{"id":163064,"date":"2025-09-23T09:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/163064\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T09:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:01:12","slug":"music-blaring-on-trains-angers-me-but-i-say-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/163064\/","title":{"rendered":"Music blaring on trains angers me \u2014 but I say nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the afternoon of September 27, 1825, a crowd gathered as more than 30 wagons drew into Stockton station, pulled by Locomotion No 1.<\/p>\n

It was the opening of George Stephenson\u2019s route from Shildon via Darlington \u2014 and the arrival of the world\u2019s first passenger railway service.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the eight-hour, 26-mile journey, the 600 people aboard that day contended with steam belching out of the locomotive\u2019s engine, the squeal of brakes and a top speed of 15mph.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

The Opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway 1825 by Terence Cuneo<\/p>\n

GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

What they didn\u2019t have to worry about is music blaring out from mobile phones.<\/p>\n

As BBC Radio 3 prepares to commemorates the 200th anniversary of that historic journey with Train Tracks on Saturday, its presenter Petroc Trelawny has told Radio Times how times have changed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThirty years ago, we were complaining about Walkmans with the noise escaping from tinny headphones, but it\u2019s moved on to something even worse and [which] feels to me incredibly selfish,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said that Apple\u2019s removal of the traditional headphone socket<\/a> on its iPhone was a \u201cmassive problem\u201d, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s the epitome of selfishness to want to listen to anything and share it with other people. There are moments when we want to listen to stuff together: at the Royal Albert Hall or Wigmore Hall, but not on a train.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/p>\n

Petroc Trelawny<\/p>\n

HUGH R HASTINGS\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Trelawny, 54, admitted that he was unsure whether he was bold enough to confront the perpetrators. \u201cI\u2019d like to think I would but, like most of us, I\u2019m quite a coward and so seethe internally and don\u2019t do very much about it,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it needs something broader than me getting very angry for 15 minutes and then, probably slightly red in the face, intervening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Conservatives have proposed handing out fines on the spot<\/a> to those who play music on buses and trains without consideration for others. Richard Holden, the shadow transport secretary, said passengers should not be forced to \u201cendure somebody else\u2019s choice of crap music blasted through a speaker at full blast\u201d.<\/p>\n

The comments followed a similar call from the Liberal Democrats<\/a> for \u201cheadphone dodgers\u201d to face fines of up to \u00a31,000.<\/p>\n

A survey of 2,174 UK adults by the polling company Savanta found that 38 per cent had experienced people playing music in public, with more than half admitting they felt uncomfortable about telling someone to turn it down.<\/p>\n

\u2022 All aboard the \u2018Nostalgia Express\u2019 \u2014 the world\u2019s first steam railway<\/a><\/p>\n

Transport for London (TfL), which has put up posters urging passengers not to disturb others with loud music or calls, already has the power to fine inconsiderate commuters. But Ed Halford, a journalist for The Times, expressed scepticism that TfL has the resources to police such behaviour after he boarded the train with his music blasting out<\/a> to highlight the issue.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Ed Halford on the Elizabeth line<\/p>\n

JOSHUA BRATT FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

Earl Armstrong, 32, a barista, told Halford: \u201cLoud music has just become like white noise on Tubes now \u2026 it\u2019s so common we just put up with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the afternoon of September 27, 1825, a crowd gathered as more than 30 wagons drew into Stockton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-163064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}