Should we ban eating on the bus and train?
YES says Rachael Bletchly
Wedged in a window seat on a sweaty commuter train recently, I was staggered by how many of my fellow passengers were scoffing their on-the-go brekkies.
A Pret croissant for one, an egg and bacon buttie for another, several grande lattes with bananas, a few pots of porridge — and avocado on toast for the cool hipster sitting right opposite.
But I nearly brought up my own breakfast when the bloke sitting next to me started to chow down... on an onion. I kid you not. A whole, peeled onion eaten like an apple. For breakfast.
It stank out the whole carriage but no one but me seemed bothered. They were too busy tucking into their own grub.
Grub they could have eaten at home or in the office rather than inflict it on me.
The food and drink comes in bags, pots, cups and wrappers which usually get dumped on the floor of the trains, buses, trams and tubes, where they then roll around, sticky and whiffy, all day long.
But it’s not just the morning commute. I’ve endured people eating their McDonald’s and KFC lunches, fish and chips and curried noodles.
Others pull out Tupperware containers stuffed with home-made food and sit eating their dinners with a knife and fork.
Didn’t their mums teach them that eating in public is the height of bad manners? Mine certainly did.
And it’s not exactly hygienic either, is it?
I know, I know... we all lead busy lives.
But surely people can manage a short bus or train journey without having to stuff their faces?
Now the former chief medical officer says that kids who see grown-ups troughing on trains are tempted to snack more, and that’s fuelling the obesity epidemic.
I’m not sure I entirely buy that argument... because watching that bloke eat a raw onion killed my appetite in an instant.
But childhood obesity is, without doubt, a national emergency. A fifth of kids are now classed as obese and at life-long risk of conditions such as cancer and heart disease.
So we should be concentrating on keeping youngsters off public transport and exercising more.
We should also be teaching them more about healthy eating, controlling portion sizes, extending the sugar tax and banning advertisements for fast food.
But if the Government wants to ban food and drink on public transport I, for one, will be delighted.
Because the gravy trains and Big Mac buses are giving me a whole new kind of travel sickness. THERE’S been an outcry after a health expert said eating on public transport should be banned to stop kids from snacking Top doctor Professor Dame Sally Davies has called for a food and drink ban on buses and trains as part of the battle against childhood obesity. She says seeing people eating on the go tempts youngsters to gobble unhealthy food and we need “to change to a society were it’s normal not to snack”. But critics of the “nanny state” say it’s a step too far. So we asked two of our writers to give us their food for thought...
NO says Siobhan McNally
As any regular commuter knows, you can never be too well prepared for public transport delays.
At all times, travellers must remain fluid with their arrangements, preferably with prosecco.
Knowing how vital it is to pack emergency provisions for any length of rail travel, I brought several cans of cocktails and a large bag of savoury snacks to share with friends on a train to London last Saturday night.
Making a beeline for the quiet carriage (like people do when they want to party or make loud, urgent phone calls), we noisily opened fizz and crisps to sustain us for the 55-minute trip. But when I pulled out my bag of cheesy puffs, I was shocked to be told off for stinking out the carriage. “They reek of vomit,” cried one friend.
OK, my cheesy snack wasn’t a lifeor-death moment, but there are serious reasons why some people have to eat on public transport. Perhaps if they’re diabetic, or pregnant, or need to feed hungry babies and toddlers. My daughter Jesse used to be obsessed with going to the train loo when she was little and I had to bribe her with a constant flow of snacks to keep her from getting cholera.
But the worst perpetrators for eating inappropriate food on public transport are not kids on trains — as the former chief medical officer claims in her war on childhood obesity — but people like me and my vomity cheese puffs.
People like me who are pre-loading on their way out, or soaking up the booze on the bus or train home, only waking up for their stop when they start drowning in their own kebab juice.
Think there’s chaos with Extinction Rebellion? There’ll be an even bigger stink if the Government bans food and drink on public transport and millions of grumpy commuters will march on Whitehall demanding their hangover cure cans of Coke back.
However I’m all for a smelly food amnesty at peak hours on transport when only tea, coffee and dry biscuits should be served, while burgers, kebabs and cheesy chips remain on the menu for off-peak and weekend travellers.
Incidentally, you may be wondering what happened to my bag of vomity cheesy puffs.
Well, as expected, the train home turned into a three-hour-long bus odyssey. Somewhere around 2am I found myself reaching for the snack bag — only to find it completely empty and my friends guiltily flicking yellow crumbs off their jackets.
Proving that anyone will eat anything if you leave them on public transport long enough…
The bloke next to me scoffed a whole raw onion like an apple... for his breakfast People may be diabetic, pregnant or need to feed hungry babies and toddlers