Reddit Is Debating Whether Sitting On The Weird Little Chair On Sydney Trains Is Rude Or Not

Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger sitting on Hogwarts Express in Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban and a photo of small chair on Sydney train

I live in Perth and since I’ve started working at PEDESTRIAN.TV, there are many things I’ve learned about the eastern states against my will. For example, Migaloo the albino whale and the fact people in Sydney prefer schooners to pints. And now I can add the weird little chair that exists on Sydney trains to that list ‘cos people on Reddit are discussing whether it’s acceptable to sit on it or not.

Before we start, I’d like to give my gorgeous Sydney-based colleague Kathleen Farmilo a shoutout for educating me on the nuances of the aforementioned wee chair, and also finding examples of what it looks like. God’s work, if I’m honest.

Now, this whole Reddit chair debate kicked off when someone who had recently moved to Sydney asked the r/sydney subreddit about train etiquette, alongside a photo of someone sitting on a train with a bag on the seat facing them.

“Recently moved to Sydney and find this a lot where people are standing in the metro and then there are people who keep bags on the empty seats and show no eagerness to move the bags so someone can sit! I find it so disrespectful and frustrating,” they said.

“Is this normal?”

A truly peculiar question, indeed. I particularly love that they ended their inquiry with “is this normal?”, as if to imply that Sydneysiders are freaks.

Myriad people replied to the commuter telling them it was kosher to ask the person to move their bag.

“Just ‘say excuse me can you move your bag so I can sit’,” one person said.

“100 per cent people sometimes need a little push to be polite. Like a child that forgets to say thank you. ‘Hey mate, is it cool if I sit here?’ Very rarely will you get a no,” said another.

“Just ask and they’ll move it so you can sit,” a third said.

It all sounded reasonable, in my opinion.

But then other people started chiming in to say the chair with the bag on it was redundant anyway ‘cos you’d have to sit knee-to-knee with the person facing you.

“To be fair, that specific seat on the city rail trains is an honest no go. No one sits there if someone is sitting across,” someone said.

“If you sit there your knees will be touching and it would be a very awkward thing to do,” said another.

“Nah there is no way you expect to sit in that seat. You want to play footsies with a stranger?” a third person said.

Look, I didn’t understand what anyone was talking about until I this picture of the chair and realised just how minuscule it is. It’s literally a chair for ants, but one that can be flipped so it faces the other way. Mind-blowing, if I’m being honest.

God speed, pro-tiny chair supporters. May you always find empty miniature chairs to plant your cabooses on.


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