Springs Branch
Established Member
As a non-smoker, entering a hazy Mk.2 smoking coach could certainly be an assault on the senses.I can only imagine what experiences on InterCity routes would’ve been like when you were allowed to smoke.
But at the time when smoking was less of a niche activity than it is today, and only a minority of places had smoking restrictions, this was not an unusual experience in day-to-day life.
Whether it was an inter-city train, busy pub, top deck of a bus at rush hour, works canteen or just an office where one or more of your co-workers chain-smoked at their desk - as a non-smoker I had to accept it as a fact of life that any clean clothes I was wearing would quickly stink of tobacco smoke.
I remember when smoking was first banned in pubs, in some of the smaller, less salubrious pubs I frequented, the long-standing atmosphere of stale cigarette smoke was replaced by the sickly smell of stale beer, mixed with a whiff of urine from the toilets, which had previously been disguised.
Maybe if smoking was still allowed on XC Voyagers, no-one would be offended by the smell of toilets.
A friend who's a former policeman once summarised it as: "not all smokers are arseholes, but all arseholes smoke"The issue isn't smokers, it's arseholes that just happen to smoke. And the trouble with those sorts of people is if they're prepared to smoke on a train there is a higher chance they're prepared to punch the guard if they confront them about it.
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