Great Western Coffee Shop

Interesting piece on something I've seen (nearly) happen on many an occasion:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/11506328/Japanese-rail-operator-finds-drunk-passengers-fall-onto-tracks-because-of-parallel-benches.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/11506328/Japanese-rail-operator-finds-drunk-passengers-fall-onto-tracks-because-of-parallel-benches.html)

The other common thing is for drunk people to get off a train and to over-correct their forward momentum and end up falling back towards the train!

Or jumping up & down near the edge of the platform, losing one's wallet/phone in the process, jumping onto the tracks to retrieve, being hauled up by your (drunk) brother & both not getting clear before the train arrives?

cf Old Street Tube, Sunday.

I regularly see people who are roaring drunk on trains - I appreciate it's difficult to stop at smaller stations, but surely at Reading (for example) BTP/staff can deny entrance to the station?

Similarly at Paddington, can't they stop people getting through the ticket gates if they are hammered on drink/drugs?

In all but truly extreme cases, the priority of station staff seems to be to get drunks onto trains so that they become someone else's problem.

I've noticed posters popping up in Cornwall about thinking how much you drink before rail travel, with a number stating how many injuries have happened on the railway due to drink

I am aware of one recent case where BTP did a bargain with one person who was causing problems while "in drink".  If he promised to button it, he could travel the 15 minutes to his destination.  Not sure what the train crew felt about it.