Skip to main content

Scorrail introduces no smoking regulations

Have you heard? Scotrail has rolled out no-smoking regulations on all of there platforms! Surely this is something to rejoice amongst all of the terrible things that have happened this year, especially recently.

However, I cannot help but be very sceptical of this new arrangement.

In England the no smoking rule has been rolled out across all stations for years, showcased by brightly coloured signs up and down platforms warning of possible fines for smokers.

Though a reasonable idea the result is not pleasant. When at an open-air, small train station down in England, though there are in fact no smokers on the platforms, they are even more unavoidable than before.

Now unable to smoke on the station, they gather in hives at the gate entrance, a spot where the regulation dose not stretch and where they can still see and run for their trains at the last minute.
This collective of smoking individuals is something any person seeking to board a train at the same station must push through, breathing in not just one breath of second hand smoke but a whole cloud of it.

It is unsightly, and provides an unavoidable chance of breathing in the second hand smoke that, if these members of the public had been spread out across the platform, would be avoidable by standing away from them.

Is this the future of Scotrail stations too?

What furthers my scepticism is the lack of signage in all stations throughout Scotrail. The knowledge is very much being spread by word of mouth, mainly coming from disgruntled smokers who've been warned if not fined for smoking on the platform when they had no knowledge of such a rule.

Which all brings me to my conspiracy theory like way of thinking. For years our government has proffettered of smoking, and continue to do so, their recent roll out of new smoking rules ensure that the smaller, cheaper smoking items will no longer be legally available in stores, forcing smokers to spend more to get their fix. Furthermore cities around the nation have rolled out littering fines, while some sign post these fines clearly, others such as Glasgow hardly announce the eighty pound sum they will charge litterers.

And yet when you ask people who have been fined what it was for, most are getting done for ciggerett butts dropped on the ground. While this is considered the most unsightly form of littering I would not call it such a pain as gum, yet you ask any bubble blowers if they have been fined for their dropped mess of sticky goo and most have not. Which makes me wonder if councils have found there own way to proffetter of unsuspecting smokers? With big buissness like Scotrail chiming in, and using their lack of signage about the new regulations to catch people out?

I feel particularly sorry for the smokers on Scotrails platforms. As the company has made delays and cancellations their most notable talent it is not uncommon for a commuter, or any train traveller, to be stuck on one of their poorly arranged platforms for half an hour where it was meant to be five minutes. Now, those who turn to smoking to relax, for something to do, will be hit by a fine they didn't have reason to believe was coming for lighting up to kill the time and figure out how they're to explain the delay to their boss.

Share this post to let people know about the new regulations so your friends don't get unfairly caught out, and give us a like if you agree that smokers are being used wrongly in the fight for profits in a deminsihed economy.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why We Need To Make Politics A Mandatory High School Topic

Basic politics is easy to grasp, but trying to teach yourself politics, in an unbiased manner, is very difficult. In my high school Social Education was made a mandatory subject, taught once a week, for the entity of the high school education, And while repeatedly learning the same things about sex and drugs is SO important there is no education on basic politics to speak of. Also I was never taught how to write a cheque, pay bills, or set up insurance, but those are separate issues. The recent run of elections, and referendums, and the poor youth turnouts are a huge sign that the populace is not receiving any understanding of basic politics. However, making it a mandatory topic within high school education, such as embedding it into already existent classes like social education, could prepare the future generations for making strong, well educated decisions when it comes the the governing of our country. With most parents not even having the most basic grasp of unbiased pol...

Employment At Record High In Scotland

Employment levels in Scotland during January to December 2016 reached a record high of 2,579,700, reflecting a huge improvement to the Scottish labour market. Scotland's Cheif Statistician published statistics on Regional Employment Patterns in Scotland from the Annual Population Survey on Tuesday. This publication presents annual estimates for a wide range of labour market indicators across local authority areas in Scotland for 2016. The report found that the employment level for men, aged 16 and over, has increased by 13,900 over the year and is at the highest level since 2008. While the youth unemployment rate decreased by 2.3% over the year, with the you employment rate also decreasing by 0.7%. Worryingly the trend reflected across the nation of pensioner workers has been reflected in the report, with the employment rate for people aged 65 and over increased from 5.2% in 2004 to 9.1% in 2016. Over half of workers over state pension age in Scotland said they has not ye...

Roads Opening On M8, M73 and M74

Keith Brown has announced the opening of the M8, M73 and M74 as part of the £500 million M8, M73 and M74 Motorway Improvements Project. The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair work said all daytime lane restrictions on the M8, M73 and M74 will be removed progressively over the coming days, freeing up capacity on the key part of Central Scotland's motorway network. This will allow road users to experience the benefit of the widened motorways and help deliver the full journey time savings of the new M8 motorway opened in April and the M74 Raith Underpass opened in February. As part of the Motorway Improvements Project, a range of improvements have been built over the last three years, including a new M8 motorway, significant improvements to Raith and Shawhead junctions as well as widening of the M8 M73 and M74, with new lanes providing an increase in motorway capacity. Mr Brown, said; £We are just a few days away from seeing the last of the lane restrictions bein...