Travisthetrout's Blog

How to get kicked off a train… Write a List March 19, 2010

While sitting on the train during my commute yesterday, I was shocked to read in the paper  that a man was kicked off a train for writing a list including the band the Killers.

The Press Association (18/03/2010):

A musician has spoken of his shock at being removed from a train for “behaving suspiciously” by writing a list of songs which included the band name The Killers.

Tom Shaw was travelling on South West Trains when he began writing a list of song titles which his band The Magic Mushrooms would play at a forthcoming gig.

But the 25-year-old was approached by two security staff employed by the train company and asked to leave the train at Fareham railway station.

The world has gone mad.

It is one thing to employ “a team of highly professional rail community officers” completely another to have a bunch of idiots who fail to use their common sense. The fact that the poor guy had to explain the list is also slightly worrying – as it should have been obvious on closer inspection.

Also worrying that these so-called rail community officers can read my writing material – I manage my to-do list for the day on my morning commute and work on my blog postings in the afternoon (or sleep). Plenty of commuters (many of which are lawyers) work on the train – amending contracts, reading updates etc. Many other commuters work on computers – replying to emails, working with spreadsheets and reading reports. And those that are students frequently study. Does this mean that everyone’s material can be read if they are acting suspiciously? (whatever “suspiciously” might be). What about all the blackberry and iphone users… surely common sense should prevail and we should be able to read and write what we like on a train – otherwise how else will one pass the time. Sure we all casually glance around to see what others are doing, but I’ve never seen anyone writing or reading anything to cause concern.