How quiet the Quiet Cars?

In an age of cell phones, New Jersey Transit is trying to strike a balance between convenience and serenity. Not everyone wants to hear people yammer away on their cell phones during schleppy rides home after long days in the office, and thus, in September, the Quiet Car pilot program was born.

As I explained in September, the idea wasn’t to impose silence but to impose a certain subdued environment upon the first and last cars. I wrote:

In this pilot, it is truly social norms of train ridership that are under assault and for the better. The Quite Commute cars, says New Jersey Transit, are intended to provide a “subdued environment for customers who wish to refrain from using cell phones and are willing to disable the sound feature on pagers, games, computers and other electronic devices.” Riders are urged to talk in “subdued” voices and, thankfully enough, are told to use headphones at a volume that “cannot be heard by other passengers.” To rid trains of the blight of loud and leaky headphones would be a true accomplishment indeed.

Recently, NJ Transit expanded the pilot program to include more trains and more routes. The first and last cars on all Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line, Raritan Valley Line and Midtown Direct trains traveling in the peak direction during weekday peak periods are a part of the Quiet Commute program now. Riders, though, are duking it out over the meaning of quiet. Vincent M. Mazzolli of The Times repeats a common anecdote:

Last Monday morning, Robert Arbeeny and two friends boarded a train bound for Manhattan and began chatting about the holidays. Robert Arbeeny, left, and Steven Heite last week riding in a New Jersey Transit train car designated as quiet. The rules include refraining from cellphone use and talking with “subdued voices.” “Excuse me,” said the woman sitting across from them, raising her reading glasses, and then her voice. “This is the quiet car.”

Mr. Arbeeny apologized and began whispering, which caused further agitation. The woman put down her book and summoned a conductor. “They are not supposed to be talking,” she said, wagging her index finger at the group. The conductor tried stepping quietly between both parties. “They do have a right to talk,” he said in a soft voice, “they just have to speak in a very quiet manner.”

As other passengers began looking on, the woman shot back: “What kind of sense does that make! Why would you allow them to have a sustained conversation in a quiet car, and why are you taking their side over mine!”

Conductors have been caught in the middle of this battle of interpretation, but while some prickly riders want library-like silence, others understand the intricacies of the program. “Cellphones are one thing, but people are getting the wrong impression about these cars,” Annemarie Whitney, a daily commuter, said. “They are quiet cars, not silent cars. Subdued and silent are two different words, and as long as there are misconceptions out here, there are going to be disputes.”

The problem here is one of expectations vs. reality. It doesn’t make sense to expect people to be deadly silent on a train. That’s just not the way we’re used to commuting, and that’s not why the Quiet Commute was launched. (That is, however, why Bose markets noise-canceling headphones.) Rather, it’s about creating an atmosphere free from noise pollution, free from one-sided cell phone conversations and free from bleeding iPod headphones. That is a balance easy to maintain.