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Trains: Positioning.

Impressive, you have ridden the train. But don't settle down quite yet, the battle has just begun.

Basics:

If you can sit on the train, try to sit in one of the edge seats. This way, you only have to sit by one other person, and you can hang your umbrella on the rail if you need to. This will also make your exit easier. Exiting is covered in another lesson.

If you need to stand, try to to an area where you can put your bag on the top of the luggage rack. You might need the extra space later. Do not move from in front of your bag. No matter how crowded the train gets. This will only complicate your exit.

Positioning:

This is important stuff. There are a few ideal places to be when riding a crowded train. There are also few spots that will get you maimed. These diagrams should help you find the cozy places and avoid becoming a western style pancake.

Before you can understand where to position yourself on the train, you must learn the packing logic. This diagram will show you how the trains tend to, as they say in the train industry, 'get full'.

Note: This diagram is only accurate to about 5.4mm.

The grey area represent the areas where the train packs first. These areas generally include the seats, of course, but also random areas throughout the train. There are also some people who just don't feel it's necessary to sit, or are going to get off in a few stops anyway.

The blue area shows stage two. In this stage people start standing in front of the people sitting down. A few lazy people will stand by the door and lean on it, or just randomly hang in the asile.

The purple area shows stage three, the stage where things start to feel a little tight. In this stage people give up trying to get in the isle between the seats, and just loiter between the doors.

Due to the danger of taking our measuring equipment onto a train at these times we don't have any graphs of stage 4. I imagine though that the image would look something like a rectangular shadow, with the area around the doors appearing to be blacker than unholy night.

Now that know what to expect, we can show you how to position yourself like a master.

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