Grossest/Weirdest thing seen on public transit:

On a NJ Transit train, the toilet in the train started leaking and a puddle of piss started growing longer and longer. Everyone moved to the opposite end of the train, but so did the puddle as time went on. Took some amazing contortion to get out of that train without stepping in it.

Seattle's former ride free zone: Most of downtown was, for about forty years, free to ride the bus within. Bus tends to attract an interestingly diverse crowd anyway, free bus even more so. It was not uncommon to witness fellow riders, taking advantage of the fareless trip, taking part in all manner of activities but for the sake of this story, also in the unexpected throes of passion. Unexpected to me in that the bus doesn't ordinarily strike me as the first place one would choose to physically express love for another, but that's just one guy's opinion.

The most memorable example of this was one afternoon, on a full to capacity bus, a couple sat across the aisle from me. The male was small, scrawny and sickly looking. The woman, large in all directions and sickly sounding. I couldn't tell if they were sweating or just greasy. She was ranting, furiously, in Spanish, while doing her best to manage a case of over-expectoration in the form of a lot of SNOooOoRK-gulping. The only other rest she took from her impassioned monologue involved grabbing hold of her diminutive male associate and, complete with smackly snork gulping noises, mugging him down. Hard. He would disappear entirely save the arms wrapped around the woman's torso, and did not make a sound. It was such a publicly profound intersection of lust, fury and disease that I could not look away.

These days I ride my bike to work.

40 years ago someone decided it was a good idea to carpet the floors of the BART. You can figure out the rest.

Ride the TTC 5 days a week ~1.5 hours a day. The grossest three incidents I remember:

a) an old person had diahrea all over a bus seat, covered it with a newspaper and then an Asian sat on it even though people told him not to (probably wished he would have spoke English at that point).

b) a homeless person was on the subway with 5 trash bags, people were literally jumping carts at stops to get out of that cart. It smelled like the worst mix of alcohol and cat piss you have ever smelled.

c) a homeless guy fell asleep on the 24 bus when I used to take that route, the driver said he had been riding around the loop a couple of time and he was literally clearing out the front of the bus, sleeping the whole time.

Rather discouraging the number of feces stories on public transit.

Put me down for the seemingly typical feces/ vomit stories courtesy of the DC metro system.

I only have a four-stop commute on MARTA, but it is common to see the homeless using the cars as a place to crash for a time. I have not seen anything gross, but I sure have smelled it. The most disgusting thing I have seen was actually a white man using the n-word frequently in a rant. He was surrounded by African-Americans and his intent was clearly to upset them at the very least. To the crowd's credit, no one took the bait.

wrinkster22 said:

I like probably most of you am forced to ride public transport (At least) 2 times a day, 5 times a week, 50 weeks of the year. And durring this time I have seen so many disgusting things and weird people. Post the grossest/weirdest thing you have ever seen and the system (eg: TTC, Tube, L, etc), line(Bloor/danforth, line 3, brown line), and vehicle

System: TTC
Line: Yonge Line
Vehicle: Subway
Gross: Yesterday at Ossgoode station was a peace of poop lying in the middle of the platform. Nobody seemed to care but me and it was tracked EVERYWHERE.

System: TTC
Line: Bloor/Danforth
Vehicle: Subway
Gross: A few months ago vomit was all over royal york station near the westbound stair case. A bunch of people almost walked in it.

Feel free to rant.

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This is part of the reason I left Toronto. It is not what it was 20 years ago. You would never seen this. I rode the subway for over 10 years in the 70's and they were pretty clean except for the odd bit of paper here or there. What you describe is gross ( please do not take that personally ), it has nothing to do with you. I moved to a small town out west and never miss Toronto. I travel there every couple of years to visit my family and always look forward to getting back home.

