Train passengers face £1,000 fines for watching TikToks out loud

You could get into trouble for doing certain things on a train

Train passengers are being warned of certain things that could get them into trouble. More than 200 overcrowded trains are predicted to head into UK cities every day this autumn.

With passengers set to be squished up, it is easy to commit a travel faux pas and irk your fellow travellers. As well as annoying others, you could actually end up with a fine if you do something wrong on the train.

New YouGov research has looked into attitudes towards bad public transport behaviour to find Britain's biggest travel pet peeves. Etiquette expert William Hanson has also revealed how you should be acting when travelling by train.

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Dogs

According to YouGov, more people dislike sitting next to or near a dog when on a train (23 per cent) than a baby (13 per cent). Technically, a baby is allowed on the seat not a dog, Mirror reports.

Although letting your dog sit on the seat next to you is not illegal, the Transport Act 2000 does outline when it could become an offence. It said: "No person in charge of an animal shall allow it to foul or damage any part of the railway."

Allowing dogs on the seat could be seen as unhygienic and you don't know if the person next to your dog has an allergy. Mr Hanson said: "If you are the dog owner that gets on a train and is about to take a seat around people, I think the obligation is on you to say "do you mind if I sit here?"."

Breaches of byelaws are prosecuted in a magistrates' court or Justice of the Peace Courts in Scotland. Many of the byelaws related to behaviour on trains fall under the Railway Regulation Act and can leads to a fine of up to £1,000.

Putting your feet on seats

One of the biggest pet peeves of train passengers is people who put their feet on seats - 31 per cent admitted this bothered them in the YouGov survey. Mr Hanson said: "Someone once asked me "is there a difference between feet on seats in shoes versus feet on seats with shoes off and just socks?".

"And the answer is no. Obviously a sock is probably slightly more hygienic but no feet should go on seats. It's someone basically going "my space and my comfort is more important than anyone else's and actually, I'm not considering consciously or subconsciously that actually, someone else is gonna have to sit on that and sit on my germs"."

Putting feet on seats counts as 'soiling', which means you could get fined under a UK byelaw which reads "no person shall soil any part of the railway".

Playing music or videos out loud, like TikTok

TikTok users without headphones on public transport could get themselves in trouble on trains. According to Section 219 of the Transport Act 2000, committing this social sin is not just hugely annoying but illegal.

It could land you with a £1,000 fine. The law reads: "Except with written permission from the Operator, no person on the railway shall, to the annoyance of any person: (i) sing; or (ii) use any instrument, article or equipment for the production or reproduction of sound." According to YouGov, passengers are uncomfortable sitting next to people playing music out loud (31 per cent) and to people talking on the phone (9 per cent).

Mr Hanson said: "Whenever someone calls me, I'm very self conscious of it. I'm like "on the train - 'll phone back in 10 minutes" but I will sometimes reject a call and then send a text. I don't mind if people are going to do a 'to the ear call' briefly.

"That's not so much of a problem. As long as they're talking in a in a normal voice and not shouting, it's the calls on speaker or facetime calls without headphones. That is incredibly frustrating."

The byelaws also state: "No person shall molest or wilfully interfere with the comfort or convenience of any person on the railway." Passengers can ask someone to turn their music down if they are playing it out loud.

You could even highlight their terrible behaviour to the police. Mr Hanson said: "If it's a busy carriage, then you're probably going to want to say something.

"If it's not a very busy carriage and there are lots of other seats elsewhere, I probably just for want of an easy life, just get up and move myself. But lots of British etiquette is passive aggressive, so maybe say "would you like to borrow my headphones?" and hopefully that would do the trick.

"I would hope they also don't say yes because I'm never going to [give them my headphones] but I I might approach it that way."

Giving up your seat

Mr Hanson said: "Obviously, if someone does not move deliberately from a priority seat because it's an elderly person, you're on crutches, a heavily pregnant woman, for example, they really are an awful person.

"And again, that's where I would get trained staff to intervene." While you might think it is a courtesy to give up your seat for someone who needs it, the byelaws state: "Except with permission from an authorised person, no person shall remain in any seat, berth or any part of a train where a notice indicates that it is reserved for a specified ticket holder or holders of tickets of a specific class, except the holder of a valid ticket entitling him to be in that particular place."

Leaving your rubbish

Next time you have some food on the train you may want to think about the rubbish you leave. One byelaw states: "No person shall drop litter or leave waste on the railway."

Mr Hanson said: "We would all appreciate in our own working life if there was someone else that just sort of did something even by 1% to make our life a little bit easier. And that is all you are doing. It is not an inconvenience to move your packet or sandwich wrapper."