You’re in a huff as you hurry through a sea of commuters onto a packed Circle Line train, praying you won’t be late for work (again).
You look around for a seat and, in typical fashion, they’re all occupied – but not by people.
Rucksacks, handbags and ugly briefcases are dumped on empty seats, as their owners lounge on the seat next to them. And of course, there’s no thought to move their bag to floor so you can take its place.
This infuriating behaviour isn’t new, but it’s now got a name: ‘double bagging’.
Don’t be rude – it’s a perfectly innocent term coined by Metro, to describe the act of taking up two seats on public transport; one for their bag; one for themselves.
These double baggers are the worst types of commuters – appearing on tubes, trains and buses – and we aren’t the only ones who have a problem with them.
A commuter took to Reddit to share her encounter with a double bagger, and it didn’t go well.
‘There have been many occasions where other passengers on the train will occupy the empty seat next to them with their bag. There are people standing during the ride when there are available seats,’ she wrote.
‘I walked multiple [carriages] to try to find an empty seat (without a bag) but couldn’t. The last [carriage] I went to, I asked this woman if I could sit there and she pretended to not hear me. I didn’t want to tap her shoulder… so I waved… she said she didn’t want to hold her bag (which was a no).’
The seat-less commuter explained there was nowhere else to sit asked politely again, but the woman ignored her, so she took action.
‘I ended up just sitting in the seat on her purse,’ they wrote. ‘She began pushing me to move and the conductor luckily came by them and told her to relax.
‘She told him that I touched her purse and he asked if it was occupying a seat and she didn’t reply. He ended up telling her to be considerate and left to check tickets.’
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People in the comments were quick to agree with the commuter, expressing their distaste for people who put their bags on seats.
‘It’s public transit. Her purse doesn’t get a seat because she had a bad day,’ said one.
‘Sorry, your bag didn’t pay for a ticket,’ added another.
It’s not just a London problem either, one user from Seattle even shared the measures their city was taking to try and stop double baggers.
‘I hate when people do this on a full train. In my city there are signs everywhere saying “bags don’t have butts”, telling people to leave the seats for actual humans, but it doesn’t do much good,’ they said.
Others were simply floored at the lack of manners people have nowadays, saying they ‘dispise’ people like this.
‘I take the train for work and the level of entitlement I see daily is wild to me,’ wrote @oohh-val.
‘Barebackers’ are plaguing the London tube network
There’s another subset of London Underground passengers who have been labelled the worst of them all: the ‘barebackers’.
Get your mind out of the gutter – it’s a perfectly innocent term coined by Curtis Morton, co-host of the Behind the Screens podcast, in a TikTok that’s racked up nearly 100,000 views.
Essentially, barebackers – also known as rawdoggers – are people who sit without any form of entertainment and people-watch, staring at other passengers to pass the time.
‘Barebackers are number one,’ Curtis says in the clip ranking the most annoying train travel habits.
‘You’ve commuted enough times – why are you sitting there without a phone, without a book, just looking at me, looking at what’s going on? Keep yourself to yourself. Read a book – just do something.’
Feel called out? Read more about your barebacking behaviour here.
How commuters are dealing with double baggers
People were quick to offer their methods for managing these double baggers.
@cloielle said: ‘I’ve found the verrry slow sit-down effective. It’s never brought me any confrontation other than maybe a bit of muttering, because they always move the bag before you actually touch it. And then you can follow up with “oh, thanks!” just to add the cherry on top.’
Are you guilty of double bagging?
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Yes, but only when the train is quiet
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Yes, I don’t want my bag on the floor
Another said: ‘I usually sort of shove people’s bags towards them with my hip so they’re forced to grab them or they’ll fall.’
‘I would have probably picked up the purse and said where do you want this while I sat down,’ added someone else.
Of course, asking nicely should be your first port of call, but sometimes it requires drastic measures.
So, double baggers, if you’re reading, it’s time to get some manners.
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