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Up to £100 on a bus, up to £1,000 on a train: the rules on noise have teeth now

Qurexa Editorial Team19 October 20267 min read 0 0
Up to £100 on a bus, up to £1,000 on a train: the rules on noise have teeth now

What happened

On Monday 19 October 2026, the government launched a set of measures aimed at noise and antisocial behaviour on buses and trains in England. The announcement came from the Department for Transport and the Prime Minister's Office. There are two halves to it. On buses, local transport authorities in England can now use byelaws to deal with nuisance behaviour. That covers things like playing loud music, littering, vaping and threatening behaviour. The penalty is a fixed fine of up to £100. The power comes from the Bus Services Act 2025, and the relevant part came into force on 5 August 2026. New guidance for councils was published alongside Monday's announcement. Every local transport authority in England can set its own local rules, but each set of byelaws needs sign-off from the Secretary of State before it can be enforced. Bus drivers will not be enforcing any of this. That job falls to authorised officers, including transport safety officers and the police. The approach set out in the guidance has three steps: engage with the person, explain the rules and the effect on other passengers, and only then take enforcement action if they refuse to stop. On trains, there is a national campaign against playing audio out loud, sometimes called "loudcasting". The slogan is "share the carriage, not the noise". It will include audio reminders of the railway byelaws, and will appear in carriages, at stations, on posters and online. The rail rules are not new, but they are being stated more loudly. Passengers who refuse to stop when asked by authorised rail staff can be removed at the next station, or face fines of up to £1,000.

Why this matters

Most people who use buses and trains regularly have a story about this. Someone watching videos at full volume. Someone vaping in a carriage. Feet on seats. Nothing dangerous, just the slow erosion of a journey. The reason it matters beyond irritation is who stops travelling because of it. Ben Plowden, Chief Executive of the Campaign for Better Transport, made that point. He said antisocial behaviour can put people off using public transport altogether, and that this particularly affects people with accessibility needs. He called for the new powers to be "properly and visibly enforced". That last phrase is the real test. A fine that exists on paper and is never issued changes nothing. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander framed it around the gap between most passengers and a few. She said the actions of "an inconsiderate few" spoil journeys, whether through vaping, littering or loud music. Prime Minister Andy Burnham focused on the rail campaign, saying: "We're launching a nationwide campaign reminding passengers to use headphones on trains." He said the measures would make journeys "that little bit better for all of us". Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, said antisocial behaviour "ruins the experience for everyone", and pointed to the work already done locally by the Safer Travel Partnership and transport safety officers. There is also a simple consistency argument for the rail campaign. Individual train companies have run their own versions of this for years, with different wording and different posters. One message across the network is easier to recognise, and harder to treat as somebody else's rule.

What the evidence actually says

A few things are worth getting straight, because this kind of announcement is easy to misread. The £100 bus fine is not a national rule that applied from Monday. It is a power that councils can choose to use. Each local transport authority has to make its own byelaws, and those byelaws need the Secretary of State's approval before anyone can be fined under them. So whether this applies on your bus route depends on where you live and how quickly your council moves. The train fines are different. Railway byelaws already exist and already carry penalties of up to £1,000. What launched on Monday is a campaign, not a new offence. If you were already using headphones, nothing has changed for you at all. The government has not published a figure for how much antisocial behaviour on transport costs, or how many incidents happen, in this announcement. Nor has it said how many fines it expects to be issued. The press release names no specific train operators, referring only to "most operators" and the publicly owned train companies. The three-step approach on buses is worth noting, because it is the part most likely to shape how this actually feels. Engage, explain, then enforce. In other words, the expectation is that most situations end with a conversation, not a fine. It is also fair to say that enforcement capacity is the open question. Authorised officers are not on every bus or every train. The campaign may well do more work than the fines do, simply by making the expectation explicit and audible.

Practical advice

Before you travel: - If you listen to anything on a bus or train, carry headphones. That is the whole of it. - Check whether your local transport authority has made bus byelaws yet. Councils publish them, and they vary from place to place. On the journey: - Keep bags and feet off seats. Offer seats to people who need them, and give up wheelchair spaces when they are required. - Do not vape or litter on buses or trains. - If staff ask you to stop doing something, stop. On trains, refusing can mean being removed at the next station or fined up to £1,000. If someone else's behaviour is a problem: - Report it to staff rather than taking it on yourself. On many networks you can text a reporting number discreetly; look for the details displayed in the carriage or at the station. - If you feel unsafe, move carriages if you can, and tell staff at the next stop. If you want to read the rules: - The guidance for councils, "Using bus byelaws to tackle nuisance behaviour", is published on GOV.UK. - The railway byelaws are also published on GOV.UK, and they are shorter than you might expect.

What to know

From 19 October 2026 the government has put two measures in front of passengers in England. Local transport authorities can use bus byelaws to issue fixed penalties of up to £100 for nuisance behaviour such as loud music, vaping, littering and threatening behaviour. And a national rail campaign, "share the carriage, not the noise", is targeting audio played out loud on trains. The bus power comes from the Bus Services Act 2025 and came into force on 5 August 2026, but each council must make its own byelaws and have them approved before anyone can be fined. Bus drivers will not enforce them. On trains, nothing in the law has changed. Railway byelaws already allow removal at the next station or fines of up to £1,000 for passengers who refuse to stop when asked. The practical takeaway is small and cheap: carry headphones. Sources: GOV.UK (Department for Transport and Prime Minister's Office), "Share the journey, not the noise: government launches measures to prevent noise and antisocial behaviour on transport", 19 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/share-the-journey-not-the-noise-government-launches-measures-to-prevent-noise-and-antisocial-behaviour-on-transport; GOV.UK, "Using bus byelaws to tackle nuisance behaviour", 19 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/using-bus-byelaws-to-tackle-nuisance-behaviour; GOV.UK, "Railway byelaws", accessed 19 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/railway-byelaws. This article is for general information about travel rules and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.

#public transport#buses#trains#travel rules#antisocial behaviour#UK travel

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