Alan Bennet goes to Leeds in the quiet coach

In the latest edition of the LRB they have Alan Bennet's 2006 diary. It must be copyrighted because I can't link to it. As the years pass he becomes even more like his Dead Ringer doppelganger. (Something he appears occasionaly distressed by).

Anyway on reading it I was pleasantly surprised to remark that there are quiet carriages on british railways and that AB's Lyn W. had booked them on one (as they normally do..) on a trip up to Leeds . I've been out of the country for several years and wasn't even sure if you still had trains.

However at the same time I was intrigued to note that the booking was apparently for three people. If Lyn w. is occasioned to do the same on a visit to Switzerland then I strongly suggest that they all start practising telepathy, or sign language at the very least. Here the quiet carriage (Ruheabteil) is indeed quiet. I saw one chap being berated (albeit silently) for turning the pages of his newspaper too enthusiastically.

Personally, being often a solitary sulking traveller, I find these carriages a boon. No distractions from adjacent fellow human beings indulging in conviviality. I'm also a bit surprised how many people, normally English or French, are indignant at having the rules of the game pointed out to them, as if their human rights were being abused. The fact that the other 95% of the train is available for raucousness doesn't seem to count.

Oh, and by the way AB, whispered exchanges between three people are much the worst violations. They disturb while at the same time you can't figure out what the damn people are talking about.