I’m all for banning loud music and videos on buses and trains – nobody wants to hear your terrible playlist

Commuters rejoice as the UK government launches a long-overdue crackdown on ‘loudcasting’

Commuters rejoice as the UK government launches a long-overdue crackdown on “loudcasting”, the annoying practice of playing music or videos, or taking calls on speakerphone, without headphones.

This noise-curbing announcement follows widespread moaning from fed-up travellers like me and a national rail campaign called “share the carriage, not the noise”.

This public transport noise ban follows strong pushback against annoying loud-casting, including a total ban on phone speaker use introduced by the Wetherspoons pub chain.

The Department for Transport published new guidance on applying the legislation. Under the new guidance, local authorities in England can now issue fixed penalty notices to passengers who play loud music, vape, litter, or display threatening behaviour on buses, with authorised officers, not drivers, carrying out enforcement.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “We’ve all been on the train when someone starts blasting music or videos from their phone. It gets on your nerves and can quickly spoil the journey.

“So we’re launching a nationwide campaign reminding passengers to use headphones on trains. On top of that, we’re giving local leaders new powers to tackle loud music, vaping and littering on buses.”

I can’t be the only one looking forward to a clampdown on headphone dodgers who ruin commutes with loud TikTok scrolling and terrible playlists.

As an elder millennial who remembers life before phones and social media-driven main character syndrome, I have noticed public spaces are steadily being treated like one’s own living room.

On my many travels, I have encountered trap music at 7am, passengers removing socks and shoes, open-mouth coughing, and Peppa Pig blasting from an iPad as my will to live fades.

It wasn’t always like this; there was a time when broadcasting your music or making tedious phone calls would have been considered spectacularly rude, and other passengers might even have spoken up. Now everyone’s just trying to get to their mandated day at the office without incident, so it’s eyes down, ignoring brain-rot videos at full volume.

In the noughties, tech bros gave us phones that could play MP3s through built-in speakers, a boom box that fit in your pocket; what could go wrong?

For years, wired headphones offered a simple solution, but a definite shift occurred when smartphone manufacturers phased out headphone jacks, and we all had to embrace Bluetooth.

Unfortunately, when people forgot to charge their wireless headphones, rather than raw dog a journey home, they simply opted to use external speakers with no consideration for anyone else.

The problem is hardly new; London Mayor Ken Livingstone backed a public petition for “Music-Free Buses’ way back in 2006, long before the issue became as bad as it has over the last 2 decades.

Now, widespread phone network coverage means nowhere is off limits anymore; you’re free to be an annoyance in the underground, on a delayed train, in the cinema, at a restaurant, and in the pub.

Public transit etiquette has also worsened since the COVID-19 lockdowns, when everyone forgot how to behave in public, and we emerged back into society with our attention span shattered by social media doomscrolling.

I’m convinced short-form slop videos on platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram Reels have changed how we consume media. I have seen no end of Commuters endlessly scrolling through dozens of rapid-fire, low-quality videos, so you hear new, irritating sounds every 4 seconds.

It’s tempting to blame young people exclusively for this phenomenon, but headphone dodgers are a societal scourge that cuts across generations and demographics.

I’ve spotted middle-aged men playing loud games on their phones, grandparents letting 2-year-olds watch garish cartoons on loop at maximum volume, and people conducting video calls about what they’re having for tea.

Psychologists suggest it’s partly due to the “auditory bubble” phenomenon. A psychological study published in the Journal of Behavioural Sciences explains how people use personal devices and audio in crowded settings to distract themselves from unpleasant or high-density environments.

Apparently, this coping mechanism suspends ‘awareness of the environment’; put simply, people don’t realise how annoying they are being.

Whatever the reason, given how widespread the problem is, I thought I was the only one who found it bothersome, but polling suggests roughly 70% of passengers view loudcasting as a nuisance, prompting the government to finally take it seriously.

New campaigns and fines should hopefully start a cultural shift from “FaceTime with your nan on the number 93 is fine” to social pariah status and a penalty notice.

While the new bus fines apply only in England, I hope my home country, Wales, will take a tougher stance against the loudcasters. British public transport is grim enough, so why don’t we do the radical thing and keep quiet on our commutes to make it a little less hellish.

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