Train companies talked about this years ago and nothing ever came of it.

I heard about this quite a long time ago, the funny thing being that Virgin had fitted the same film to their windows to block real (sound) noise without being aware of the effect it would have on their business customers' phones.

I commute to London from Birmingham and back most days on Virgin's West Coast Mainline. Sometimes it's very, very early in the morning when I'm making the first journey of the day, and sometimes I'm knackered for the return leg (or it's very late). On such occassions I choose to sit in the quiet carriage. I'll also sit in there if I just want a bit of peace and quiet.

I've come to the conclusion that some incosiderate, arrogant and ignorant fools like the sound of their own voice above and beyond anything else. There's people that will have meetings in there (without a mobile). There's people that I've seen use speaker phone in there, and others that just plain use there mobiles and couldn't give a toss. They know it's quiet in there, so they'll do it.

On a couple of occassions I've said anything I've had abuse hurled at me for being rude in asking people politely not to use their mobiles or hold meetings. Like the "rude" non-smoker politely asking a smoker not to smoke at a table in a restaurant pre-smoking ban.

Because of this I welcome this move. However, it will also hamper those that want to use 3G/wifi technologies quietly on the journey, and I think this is a big loss.

An alternative would be to threaten anyone being a nuisance to other passengers in the quiet carriage by using a mobile or being loud with removal from the service at the next station with no refund - and actually enforce it.

I remember a news story a while ago where a theatre owner wanting to install shielding for his auditorium and he'd been told that it was illegal.

He proberly wanted to install a jammer. Different beast.

Stu..

However, it's really only people talking incessantly loudly on their mobiles that really bother me. If people want to use Wi-Fi or 3G then they should be able to.

You can mostly avoid the quiet carriages, which avoids this problem; however, if the train's full or you've been reserved random seats online then you can't really avoid it.

won't this film make it more difficult to break the window and get out in the case of an emergency/crash? I mean it's what they do to stop flying glass after a bomb blast, a plastic film over the window, isn't it?

Mind you the little hammer could then be replaced with something to render the noisy children compliant and quiet!

The quiet carriage (when it is observed) is fantastic and makes the journey so much more pleasant. Any measures to prevent the ignorant shits who aren't capable of just turning their phone to silent and not answering it from being able to piss me off are welcome.

However, since the introduction of free WI-FI on NXEC it would be a shame to have to choose between sitting quietly and doing nothing or tying to go online surrounded by twattering chats.

Will they also devise "Blocking Technology" for your seat to prevent people jumping in when you are out of the carriage?

There are more things to think of than someone on the phone.

Like people with loud 'personal' stereos. Although the current trend is to play your MP3s via your speakers.

Electronic games with loud beeps.

People constantly sniffing (and not a little sniff, its the ones that sound like they have some bone in them. Come on, blow your nose).

Screaming kids

Arguments and fights (I travelled using C2C for a while. The fights are more regular than the trains)

Not to mention the new trains have aircon instead of windows. Which isn't good when the aircon breaks on a hot day.

And what do you do in an emergency? Can't call for help if you are trapped in one by some nutter.

I'll quite often be talking to someone on the platform on my phone, and then when the train arrives, I say "Gotta go, my train is here", hang up and not use my phone on the train. If I recieve a call, I keep it quiet and short.

What it comes down to is that if everyone was just like me we wouldn't need Quiet carriages or window shielding, although it would mean we had some *pretty* ugly women.

They have scrolling message screens telling you what the next station is. The only announcements are from the driver telling you what the latest delay has been caused by.

I'm sometimes guilty of the blaring Windows start-up theme on the train, simply because the volume can only be set in software (which of course isn't an option until Windows has booted). I really wish laptops all had hardware volume controls like the Toshiba I'm using now.

Personal musc players: the wretched things seem to be so loud I can only assume the owners have been deafened and so need them ever louder. Used to travel an hour every day each way and was often reduced to changing carriages in the morning to avoid one (middle-aged) regular whose noise could be heard the length of the carriage. And why is it that the culprits seem always to have such abominable taste or lack of it in "music"?

