Leaving unattended bag on train

C

Conshine

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I was on a train the other day and a guy sitting opposite me got up and put his rucksack on his seat and wandered off.

I assumed he was going to the toilet, but he went past the toilet and carried on down the train, out of sight… Ok, probably on the way to the restaurant.

It was 6pm or so, so it was a busy(ish) train, but not all seats were taken.
Ok, I understand that he may have been going the full distance on the train (I was only going a few local stops), and wanted to keep his seat, but I started to feel anxious.

People around me all saw what he did, but nobody else seemed concerned.

Two stops later, I reached my stop and got off – No doubt the guy came back with his overpriced sandwich and cup of tea and had an uneventful journey, but it does make me think…

If you did this at the airport, your bag would be taken away and blown up.

If you did this on any form of transport in the UK, the other passengers would lynch you within five steps.

In this day and age, is this form of behavior acceptable?

The US and UK are not the only terrorist targets nowadays.

I think those that feel that Ireland is not a target are very naive.
 
Conshine said:
If you did this on any form of transport in the UK, the other passengers would lynch you within five steps.
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Do you really think so?
In this day and age, is this form of behavior acceptable?
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Leaving your bag on a seat while you go and get a cuppa? What's so objectionable about that?
 
ClubMan said:
Leaving your bag on a seat while you go and get a cuppa? What's so objectionable about that?
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Such nitpicking especially when it doesn't move the issue on.

IMHO, the thrust of the OP's comments are correct, Ireland is a terrorist target especially since the use of Shannon by US troops. Kalid Kelly, an Irish Muslin commentator has confirmed same. You only have to look at what happened in Madrid and London to confirm the view that the public transport network, and especially trains, are a terrorist target. You will also notice that there are no bag checks at IE or Dart stations. I would be nervous in a similar way in a similar situation to that expressed by the OP.
 
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Surely all of the above speculation is a bit redundant given that suicide bombers, by definition, don't leave their bags unattended?
 
Surely all of the above speculation is a bit redundant given that suicide bombers, by definition, don't leave their bags unattended?
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Fear and paranoia generally don't leave room for reason, pre 9/11 and 7/11 nobody would bat an eye, but there is a genuine undercurrent of fear out there even if only on a small scale in Ireland.
 
ubiquitous said:
Surely all of the above speculation is a bit redundant given that suicide bombers, by definition, don't leave their bags unattended?
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The OP didn't mention suicide bombers but you are correct to suggest that suicide bombers dont leave unattended bags. However, not all terrorist attackers are suicide bombers and indeed, in Ireland, why would you need to be a suicide bomber? Get on a train/dart/bus with an unchecked bag containing a bomb, stow it, and get off again.
 
on a purely practical note, if it was packed train and i saw a bag 'sitting' on a seat, said bag would be shoved uncermoniously aside for my petite derriere....

no such thing as 'keeping' a seat on public transport...


 
triplex said:
on a purely practical note, if it was packed train and i saw a bag 'sitting' on a seat, said bag would be shoved uncermoniously aside for my petite derriere....

no such thing as 'keeping' a seat on public transport...


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He may have reserved the seating and as such would have been perfectly entitled to leave his bag on it while he was away.
 

Maybe it's time we deported him and his likes then - his 'confirming same' suggests he is a little more than a commentator. And if Irish, then give the Rendition boys a call?
 
Crikey, must remember to bring all my belongings with me when I go for a cuppa on the train

I travel pretty frequently and have, on occassion, abandoned bags in one carriage to visit another, usually in search of said cuppa. Once or twice, I haven't come back for ages, reason being I've run into someone I know and have stopped to chat with them.
If I am leaving anything potentially nickable, I would generally take a look around before starting to move, never know what sort of suspicious characters you've just sat beside and would generally say to someone else at the same or a neighbouring table that I am popping up to the dining car, would they mind watching my bag. Have successfully negotiated this even on trains in England and the US without any incendiary incidents!!
I would also (mind out Triplex that's MY seat your purloining, keeping is where you try to save for someone else) use my bag as an indication that the seat is occupied by leaving it on the seat.
If you are going to start worrying about it, consider that the baggage racks are located at discreet points in the carriage so people perfectly legitimately do not sit with their bags on a regular basis. Short of airport style baggage checks (and airport style bureaucracy) we are just going to have to live with the statistically minsicule risk.
 
I guess that Kalid Kelly the Irish Muslin could really be described as a raghead...
 
i bow to your wisdom Socrates!

That said, i dare you to attempt that feat on the 5.13pm Pakistan Express from Pearse to Dundalk.. - you'll need to be attired like an American football player and you'll find that you don't need to move when getting on the train - you will bodily lifted in the general melee...


i simply don't have the courage to face that particular voyage anymore...

let me know how you get on - but have an ambulance waiting!

 
ClubMan said:
Leaving your bag on a seat while you go and get a cuppa? What's so objectionable about that?
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YOBR said:
Such nitpicking especially when it doesn't move the issue on.
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Hardly nitpicking when this is almost certainly precisely what the bloke in question did. Unless some train was recently blown up in Ireland and I never heard about it?

If the original poster was concerned about security then why didn't s/he report the "incident"?
 
Hmmmm, can we make that assumption when the original Japanese suicide bombers wore helmets while flying

ubiquitous said:
Surely all of the above speculation is a bit redundant given that suicide bombers, by definition, don't leave their bags unattended?
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Conshine said:
I was on a train the other day and a guy sitting opposite me got up and put his rucksack on his seat and wandered off.

Ok, probably on the way to the restaurant.
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So what did you expect? He cart a heavy rucksack along a tiny corridor down perhaps the length of the train to buy a cup of tea and a sambo, then all the way back squeezing and pushing as he went?

I would have also left it.
 
ClubMan said:
Hardly nitpicking when this is almost certainly precisely what the bloke in question did.
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It is obvious from the OP what his concern and objection was in relation to another passenger leaving an unattended bag on a seat. Indeed, the OP further clarified this by comparing the treatment of a similar situation in other modes of transport.
 
Express!? Wow aren't you the lucky one have far too much sense to do anything of the sort, besides, it's an awful way to get to Carlow!!
 
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