Commuter Types: The Middle-Aged Barger

Posted by The Grumpy Commuter in
If you are a seasoned commuter you will be familiar with this wily breed of fellow traveller. Usually always male and aged between their 40s and 50s, the mildly antisocial behaviour of the Middle-Aged Barger is the sad product of decades of monotonous commuting. This mixture of experience and mild insanity can make the Middle-Aged Barger a formidable adversary.

The habitual behaviour of the Middle-Aged Barger:

  • As the name suggests the Middle-Aged Barger will always try to get on or off the train first, regardless of common standards of polite conduct.
  • Once on the train the Middle-Aged Barger will take an eternity to fuss and settle in their seat at the expense of every other fellow traveller trying to get to a seat.
  • The Middle-Aged Barger usually has the air of someone who thinks they should be in first class but they don't have the bank balance to match their aspirations.
  • Look for the broadsheet newspaper spread across half the carriage (including your lap)
  • The Middle-Aged Barger will always take up the whole of the middle arm rest.
    Morning Journey: 11 minutes late
    Evening Journey: 5 minutes late

    2 Comments


    Oh yes I'm hearing you. Always want to be first on...but first off too. One has even raced me to a seat from the opposite end of the aisle, thrown his briefcase on the seat and sat on it triumphantly whilst pulling it out from underneath him and grinning at me as if he'd just won the London Marathon.
    And another thing...they always seem to have elbows that stick out further than anyone else's!


    Amen to that. Even though I am a commuter, other commuters are a large part of the reason I hate travelling to and from work every day. The middle aged barger is definitely one of the worst culprits.

    As an equal hater of commuting and southeastern, you'll empathise with my own blog posts: http://ensignjenpersonallog.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/dear-southeastern-trains/ - my letter Southeastern trains about how shit they are, and http://ensignjenpersonallog.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/commutings-hard-but-so-am-i/ - Commuting's hard, but so am I...

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