3.

Continuing on the theme of trains, I don't understand how the various train operators expect their quiet coaches to remain quiet – and subsequently for their customers to enjoy their journey. The coaches have some elusive stickers that ask you to switch your devices to silent mode, and the conductor announces occasionally that Coach B is the quiet coach, and any phone calls should be made elsewhere... This is simply not enough. It's not working.

When I travel I want to look out of the window, think to myself, listen to music, catch up on emails, and generally take a brief escape from obnoxious ring tones and loud conversations. It turned out I was not the only person who had this kind of journey in mind, and about 5 years ago thankfully these quiet coaches started to appear. Many people specifically reserve a seat in the quiet coach and look forward to a peaceful journey, but what are we supposed to do when loud ring tones are going off, or when a chat is taking place between two people sitting across an aisle, or a teenager has an iPod playing so loud you can hear the music over the music coming through your very own earphones? It's not the law that people are quiet in these coaches, but why create a quiet coach if it's not going to be monitored somehow? I have certainly never seen any member of staff use their authority to maintain the peace – which leads me to suspect we are supposed to self-police these coaches.

It's one thing to politely ask someone to turn down their music but that is just not practical when there are numerous offenders. Having to become some kind of quiet coach vigilante for the sake of getting the relaxing journey you have paid for is ludicrous. In defence of the offenders, it's possible that they just don't realise they're in the quiet coach. The conductor announcements are rare after all, and the signage is never adequate.

So after nightmare journeys with National Express, First Great Western and Virgin, my patience is wearing very thin. Something needs to be done, and I think that something is huge blatant unavoidable notices on the back of every single seat.

I'll be writing to the train operators to see what they have to say about all this...