"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard the 2130 ScotRail shuttle service from Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley. The train will call at Croy, Falkirk High and Haymarket, due to arrive in at Edinburgh Waverley at 2225. First class accommodation is located at the front and rear of the train, this is for the use of first class ticket holders only. If you wish to upgrade to first class, you can do so for £4.20. Female accommodation is located in the middle of the train, this is for the use of female ticket holders only. If you're not a woman, you can upgrade if you really want to, but this should not be done lightly, and ScotRail recommends counselling as a preliminary step."
In the unlikely event that Jeremy Corbyn's female-only rail carriages plan ever sees the light of day, I trust there will be male-only carriages by way of compensation. Otherwise, men will be much less likely than women to be able to find a seat on a busy train. That would be a form of gender-based collective punishment, and I'm not sure that's really on.
Remarkably, this is exactly what some Arab countries do, e.g. the Dubai Metro. Of course, I think the idea is that women congregate in female-only spaces, freeing up space for men elsewhere. An unintended result appears that the female areas on late night services are cluttered with men, even under pain of fine, given the gender imbalance of the overall passenger population.
ReplyDeleteBut agreed, with men-only clubs now universally frowned upon and admission of women to them regarded as long-overdue progress, promoting woman-only spaces while denying men commensurable opportunities does the long-term goal of gender equality no favours whatsoever.
Come on James, you're not normally keen to only read the headlines. What he actually said was he'd "listen to women".
ReplyDeleteConcur.
DeleteThese "Ladies Only" carriages (or rather compartments) were present in all the old rolling stock, the carriages that were split into small compartments. In the models with no corridors there was a definite safety risk as there was no way to move out of the small compartment you were in while the train was moving, no matter how uncongenial the company.
ReplyDeleteI remember getting into one with my mother, late one evening, going home from Glasgow. We'd probably been at the opera, she started taking me when I was ten. There was at least one other woman in the compartment. Just as the train was about to leave, a married couple jumped in. They had been in such a hurry they hadn't seen the sign on the door. The existing occupants of the compartment graciously allowed the gentleman to stay, on promises of good behaviour!
I remember the trick was to find a Ladies Only compartment which was also non-smoking. If pushed, just go for the non-smoking part, that was more important. Then they brought in open-plan carriages and the whole Ladies Only thing was phased out. I remember my Mum telling me to make sure there was already a woman seated in a carriage before I got into it.
Mind you, travelling daily by train, at all hours, a relatively long commute into darkest Lanarkshire, starting at the age of eleven, the only trouble I ever had was from people lighting up in non-smoking carriages, and being a pushy wee brat, I used to call them on it.
I'm out of the country at the moment, but having read online that the six carriage trains on the Glasgow to Edinburgh run have been cut to three carriage trains. Life is going to get interesting for commuters.
ReplyDeleteAfter catching the last train to Dundee from Edinburgh on Saturday night, i don't think i'll ever travel by train again.
ReplyDeleteAtound a thousand folk trying to fit into 300 seats.
This pretty much happens every time I go to a Scotland game, footie that is in Glasgow. The journey back to Edinburgh is a bloody nightmare, herded in like cattle. I wonder if anything at all will change with the new franchise. It doesn't sound like it.
DeleteI like train travel, but "last train" anywhere + "Saturday night" is never going to be pretty.
DeleteI don't think anything will change much with the new franchise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFcBRHC9MV0
Hilarious ....I am going to request a Yes carriage and put the No carriage at the back!
ReplyDeleteHmmm clouded by anti-Corbyn bias James? I thought that the Yes campaign would have taught you to see through MSM bollocks...
ReplyDeleteThe document in question said that although Corbyn was PERSONALLY opposed to it. Women had suggested it to him so he thought a consultation would be good, he never proposed or supported the idea.
James, do you think Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Leader would make Brexit more likely?
ReplyDeletePerhaps a little, although I think Polly Toynbee is overstating the case to whip up fear of Corbyn. Labour will probably still campaign for a Yes vote, but perhaps a little less full-bloodedly, and that might make a difference.
DeleteCome on guys think about it women only trains which leave before the mens suppers on the table when you arrive home, what's not to like.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously it is an issue as are all forms of intimidation, no matter gender, and JC is listening to the voters which is a first for a Labour politician in over two decades