You’ve got to love a good train journey; it’s part of the experience of going away for the weekend, and everyone has their own way of relaxing.
Dr. Angela Carter, an occupational psychologist at the University of Sheffield’s Institute of Work Psychology, has recently suggested that people try and maintain a personal bubble on trains in order to “protect our time and space”.
This can be done in a variety of ways. Avoiding making eye contact with anyone is important, and listening to music is also a favourite way of avoiding contact with fellow travellers.
This might be because whether you are looking out the window into a beautifully fragrant field of rapeseed, or a meadow of electricity pylons, good music seems to make everything more profound and meaningful.
The tortured poet inside you contemplates the agonising beauty of this symbol of human progression, and simultaneous tearing apart of nature.
Your mind wanders while the music of Animal Collective aids you on your consideration of lofty topics, and you completely miss your stop and end up in Watford.
Another preference is bringing out your reason for existence; a shiny mobile phone that you have not yet lost. The journey seems to go by very quickly and parents, grandmothers, friends, cousins and chance associates across the country are left with beaming smiles on their faces after catch-up on phone calls. It’s just a shame you are in the designated quiet carriage.
Alternatively, you could manage your business empire from Coach D; there seems to be no end to the businessmen who set up their laptops at Sheffield and solemnly contemplate all manner of colourful and complex-looking spreadsheets. Or are they playing Solitaire?
Then again, it can be very calming to sit back with your Boots meal deal and watch people moving up and down the carriage, or observe the changes from city to country and back again in the landscape outside.
While shooting from one end of the country to the other, trains create an ideal space in which people can create their own zone and relax in their own ways until they reach their destination, but this is possibly at the cost of friendly communication between strangers.
Maybe you could even strike up a conversation next time you’re on a train. Just remember not to do it in the Quiet Zone.