Comment by Eva Churchman
We haven’t had this issue on Wellington trains or buses, nor in Sydney. In America we took several long-distance trains and buses over 2 months last year and didn’t notice it there either. There were a couple of lengthy telephone conversations we had to listen to, one in Spanish, but they weren’t the speakerphone type.
Is this a London thing? Last year we travelled on public transport from Samarkand to Albania, I don’t recall having quite this problem.
Biggest annoyance was caused by people in an official capacity. The bus driver from Athens to Pogradec had hip-hop from Taylor Swift booming out at full volume. Then more of the same at a hotel in Greece – world’s most beautiful swimming pool (ok, the weather helped), and the “music” made it intolerable.