palmetto86

I'm currently on a WAS-NYP afternoon Acela. I settled into my seat in the quiet car, expecting an uneventful train trip. At the Baltimore station, two businesspeople -- a man and a woman -- boarded the train and took seats behind me. They began talking… loud enough for me to follow their conversation. After a few minutes, I turned around and (politely, I thought) reminded them that they were sitting in the quiet car. The man did not take kindly to my reminder and sassed back: "We're not screaming. This is the quiet car -- not the silent car." Trying to make my point in a mostly polite way, I asked him if he saw anyone else in the train car engaged in conversation. He glared back. The man and the woman continue to gabber away, albeit in a softer tone.

I maintain that the quiet car is not for conversation. The rest of the train is for that. Quiet car DOES mean silent car. If they wanted to chat, they could've sat in any other car on the entire train. What is a quiet-loving Acela traveler to do? Am I an Amtrak autocrat, or did the man and the woman violate protocol?

Any thoughts?

Often1

Report their conduct to the conductor ASAP. Amtrak is actually pretty firm about dealing with this.

travelmad478

Get the conductor involved, if necessary. I find this is not generally necessary, because if you make enough of a stink, your fellow Quiet Car passengers will back you up and shame the offenders into silence or departure.
The Quiet Car announcements generally state that the car should maintain a "library-like atmosphere." If they were talking loudly enough for you to follow their conversation, that's too loud. I don't think there is absolutely no talking allowed, but it should be sotto voce at most.

FOX85

I feel you cannot have a conversation in a quite car. These people are just jerks.

Kind of reminds me of when people talk loudly on their phones in the quiet car as well.

CKinMD

I wish Amtrak would change the verbiage on the signs ('library like atmosphere', 'refrain from loud talking', etc) to simply no talking at all. That would remove some of the grey area and prevent jerks like this from justifying his rude behavior.

dba

Part of the problem is that nobody knows how to behave in libraries these days either. Libraries have become noisy playgrounds.

GoingAway

I had a family sit in the quiet car across three different sets of two seats right in front and across from me. The father was just obnoxious, as they shared food, books etc back and forth, had the kids switching around every twenty minutes or so, with off and on conversations across the aisle, over the seats, etc. They were never yelling, but it was just not the behavior expected or really desired in the quiet car.

LuvAirFrance

Fundamental etiquette was an important form of education to my parents during my youth. But I'm wondering how out of date I am. Is any class of society teaching it during childhood anymore? Its one thing for the counterculture to say "that's upper class snobbery". But when even the upper class find it pointless, then how can society expect anyone to have the knowledge?

gsforfree

Wirelessly posted (Verizon BlackBerry 9630: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9650; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.524 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

People still visit libraries? ;-)

Agreed, though, with the OP that quiet car is meant for quiet and conversation should be minimal and held to a whisper.

bitburgr

Just out of curiosity, what can the conductor do? I've been in a Quiet Car where 4 girls (maybe in their 20s?) where just chatting it up non-stop from EWR to PHL. The conductor was constantly coming in to try and get them to keep quiet. Other passengers were telling them to be quiet. There was applause when they got off in PHL.

launcher

"Applause" on the quiet car is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.

vrundmc

I take the the PHL to WAS and back every week. The behavior on these trains is just out right insulting. I am 27 and I have learned better manners then most of the adults on the train. I feel like these are the following issues:

1. Sense of entitlement - train riders feel they are entitled to do as they please, talking loudly to other passengers, talking loudly on cell phones, taking forever to put their stuff away and sit down, sleeping using two seats, using seats to store bags, the list can continue forever

2. Lack of responsibility - when passengers are alerted of "infringements" to policy they respond with defense or aggression, sometimes because of #1 posted above

3. Lack of enforcement - while some conductors try to enforce amtrak policy, others blatantly ignore it. I do think some just get tired of trying to enforce polices that are constantly broken. It would help if there was a law enforcement official to take on enforcement because, not a fault of the conductor, but have zero respect for them

I just follow one simple rule, bring headphones.

LuvAirFrance

Looks like those Bose noise-cancelling headphones will become must-have on the trains, too. Too bad people become so totally oblivious to other people around them (or perhaps just don't care what anybody thinks, like some people on the city buses). Well, the nation has gone downhill. I don't think anyone missed that fact.

maverick006

Yes, i am the jerk in the quiet car who will yell at the person who is on their phone to shuttup and get out of the car. I dont care about feelings, as I have none.

Its hard to get into the quiet car, and the people there don't want ot listen to you. Get off your phone, shuttup and enjoy the ride. Those of us that take the train a lot know this, its easy to spot the new guy....

tell the conductor, or yell at them yourself.... or ask me to

abefroman329

Yes, they are. I was once reprimanded for laughing too loudly at a podcast I was listening to with earphones.