I still can't believe how long BART had fabric seats and carpeted trains. I think they finally have removed all of those cars from service.
I remember when I was young we would slap the seats on the bus and release big horrible clouds of dust.
In Buenos Aires in the 2000s they bought some old trains from Japan and they had red velvet seats. They were not as bad as you think considering they were used.
Carpet gets immediately ruined with beer and vomit, as most trains turn in to parties on wheels a lot of the time.
Even the brand new Elizabeth Line in London has fabric seats. We just can’t shake our traditions in the face of obvious hygiene sense.
You protest too much.
It's illegal to be intoxicated on the railway (and on the TfL network in London, carrying open alcohol containers and drinking alcohol is banned), but enforcement is very, very low. It would require a huge cultural change to alcohol in this country which nobody seems willing to embrace.
Hilariously we also have "beer trail" services and routes, specifically designed to promote a pub crawl using trains.
We really do have bad relationship with alcohol in the UK.
And sure enough, today these trains are rolling diapers. No way would I ever sit on one of these things. The level of stupidity here is just unbelievable.
There are always people doing disgusting things wherever they are but they are such a minority that it doesn't really affect the everyday experience of others in general. Maybe you only had a few bad experiences?
In many cities in the US, the answer is _nothing_.
I've ridden commuter buses in the US that had cloth seats and commuter trains that had soft plastic-like seats, and they were quite nice -- but they also cost twice or more as much as a regular bus/ train ride. That price cuts down on certain behaviors.
Probably nothing much to be honest. The train would get cleaned at the end of the line I guess. As to drugs, I don't think anything would happen either (apart from the other passengers leaving the car at the next stop) but people don't do that.
I think the problem is elsewhere, these behaviours just aren't supposed to exist in modern society. I don't know what is with the US society that enables them though.
For one thing, hard seats are not uncomfortable. A well-shaped wooden seat on a rocking chair, for example, is comfortable for hours. And most public-transport trips aren't long enough to really tax one's ass anyway.
For another: Public trains in the USA are a haven for homeless and bums. When you've driven past a coffee shop that has picnic tables on the sidewalk and seen a homeless guy with his pants literally filled with shit sitting at one... you understand the problem.
I don't care what country you're in; cloth seats on mass transit are dumb. They just can't be adequately cleaned. In Paris, a city allegedly suffering from a bedbug outbreak, I'd expect most people to question their use.