A smug woman has told how she ruined a rude passenger's trip after he blocked her from boarding a busy train. Brits love to queue - you might even say we've perfected the craft.
Whether we're waiting to use festival loos or queuing up to check in at the airport, we create perfectly-formed lines with ease. But, as reported by the Mirror, when it comes to boarding trains, all too often our chivalry and courteous behaviour goes out the window.
You often have to expect to elbow your way through fellow passengers to find a seat on a busy carriage - no matter how long you've been waiting on a platform. It becomes a free for all once the incoming crowd disembarks, even if you line up at the exact spot where the doors open.
It's not ideal, but neither is blocking fellow passengers from boarding so your group can find a seat with ease. This is the tactic one passenger recently took, much to the annoyance of another traveller.
The woman, sharing her upset in a post to Mumsnet, explained she was waiting for the last train home at the time. She wrote: "I arrived at the platform, it's mobbed - last train from the city. I position myself close to the boundary line.
"One man stood beside me also close to the boundary for getting on the train. The rest of his group stood back but regardless it's impossible to say where carriage doors will stop.
"I was on his left. The train stopped with the doors close to him on his right, he walked to the door then made a big show of letting everyone to his right on first holding his left arm out behind him to block me or anyone else on his left. Everyone to his right boarded.
"He then walked on, positioned himself beside the only remaining table for four then began nodding and pointing to his own group of people behind me."
However, noticing that most of the seats were now occupied - thanks to the man's stewarding - she decided to secure a spot for herself, scuppering the best-laid plans of the rude man. She continued: "I walked onto carriage, ignored him pointing out the table to people behind me and sat down at the table for four.
"His three companions came behind me and the four of them began sitting down, standing up, staring pointedly at me, offering each other a seat, staring at me again - all the while the seats around them disappearing.
"One of their party could have sat alone. I'm now surrounded by three seated passengers glaring at me and one stubbornly standing passenger."
Keen to hear whether commenters thought she'd behaved unfairly, she asked: "Am I being unreasonable to think if they wanted to sit down they should have made it their business to board and find seats instead of expecting everyone else to acquiesce to their 'manners' and wait to see what seats they deemed available?"
Explaining why she opted to sit at the table - and not an empty two-seater - in a comment, the woman added: "They feel so enclosed, I'd hate to be on the inside of some drunk strange man."
One person replied: "Well done you - what a d**k he was." "Sounds like he had given himself the role of being in charge of the carriage. What an arrogant p***k," said a second.
Another added: "That's very odd behaviour. I can't understand what he was thinking! He made the choice to have a low chance of sitting together by delaying his boarding. That's entirely on him."
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