Music Free Buses..and Trains!

London Assembly to investigate crime and antisocial behaviour on buses.
The London Assembly's Transport Committee is to investigate crime and anti-social behaviour on the capital’s bus network and it wants YOUR views. It wants to know what passengers think about safety on buses and how it could be improved. Also being looked at is the matter of how antisocial behaviour can be reduced. Follow the link here for details of how to participate.

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What other public transport companies have to say about loud music.

At the end of February we wrote to all the public transport companies listed* in the Tell Them section We asked them confirm if and how section of the PSV Regulations that relates to loud music is publicised on their buses and trains. We wanted to know which companies are aware of the problem of loud music and exactly what they are prepared to do to combat it. (*TfL excepted )

The full text of our letter can be read here.

Initially less than half of the companies replied, although some have responded to a second email. Unfortunately, many originally failed to tell us whether the byelaw was publicised or not and chose to talk about quiet zone / carriages instead. We will keep updating this section as replies come in.

Here's what they had to say for themselves:

Arriva – No reply

First Group – No reply

Go Ahead – No reply

National Express – No reply

Stagecoach - ‘I cannot recall in my many years in the industry receiving a complaint about loud music being played on buses. I do not think it worthwhile to display notices in our 7000 buses and coaches for a relatively rare problem. Any passenger who is offended by this nuisance should tell the driver, who should then ask the offender to cease. If there are any Stagecoach locations where the issue is a particular problem, please let me know and I will ask the local Managing Director to take further action.'

Les Warneford , Managing Director , Stagecoach UK Bus

Arriva Trains Wales – No reply

Central Trains – 'Have stickers on all our services which refer to anti social behaviour and encourages passenger to report it to British Transport Police. These stickers highlight issues such as, feet on seats, noise and vandalism.' Read more here.

c2c - 'We do display posters in our trains asking passengers to behave in a manner that is considerate to fellow travellers to try and tackle the issue of anti-social behaviour. The posters show different types of behaviour that may be classed as anti-social and this includes the inconsiderate use of personal stereos/mobile phones. We also have teams of Revenue Protection Inspectors working and they will try and target problem areas such as this issue whilst carrying out their other duties.
Unfortunately we rely to a certain degree on passengers showing courtesy and decency toward one another. Although the majority of anti-social behaviour is an offence against railway byelaws, this is difficult to enforce and unfortunately that does not, in itself, discourage a selfish minority from indulging in them.’

Chiltern Railways - ‘In 2006 received 11945 articles of correspondence from the public and none were related to noise from passengers. None the less, we regard playing music out loud as anti social behaviour. We instruct staff to take a zero tolerance approach towards all anti social behaviour. Perhaps our strict approach explains why no complaints on the subject were received last year. In our view this demonstrates that Chiltern Railways measures are very effective at managing this issue, probably more effective than most other transport providers.
Further just over a quarter of all our seats aboard Chiltern Railways long distance services are designated as quiet coaches.’

Eurostar – 'At the beginning of each journey, the Eurostar Train Manager [makes] various announcements including asking travellers to use their mobile phones with consideration for fellow passengers. No written notice is displayed on board; however, the Train Managers and are fully available to respond to passenger's complaints, including the use of mobile phone by fellow travellers.'
Interestingly, they go on to note that ' Eurostar will always endeavour, when possible, to re-accommodate people in another carriage should they feel disturbed by other passengers.'

First Capital Connect - ‘Your comments regarding music players being used on our trains have been logged for the attention of the relevant managers, and First Capital Connect will be reviewing all customer feedback on a regular basis, to allow us to identify any areas where there is a clear need for improvement. At present First Capital Connect does not operate a quiet coach policy.’

First Great Western - ‘The quiet carriage is the only carriage which has signs informing passengers there can be no noise levels.’

First Scot Rail - ‘Currently we do not display any signage asking customer to keep such music/noise to themselves. We are operating as such now that we are hoping that passengers can be courteous to each other without new rules or regulation being fully enforced. We are not aware of this being a persistent problem, but we do keep a close watch on such matters.’
Do not have ‘accommodation’ for quiet carriages.

Gatwick Express – No reply

GNER – 'Operate a quiet coach called the 'B' Quiet coach. This has notices which remind passengers not to use mobile phones, keep electronic equipment in silent mode and to talk quietly. Also, announcements are made onboard to reinforce these posters and remind passengers to be quiet when using this coach. Other than this, we do not have posters asking passengers to be quiet although will approach people on request if they are causing a nuisance or threat to other passengers within the coach.'

