East Midlands Trains reveal top commuter pet peeves
If you are a regular train user by now you may have acquired a list of pet peeves that fellow commuters do to infuriate you during rush-hour.
Whether it be queueing behind slow people at the ticket gate, someone putting dirty feet on seats, or cracking out smelly food – there is always something that really riles us all up.
East Midlands Trains – which operates the Lincoln line through Newark and Nottingham to Skegness line through Bingham – has revealed the most-hated travel inconveniences for commuters.
It comes after a report commissioned by East Midlands Trains showed commuters across the country could shave 122 million hours off their journey time every year by ditching pesky paper tickets and using an e-ticket instead.
The study of 1,000 British commuters highlighted the ease of using paperless tickets, found that leaving bags on seats (38%), not using headphones when watching TV and films (27%) and eating smelly food (28%) were amongst the list of the greatest rail user rankles.
Approaching the ticket gates
- Three in ten passengers pinpoint the approach to the ticket barriers as a nationwide bane of the morning commute
- Almost 18% believe queues at the gates to be the top commuter pet peeve
- 35% say their fellow passengers' quirks and quibbles on their approach to the gates had made them late for work
- 34% of passengers blame the stalling at ticket gates on other passengers pushing in
- And 25% passengers confessed their own inability to locate their tickets in time was the main reasons for missing trains
Paper ticket or e-ticket?
- 43% passengers confess they always use a paper ticket
- A staggering 88% of commuters would make the switch to electronic options if they were available on their journeys
- Half of contentious commuters would do so for environmental reasons
- And 46% would prefer to avoid the hassle when purchasing paper tickets entirely
Blockages
- Over 50% of passengers revealed they mostly dodge children in the run up to a ticket gates
- Prams were noted as a major annoyance at 47%
- While wheelie cases (39%) and fold-away bikes (27%) also featured as gates blockages
And aside from the most popular speed-walk from commuters (41%), East Midlands Trains found 12% passengers also admit to plugging into a special playlist, 10% humming a certain song, and even take a longer route around the station in a bid to beat the rush at the gates and get ahead of fellow commuters.
Men being more likely to take the stairs is at 28% compared to women, who at 23% prefer to scale the escalators in an attempt to dodge other train travellers heading for the platforms.
What are your top travel pet peeves? Let us know.
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