I love my music and an old favourite of mine is ‘A Certain Romance’ by the Arctic Monkeys….

Sitting on the train on Saturday afternoon I was made aware of how many intimidating and scary people there are out there, people in their mid twenties and drunk at 3pm. The people that shout lewd remarks at girls walking by, the people that are so drunk they start fighting with their friends. No romance in sight.

…. These lyrics became real ‘Tracky bottoms tucked in socks, all of that’s what the point is not, the points that there ain’t no romance around here’

Needless to say I was scared, if I had been alone I would have got straight of that train and waited for the next, thankfully I was not.

The louder the group of people got, the more I saw other train users holding their bags tighter, elderly people moving, people taking out their IPods because they were frightened. I wanted to call the police but I didn’t even want to get my phone out.

Sure enough five minutes or so passed before the conductor walked down the train and asked them to leave. He pointed out how they were disturbing other people in the carriage. Not surprisingly, they then verbally abused him too, screaming they weren’t going anywhere, they had a return ticket and the only way they were getting off was if he threw them off. Apparently they were having a laugh.

They weren’t laughing when two police officers got on the train. There was a struggle, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. This really outlined to me what society is like today, not everybody, but we’ve all been in a situation like this. I was shocked. …

What makes them think they have a right to act like utter idiots, swear at the top of their voices and bang their friends head into the window? At the time all I could think about was the films Kidulthood and Adulthood… how well these films portray what the ‘ASBO’s’ of society are like!!

When they were taken off the train I felt a sense of relief, however only two members of the gang were arrested, the rest had split up amongst the carriage. The remainder of the journey wasn’t too bad, then getting off at Preston I noticed the same group of young men were also getting off, leaving their ‘friend’ asleep and covered in sick.

I understand that sometimes people get bored, and in my hometown that was the excuse for everything that went wrong, there was nowhere to go, nothing to do. But these men were not fifteen years old; they looked to be in their twenties. They appeared to have nothing ahead of them in life and it’s a good job they were arrested yesterday.

The train conductor was so brave, I couldn’t have approached them, but I did want them to shut up. These people aren’t just annoying, they’re dangerous. Without stereotyping, they could have had a knife.

I just wish these cocky no hopers could be sent somewhere together and leave the rest of us in peace!!