Joyce Whitchurch wrote:

AIUI, the train was DOO and the driver was in charge. The two people who
asked the OP to leave the train may or may not have been railway staff,
and they may or may not have worked for FCC; they merely claimed to be
railway staff but did not produce any evidence to back up their claim.
All according to the OP, of course.

So you are most concerned about them not providing ID? I accept the
point, but in the circumstances I think that it was reasonable to get
the problem sorted as quickly as possible. After all, the longer the
drunks are on the tain, the greater the opportunity for things to 'kick
off' again. The fact is that if there is going to be trouble it is
better at a station than on a train (either moving or stopped in
section).

I'll ask you the same question that I've asked both the OP and another
poster: What do you think should have been done?


A little aside: I was on a night bus in Manchester last night and it was
heavily delayed by an incident at a bus stop (a lady waiting to board
claimed to have been robbed by someone alighting). There were masses of
people in hi-viz yellow jackets at this and several other stops. The
jackets did not identify them in any way. They got involved, but all
they did was direct the lady to some more people in yellow jackets and
tall pointy hats, which is what passes for a police uniform in
Manchester these days.

You don't feel that it is beneficial for police officers to be clearly
visible?


Nobody bothered to tell the remaining passengers what was happening, or
indeed to ask any of us if we'd seen or heard anything untoward, so I
went downstairs to find out for myself. In conversation with one of the
yellowjackets, who didn't identify himself at all, I did catch a glimpse
of a Stagecoach logo on a dark woolly pullover. The logo would have been
completely obscured by the hi-viz jacket if he'd bothered to wear it
properly instead of letting it hang half off him. I suppose that's what
passes for a bus inspector's uniform in Manchester these days.

In what way would things have been better if the bus inspectors had
been wearing Manchester Corporation Transport uniforms, and the police
officers blue serge tunics with a whistle chain?