A WOMAN was left feeling uncomfortable because teenagers were brazenly vaping in a shared train carriage.
Sarinya Parkhurst was travelling between Ledbury and Birmingham on a West Midlands Railway train when she videoed teenagers encouraging each other to vape in the carriage.
“It made me feel really uncomfortable, and there are people doing it, thinking it’s normal,” she said.
RECCOMENDED READING:
‘Substantial’ haul of illegal vapes seized from city shop
£30,000 of illegal tobacco and vapes seized during crackdown
Increased risk of fires as disposable vape ban comes into effect
“What shook me was that people were sitting on the aisle next to them had two young girls and no one said anything.
“It was a packed train.
“I think a lot of people are scared to say something or assume nothing would come of reporting it.
“My daughter says it happens all the time on trains.”
BLURRED: One of the teenagers was captured vaping on the train. (Image: Sarinya Parkhurst)
Ms Parkhurst, who is from Ledbury, said she was concerned by how normalised vaping is and more needs to be done by railway companies to prevent it on their services.
She said no action was taken against the teenagers when they left the train at Worcester Forgate Street.
She added: “It made me feel really uncomfortable, and there are people doing it, thinking it’s normal.
“I feel angry with West Midlands Railway’s failings, and I could not see any signs. There were signs saying it would prosecute criminals and signs saying there was CCTV in operation, but not enough.
“People are too scared to do it on a plane but feel fine to do it on trains – there’s no respect.
“It’s the wider picture and vaping is a national problem.”
Number of people vaping has overtaken those smoking
The number of people who vape has overtaken the number who smoke for the first time, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed last year.
It found that one in ten adults (10%) aged 16 and over in Britain use e-cigarettes every day or occasionally.
This is compared with 9.1% who said they smoke cigarettes daily or occasionally.
This equates to around 5.4 million vapers and 4.9 million smokers, the ONS figures suggest.
A WMR spokesperson said: “There is a senior conductor present on all our services, so we’d encourage any customer impacted by antisocial behaviour to raise this with the train guard or contact British Transport Police via 61016.
“We are investing in recruiting more revenue protection and security managers to prevent antisocial behaviour like vaping, so everyone can travel safely.”