I don’t have any problem with the principle of banning alcohol on the tube, but then I can’t really see the point either. I have shared tube carriages with rowdy groups who are certainly disturbing and probably intimidating to some, but I can’t actually remember seeing anybody drinking on the trains. The alcohol causing the trouble is overwhelmingly consumed in the pubs before anyone sets foot in a station, and nothing is changing there. But it gets a headline doesn’t it?
Danivon // May 10, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Last time I got the train home from work, there were two men drinking from beer cans right near me.
They were discussing rugby and which independent schools had the most involved Headmasters, so I don\’t think that they are really the \’sort\’ that Boris is aiming at.
The real problems on the tube are overcrowding and delays.
Skuds // May 10, 2008 at 2:57 pm
If that was on the ‘big railway’ rather than the tube, its a bit different. On the normal trains they don’t ban alcohol but come along with trolleys and sell you booze.
Danivon // May 10, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Indeed. But Boris has also promised to try to get the ban extended to the railways within Greater London as well.
skud's sister // May 12, 2008 at 10:25 pm
On the ‘big trains’ out here in the provinces delays and overcrowding are a problem too. They are not a problem that is made any easier by drunks. I would imagine that on an overheated tube train in Summer (in my experience the only sort..) the problems would be even worse.