Is it too loud for you on the bus or tube? Here’s what you can do.

Is it too loud for you on the bus or tube?

I was travelling to work by bus for a few months. It took one and a half hours each way. After completing a full day of teaching primary aged children, I could not stand listening to loud, poor quality music played on someone else’s MP3 player or phone.

I wrote a brief email to London Transport at customerservices@tfl-buses.co.uk asking them if anything can be done or if it was a ‘put up and shut up’ thing.

Below is the response I received.

Thank you for your recent email regarding passengers playing loud music without headphones on buses.

As a regular bus traveller myself, I totally understand that it can be extremely annoying when another passenger’s behaviour interferes with your bus journey. And we agree that playing music through a device such as a mobile phone, which everyone can hear is totally unacceptable on any form of public transport. In combating this and many other public order problems, we recognise the value of public messages in deterring offenders and encouraging respect for fellow passengers.

We’ve recently begun placing posters in bus shelters asking passengers to keep their music down; from March we will also be placing these posters inside all London buses. I attach a copy of this poster.

In addition, as you may know, the Mayor has just announced the development of a pan-modal publicity campaign intended to reduce anti social behaviour (including playing loud music without headphones). We expect the campaign to within the next few months.

Unfortunately, we’ve found that simply reminding passengers without enforcement does not always have a significant effect in tackling problems of anti-social behaviour, especially as the protagonists are often unconcerned that their activity is having a detrimental effect on other passengers. This is why our Policing and Enforcement Directorate and Publicity department are carefully considering the strategy for the most effective campaign of raising awareness of the annoyance caused by such behaviour, and effectively tackling it. This will hopefully avoid the need to take draconian measures such as a complete ban on music players and mobile phones from our buses.

If you would like information about the hard work we are undertaking to ensure your bus service is safer and more pleasant, please click on the following web-links.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/1225.aspx
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/3466.aspx

Thank you once again for getting in touch. Please feel free to contact me again if I can be of any further assistance.
Kind regards

Customer Services

London transport want feedback ~ positive and negative.

If you need to report anything please email: ~ customerservices@tfl-buses.co.uk