He got the work.

I also remember being on the Bristol / London train in the late 80s and some passengers who had got on at Bath were dealing with a document headed 'Stores availability at Faslane NB'.  I decided I didn't want to know.
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Ralph Ayres
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« Reply #8 on: January 22, 2024, 10:24:13 »

Back to the original comment that LU drivers can sometimes hear what we say (though I suspect that's only when the train is stationary and all is quiet as the doors are pretty thick), some drivers don't seem to realise that we passengers at the front end can tell when they're smoking in the cab!  We can also spot - and subsequently report - a cab door being opened to jettison food wrappings onto the trackside.
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Fourbee
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« Reply #9 on: January 22, 2024, 12:01:45 »

Best thing I have overheard on a train

"When does this train call at Oxford" (as we approach Newbury on a West of England Service)
Reminded me of the occasion when standing on the platform at Gatwick. Train pulls in, doors open; "is this the North Terminal?"... "No, but you'll be wanting to get off!".
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bobm
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« Reply #10 on: January 22, 2024, 14:26:38 »

Most often I'm to be found talking to Finn. And that's despite the fact he's now deaf.

Can't say I blame him.   Grin
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didcotdean
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« Reply #11 on: January 22, 2024, 17:10:14 »

I also remember being on the Bristol / London train in the late 80s and some passengers who had got on at Bath were dealing with a document headed 'Stores availability at Faslane NB'.  I decided I didn't want to know.
That reminds me of the story that the Class 442 trains were supposedly built with First Class compartments rather than by then the usual an open saloon because a major user of them were Navy & other MoD personnel from Portland plus staff of the Atomic Energy Establishment at Winfrith. A nice story even if not true!
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grahame
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« Reply #12 on: January 29, 2024, 07:26:51 »

What a [not] shock - 26 out of 27 of our knowledgeable voters are aware that their conversations on trains may be overheard.  Some of us have admitted to naughtily hearing what others day (sometimes hard to avoid)  and even to have (or considered) using it as a way to start rumours.

To be fair, the original announcement was about the bulkhead behind the driver's cab, warning about the driver herself overhearing in an apparently empty carriage.
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CyclingSid
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« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2024, 07:10:00 »

We haven't quite got (back) to this sort of situation https://manningfineart.co.uk/shop/fougasse-careless-talk-costs-lives-cyril-kenneth-bird-world-war-2-poster-2/
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