Child-free carriages on trains? I’m all in favour

Throughout the entire two-hour journey the child, aged about three, jumped up and down on his seat, climbed onto and under the table, almost knocked over the drink of a fellow passenger, looped his arms over the back of his seat disturbing the traveller sitting there, and was generally noisy and unruly.

In short, his behaviour was terrible, but, as far as we could make out, he was not told off once. The only effort the mother made to rein him in was to thrust an iPad under his nose. It kept him occupied for about ten minutes.

We pitied the very patient people sitting alongside them – a man trying to work on his laptop and a woman trying to get some sleep. Both were the height of politeness throughout constant interruptions. I would rather have sat on the floor beside the toilet. At no point did the mother, who was on her phone most of the time, apologise for her son’s behaviour.

It’s not the first time I have witnessed awful behaviour from children on public transport. I used to travel regularly on the route between Bradford and York, and dreaded the school holidays. The frequent presence of badly behaved kids made the journey torturous; I once sat opposite a child who poured his fizzy drink onto the table and proceeded to make patterns in it with his finger, and another who stuck jellied sweets all over the window. Both were accompanied by parents and neither were told off.

This is why I would happily travel in a child-free carriage – I’d even pay extra to do so if the option was there.

In France, the state-owned rail company SNCF has introduced child-free carriages on some trains, bringing both praise and criticism, with France’s children’s commissioner Sarah El-Haïry among the critics. She described the move as ‘shocking’ and insisted travelling with children is ‘a reality to be supported’.

The real issue does not, however, lie with the children themselves. It’s the adults supervising them who are at the root of their behaviour. Too often, children are left to their own devices, while the parents tap away on their mobile phones with no thought for other people.

As a parent myself, I know how hard travelling with a young child can be, but it’s easy enough to prepare for a journey, take along a couple of children’s books, a toy or two and maybe paper and crayons. Also, it takes no effort to point out things from the window.

The French child-free trains, which ban youngsters aged under 12, target business travellers. Were it introduced here I’d want it to go further and be available to everyone. The only problem would be demand. My guess is that most people want to avoid other people’s offspring on public transport, whether trains, buses or planes.

It’s the same in restaurants, cinemas and other public places. My heart sinks if I end up sitting in close proximity to young kids.

Of course it’s not only children who can cause offence on public transport. In an ideal world, there would be a train carriage for ‘quiet, respectful adults,’ who don’t conduct business with work colleagues loudly on their phone, watch violent films without headphones or spread the contents of their KFC Mighty Bucket for One across the table.

But it’s not an ideal world – far from it. Increasingly, people behave as they like and don’t seem to care how others perceive them.

When we left the train it didn’t surprise me in the slightest to see empty drink cans, sweet papers and sandwich wrappers left on the table and floor where the parent and child had been sitting.