by Gilbert B Norman
The Business Travel column in Today's New York Times suggests that the "Quiet Cars" are "not exactly that". Here is a "brief passage":
"Last week, in a column about the proliferation of cellphone louts on Amtrak trains, including on the single, ostensibly cellphone-free Quiet Cars that Amtrak operates, I asked for reader responses....An avalanche of e-mail messages arrived..........Remember when public pay phones had doors? They were there to protect Americans' cherished privacy. But the doors are long gone and so, it would seem, is people's skittishness about spilling secrets to strangers. A large number of readers viewed the braying of personal matters by some cellphone users, like the lawyer I overheard on an Acela train discussing intimate details of a client's case, as a symptom of the nation's cultural decline......"I certainly can't believe how people talk on their phone without thinking about the consequences," said Tony J. Williams. "
For the "whole story":
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/business/29road.html
However, lest we forget that today we live in a world where "Quiet is requested for the benefit of those who have retired" (actual Pullman Company signage) has been replaced with "SHUT THE F$#- UP" (caps quite intentional).
"Last week, in a column about the proliferation of cellphone louts on Amtrak trains, including on the single, ostensibly cellphone-free Quiet Cars that Amtrak operates, I asked for reader responses....An avalanche of e-mail messages arrived..........Remember when public pay phones had doors? They were there to protect Americans' cherished privacy. But the doors are long gone and so, it would seem, is people's skittishness about spilling secrets to strangers. A large number of readers viewed the braying of personal matters by some cellphone users, like the lawyer I overheard on an Acela train discussing intimate details of a client's case, as a symptom of the nation's cultural decline......"I certainly can't believe how people talk on their phone without thinking about the consequences," said Tony J. Williams. "
For the "whole story":
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/business/29road.html
However, lest we forget that today we live in a world where "Quiet is requested for the benefit of those who have retired" (actual Pullman Company signage) has been replaced with "SHUT THE F$#- UP" (caps quite intentional).
