Metro travellers 'are more polite'

PASSENGERS on the Paris Metro are more polite today than they than they were last year, according to a survey.

Regional transport provider RATP has noted a 9% decline in impolite behaviour on its network for the first time in the three years since it started publishing the results of its “Observatory of Incivility”, Le Parisien reports.

Travellers said that they had witnessed an average of 74 incidents of “incivility” in the past 12 months when questioned for the study, compared to 81 last year.

The biggest bugbear among those interviewed was seeing other passengers failing to give up their seat for elderly or disabled travellers. According to the latest study, however, instances of that have fallen 24% in the past year.

Meanwhile, the number of people reporting that someone delayed a train’s departure by trying to get on when the doors were closing has fallen 15%.

The number of people who eat on Metro services is also said to have fallen 9%, as has incidents of people bumping into fellow passengers and not apologising.

Levels of threatening behaviour, however, remained at the same level as in 2013, according to the report.

The report also highlighted a change in attitude among passengers. A total 98% of respondents said they are courteous on the Metro, and 88% said they would urge fellow travellers to be more polite if necessary.

The survey of 1,450 passengers on Paris’s Metro was conducted in April by TNS Sofres.