I have another gripe against those who feel they must open their laptops on the train: they grap any availabe table space if there is one and seem to expand sideways to accommodate the computer. In the restaurant carriage they plonk it on the table, taking up my portion too. Can't these nerds prepare for work with some back-ground reading, writing notes on paper or just thinking? Should they be reading confidential spreadsheets and writing work correspondence in public? Or are they all civil servants busy practising open government with my private details?

As for that idiot who can not stay quiet in silent carriages out of spite that the others were full, seems to show nicely just the idiotic thinking and selfishness that necessitates them in the first place. Just give your voice a rest for a while.

Given the comment above about the bloke running alongside the train with a router and a lot of ethernet cable, where do you suppose the signals for the free wifi originate? Inside the train perhaps?

Given that it presumably works, even with a unshielded 25KV cable a few feet above your head, I don't think you need to be worried about a little bit of film on the outside of the window stopping on-train wifi, were C2C to ever provide it.

I've always found the quiet carriage the worst of the lot for having any chance of getting some peace. There's something about the little sign on the window saying "no mobiles, personal stereos" that seems to trigger off some people to want to close that important paperclip sales deal, join a conference call, remind all their friends that they're getting lashed tonight, and if it's a particularly long journey start enumerating shopping lists to their hapless wives* over the air.

All we need to do is enact a pointless NuLab law (c'mon, another won't hurt, we've got like 3,000 of the things) legalising the wanton and furious tasering of anyone who makes an inconsiderate, avoidable noise in a public place. It would make public transport at least more entertaining, if not more pleasant into the bargain.

* - one assumes the hapless wife spends most of this call dreaming of the milkman.

Seats in the cycle, wheel chair and push chair sections. They might be fold up but you try getting your pig ignorant commuter in his or her suit to shift out of the fucking way, no matter how polite you are.

Imagine sneaking up to some snoozing yoof with impersonal iPod with a pair of snips, and quickly cutting through the headphone wire at about neck height.

This thought first occurred to me some years ago on a train, and since then it pops into my mind every time. It's like an annoying tune that you can't get rid of. I have to be careful to make sure that I don't accidentally actually bring any wire cutters or scissors with my when I'm travelling.

Changing the subject, Virgin trains all seem to have some sort of RF-blocking window film already; it's not strong enough to block mobiles but it does stop my GPS from working.

You must have seen those novelty gadgets that flash when your mobile rings ... or logs onto a cell ?

Anyhow you could have a more nanny-like version built into the train seats, flashing up the message, "YOU APPEAR TO BE MAKING A PHONE CALL - PLEASE LEAVE THE QUIET CARRIAGE TO CONTINUE - THE GUARD WILL BE ALERTED IN 30 SECONDS ..."

Trains do have a emergency alarm or an intercom so you can speak to the driver. One time I was on a train when someone had a heart attack just as we left Peterborough and we stopped pretty sharpish.

For dealing with families, I like the idea of having family carriages on trains. Allocate groups booking child fares reserved seats there first, and have a few toys and child friendly decorations to attract people without reservations. You could extend this idea and have a business carriage with plenty of sockets for chargers and more tables for people who want to have meetings. It would also be good for ogling people's laptop screens as you're walking to the buffet if you're feeling nosy (I deliberately only do work with pen and paper if I'm travelling for this reason). Doing this kind of thing means that people without kids or an urgent need to spend time with Powerpoint have an idea which carriages to avoid. Something else I'd like to see is bike racks that cannot be used for luggage or pushchairs.

"Imagine sneaking up to some snoozing yoof with impersonal iPod with a pair of snips, and quickly cutting through the headphone wire at about neck height."

Did something similar once - my step-daughter wouldn't turn her stereo down during dinner, so I whipped out the side-cutters, amputated the mains plug and then buggered off to a meeting for the evening.

The only defect with this otherwise quick and effective action was that the task of replacing the plug at a later date was something I was lumbered with.