Heathrow Connect – No reply

Heathrow Express – " do understand that not all customers wish to be subjected to [their] on board entertainment, or listen to other customers using a mobile phone." They have two Quiet Carriages on a full-lenth train but do not display notices outside of these carriages asking customers not to play lous music. In addition, "if a customer is using a mobile phone in a Quiet Zone carriage, or a customer's personal music player is irritating others around them , our team members will politely ask the customer to either move to another carriage or refrain from creating disruption. Quiet Zone carriages can be easily spotted by looking for the large ‘Q’ printed on the front of the doors."

Hull Trains – 'Do not feel it appropriate to install any additional signing on-board our trains. This is because there are already too many notices for any further information to be effective and also because we do not have a material problem with the use of personal equipment by our customers. If a problem arises, it is dealt with by a member of the on-board staff who are familiar with the relevant railway bye-laws and who monitor on-board situations using CCTV equipment.'

Island Line – No reply

Mersey Rail – Acknowledge that the playing of music out loud is forbidden under Merseyrail byelaws. They feel that 'enforcing byelaws on music and sound is a good idea and is something [they] will look towards doing in the future.' Merseyrail have carried out exercises in the past to catch people who play loud music but go on to say that they need to be realistic as to what can be achieved.

Midland Mainline - ‘We are aware that some passengers do not wish to hear other people's music on the trains but we also realise that many people actually find listening to music very calming and so we try and reach a balance between the two.

As an operator we therefore have a quiet coach on all but our shortest trains where the use of noise making equipment is controlled and is generally quite well signed. Announcements are also made on the train indicating this. Anybody still using such equipment in this carriage should be informed of the restrictions by the staff when they are moving through the train. Should they continue to ignore this restriction they can be asked to move or removed from the train.

In other areas of the train it is unfortunately slightly harder to enforce because the byelaws do not prevent their use unless it is "to the annoyance of any person". Unless staff are informed by a passenger that they find someone's actions are negatively affecting their journey therefore they cannot prevent the use of such equipment. Once they are informed however our staff are advised to reach a mutually beneficial solution.’

Nexus - ‘looking at placing notices on the panels inside the Metro carriage, similar to the logo's which instruct passengers not to put feet on seats, etc. These notices will be instructing passengers to play music at a suitable level so that fellow passengers can travel in ease.’

Northern Rail – 'Expect all customers to be courteous on all services. Do not put up posters to demand passengers not to use instruments on trains. If there is an instance of this nature the conductors will request politely to cease the activities.There are no plans to dictate to passengers against the noise pollution by on board notices.'

One - ‘Loud music is not something we would support; although policing any policy in this area is not practically possible. The great majority of our trains are 'driver only operated' with occasional visits by our revenue protection and security teams. During these visits we do adopt the policy of asking for the volume to be reduced if we have a request from any other passenger.
The request is usually adhered to at the time, but it does appear that in a number of instances when our people move on the volume is often increased again. This does mean that those using music players who are playing loudly without thought for others will turn the music down; those that don't care will turn it up again later.

We do not publicise the byelaw on our trains. The difference between the smoking ban and the music situation is that of compulsion. We do not allow smoking at all on trains, music is allowable. The annoyance factor of music is variable and this not generally quantifiable. On our InterCity trains we have on board staff and do have quiet coaches, banning computers, phones, and loud music. This is far easier to control than would be on our commuter trains.

It is clearly an area where there is need for the byelaw (busking being an obvious example) and we do have the option to take out legal proceedings if felt necessary, but do not feel that any more stickers/announcements on our trains would radically change the situation.’

Silverlink - ‘have thought about putting extra notices in each coach covering this sort of thing, but these tend to be ignored by those that they are directed towards, and give a rather unwelcome impression to the great majority of our customers.’ They admit that they ‘rely on passengers not acting in an anti-social manner and this type of behaviour can be very difficult to police.’
Silverlink are, however,‘are very aware of the impact such behaviour can have on a journey and are anxious to combat it as far as [they] can.’

South Eastern – ' do not tolerate this kind of anti-social behaviour on our services and are anxious to combat it as far as we can. [They] are developing the skills of conductors and other frontline staff through additional training to enable them to handle this kind of situation in the most appropriate way.' Waiting for confirmation of whether South Eastern have posters/signs onboard.

South West Trains - ‘only have signs in the designated "quiet coaches". If the Guard is aware of any anti social behaviour in any carriage, then the Guard can deal with the matter directly, under the appropriate Railway Byelaw.’

Southern Railway - ‘The bye law to which you refer is not currently displayed on trains but we shall consider doing so if there is insufficient support for quiet carriages.’
Do not have quiet zones at present.

Trans Pennine Express – "do not have any signage on our services at present, but this is an issue that [they] will be addressing in the near future.'

Virgin - ‘display signs in the Quiet Zone asking other passengers to respect the request. Do not have signs in other areas of the train.’

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