I think Metro-North, and some AMTRAK trains have designated “quiet cars” with no cell phones or loud talking. JClifford needs to move off the island.
I know the feeling, but I believe the real difficulty is that nobody understands the meaning of “public” or “community” anymore and everyone believes he or she is entitled to have the world the way it would be if he or she were in the living room at home. One example: a father who wanted to read aloud to his daughter on an airplane for 3 hours became outraged when I asked the stewardess if I could have a different seat, as I wanted to study; a mother became outraged because I, wearing a business suit and on my way to a week’s conference where I would not have access to dry cleaning, removed the soap bubble jar from her toddler who was sitting next to me and asked her to please find something for him to do that would not spill. In the latter case she whined “Well, how else am I going to keep him quiet?” and I looked Junior in the eye and said, “Hush!” in the Mom voice and he shut up like a trap. But she was still not amused. And last week on the way home, a Murmuring Daddy was trying to Parent Effectiveness Training his brat who was sitting next to me (Daddy was standing) and demanding that his father place him on his shoulders on a subway car that was too short for that activity -— whereupon the kid let out a screech that, no lie, was just as loud as a Formula One car passing the main grandstand at Monza at full song (I have reason to know whereof I speak). I restrained myself from slapping him insensible, but did tell his father that if he’d warned me the kid was a bat I’d have put in my ear plugs. Daddy murmured, “He’s only a child....”
So it is possible that EVERYONE in that car could have examined his or her behaviour to see if it was disturbing and annoying to others; but I think this guy went about it the wrong way.
The LIRR is a zoo. Kind of like a Fellini movie. I live in Westchester and can say Metro North, during peak hours, is like being on a different planet. There’s no quiet car but people are respectful of fellow riders.