The interesting thing about the UK rail system is that there are many byelaws. I visited Ireland recently and one byelaw that you should know that can’t be enforced and as you may of read, I’m on the Autistic Spectrum Disorder which I believe I am rather sensitive to:
- Noise
- Sight
- Smell
In fact, hyper sensitive at times. This is where the byelaws on National Rail are a godsend, because Railway Byelaw 7 in particular which states, coming from the National Rail website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/railway-byelaws/railway-byelaws#conduct-and-behaviour-1 (Retrieved 18/06/2025)
“7. Music, sound, advertising and carrying on a trade.
1. Except with written permission from an operator, no person on the railway, shall to the annoyance of another persons:
a. Sing, or
B. Use any instrument, article or equipment for the production or reproduction of sound”
So when travelling around the UK*, I do ask a lot to turn down their music, sound or whatever that is bothering me, often with a hostile response and just make them aware of the state of play. I often have my staff ID around my neck and an ASD lanyard to denote my disability and for those not in the position, I just recommend asking them to turn down the volume. However, if you don’t feel comfortable, a chat with the guard/OBS doesn’t go amiss.
For me, sound is rather irritating and it’s something I have been unable to fix – background noise. So if someone is talking to me up close, sometimes, I will home in what’s going on in the background and unable to focus on the foreground, hence why I sometimes inadvertently ignore someone. Sometimes, it’s just motor sounds such as a moving train that is frustrating as it drowns out the person close to me. Sometimes, some sounds at certain frequencies are ear piercing and just generally irritating, yes, I have my headphones to block out the noise but more and more devices are being built without headphones sockets. There’s 2 options, adapters or Bluetooth. Sounds like a simple solution right?
Ok, in ear earphones are annoying as crap, I can’t listen to them for more than 10 minutes without me wanting to rip them out of my lugs and at worse case, my skin takes offence and guess what happens? A spot in my ear.
Ok, let’s try over the ear headphones, some are nice and comfy, some are bad. I can wear them much longer but guess what? My skin takes offence and sometimes, I have to take them off for a breather – well longer periods, because my skin builds up oil around the cups and it irritates my skin which guess what? Causes a spot.
Then there is Bluetooth. Oh yeah, I got told off as well for creating too much noise recently, while using my computer at home as my server and my device as a thin client (See this post to why.). It didn’t work by wired, so I tried Bluetooth. Fine paired, worked, all for about a minute and disconnected, blasting the carriage out with V2 radio music. Great.
Then there is foreign railways and the worst bit is, I don’t know the rules or even how they enforce them. Northern Ireland Railway has a different set of rules to the UK. Interestingly, Northern Ireland Railways is in the UK, but for devolution purposes, is considered an Overseas’s operator. So you need the FIP Card if you are staff. They are also NOT a member of the Rail Delivery Group which I think would bring many benefits. Unified byelaws under the Railways Act 2003 (I think it is), access to discounts, access to funding, common ticketing to the rest of the UK with the Rail Settlement Plan. Better through ticketing with Ferries, there is a lot to gain. But what do I know? I’m just someone in the UK with a small suggestion.
Anyway, Northern Ireland Railways and Iranrod Eireann have different rules, I looked and I couldn’t see any mention of Northern Ireland Railways conditions of carriage about noise, meaning it’s unenforceable and “Translink” or “NIR” does not appear in any entity in the Railway Byelaws, despite being administered by the ORR (Office for Rail and Road) – in London.
Iranrod Eireann on the other hand, isn’t subjected to UK laws or byelaws for obvious reasons. I could not find anything specific, but this news article indicates “No person at any time, shall while on the railway or in any vehicle Willfully interfere with the comfort and connivence of other passenger or person while on the railway or in any vehicle” (From: https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-news/seven-things-you-might-not-17465087 retrieved: 19/06/2025 at 10:51)
Interesting. But still doesn’t answer the issue of excessive noise. However, what is also interesting is a lot of papers in the UK are now also starting war on excessive noise and even giving it a name of “Bare beating”. Now if only there was a byelaw for that – look above.
(For the record, I don’t mind people talking, in fact, I’m on a train as I wrote this, in Northern Ireland, heading to Derry~Londonderry, on a table with 3 guys chatting to each other and they aren’t obnoxious in any way. It’s a reasonable conversation about cars).
(* except Northern Ireland Railways as the rules are different)