A naked homeless man on the ground in front of the train at 2am in NYC. He was asleep sprawled out in the DaVinci position. My friend ran and woke him up because we were afraid he was dead.

wrinkster22 said:

No offence taken, it not like I have a love affair with it or something, its just something I have to use For a while I used to carry a container of lysol wipes with me and wipe down the surface I had to touch, but the awkward stares and peer pressure made me stop Anywho it seems that nothing ever gets done despite all the grandious plans every mayor and director has. Andy Byford the new chairmen seems pretty promising.
Did you hear that TTC has plans to to put those doors between the platform and track to avoid people getting pushed? It seems like a good idea especailly with stations like Eglinton where there is not even a meter between the wall and train.
//End rant/

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It is ashame to see that it has come to this. The TTC used to be one of the pride and joys of Toronto. And the Go Train was even more awesome. But it has been awhile since Toronto has had a good mayor IMO that I think really cares about the city. Are there really that many pushes onto the tracks that they require bars? Bloor Street & Union Station used to be the bad ones. But bad in the good old days was nothing compared to what you are saying. I lived in Toronto for 20 years but have been away now for close to 20. My darling wife used the Go Train to go to work downtown from our condo by the zoo and she loved it. She also used the TTC and never seemed to have any problems. Oh how times have change.

A crazy guy tried to push me overboard on a Sydney Harbour ferry.

I punched him and he left to pick on someone else - someone who had watched my struggle and did nothing to help. When the crazy guy started picking on New Guy, New Guy started giving me imploring looks. I smiled and waved.*

Four cops were waiting for McNutter when we docked at Circular Quay.



*Smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave.

Here in Seoul, we fortunately have clean public transportation, but occasionally there are a few incidents.

One night, I was heading home and got on a bus. I noticed how everyone was standing in the front half and there was no one sitting at a certain section. I took a peek and turns out someone puked there big time.

On a different weekend night, there was a guy standing next to the subway door, but he suddenly jerked a bit to the front and grabbed his mouth. When the train stopped, he bolted, but unfortunately leaving a trail of vomit.

Thank goodness I've only had use public transit all but two times. Never sat down anywhere. =X

Sheldon Cooper has the right idea. Bus pants!

One day I was on a packed commuter train when the couple being rather passionate opposite started to get a little noisier under his coat. It became apparent by her screaming that they were both having a really good time. When they eventually finished she straitened herself up and sat back down. She pulled out a cigarette and was about to light up when the lady opposite said, excuse me madam but this is a non smoking carriage!

This thread makes me scared to ever try public transit...

wrinkster22 said:

The problem is that they can't afford to do anything. They have more people in management then anything else and nothing gets done. The streetcar/lrt vs subway debate continues. Meanwhile a fortune is spent on ideas that never make it past a fancy model. The Toronto system is deplorable, there is no excuse for its state or size. The streetcars should be removed a changed back to lanes and subways should replace them. It costs a fortune but its an investment in the city. They should fire all the management and try to privatize section. I dont understand why each train needs 6 drivers when they could be automated.


You are very lucky, I hear that Seoul has one of the cleanest metros in the world.

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Our bus and LRT system in Edmonton is awesome. Biggest problem they really have is petty crime. But it is clean and I use it occasionally to go to a concert or sporting event. Well look after and not bloated with management as the TTC is. I do not know if privatizing is the answer. Probably better to force early retirement on management so more grunts can come work for them. Might help some? Or start handing out fines for littering and such. Or possibly hiring security company to oversee at least the crime aspect of it. Shame, TTC used to be so awesome when I was a teenager. Clean and little issues.

STM Public Transportation of Montreal

1. A random dude whipped out his penis and starting swirling it in the middle of the cart.

2. A douchebag decided to take a leak when there was about 10 of us in the cart

All posts sound like anything seen on 5 years of the CTA - especially if you happen to hit a red line train at the Addison stop before/after a Cubs game or late at night.

aerok said:

STM Public Transportation of Montreal

1. A random dude whipped out his penis and starting swirling it in the middle of the cart.

2. A douchebag decided to take a leak when there was about 10 of us in the cart

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when you gotta go you gotta go.

A few weeks ago on MARTA a man had started jerking it, and this was a very crowded cart; people were selling illegal DVD's minutes before. Anyways people started to notice shortly after i did -_-
i changed carts at the stop because it was getting too wild after people started yelling at the man. he was probably drunk, although it was only about 6 o'clock pm.

I saw a man try and do a poo in a carrier bag whilst holding a can of special brew in his other hand whilst on a tube train at a station. True story.