England proposes £100 fine for playing loud music on buses

What no-one will write about Burnham's "headphone dodgers" plan is that it's partly a neurodiversity issue. I wrote this open.substack.com/pub/maybeima...

Burnham launches crackdown against people ‘blasting music’ on public transport Bus passengers who vape, drop litter or play loud music could face fines of up to £100 under new guidance issued by the government Story ⤵️ www.politics.co.uk/2026/10/andy...

#BBCNews - People playing loud music on buses could face £100 fine www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Young people to be sent to the mines, parents imprisoned if their children play loud music on buses.

Mr Burnham, I’ll vote for your bus fines for annoying teenagers once you bring in waterboarding for the bags on seats train brigade.

There's been such a degredation of social norms on this that a combo of public info campaign + fines makes sense, but Qs are 1.) does it empower people to speak up when happening 2.) how many offenders pay any attention to that 3.) is there actually any enforcement www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Bus travel needs to be pleasant, safe and secure; a fundamental issue www.lbc.co.uk/article/gove...

The move targets a familiar frustration for commuters, particularly on crowded trains and buses where passengers have little opportunity to escape loud music, videos or speakerphone conversations.

“£100 penalties for nuisance behaviour…voters would back £1,000 fines for people playing music out loud on buses and trains. A separate survey by the same company found that voters listed people talking on speakerphones as one of their top three irritants.” 👍 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

CITY AM: Councils could fine bus passengers £100 for loud music under new powers, pending transport secretary approval. A campaign will remind train passengers they can already face fines of up to £1,000. - by Felix Armstrong

🔇 The UK Government has launched measures to curb antisocial behaviour on public transport. Bus passengers could face £100 fines for nuisance behaviour, while a new rail campaign urges people to use headphones, with fines of up to £1,000 for non-compliance. dft-newsroom.prgloo.com/news/share-t...

It's going to be interesting to see where the "enforcement" part of this plan ends up on the international scale of "none" to "armed officers walking up and down asking for papers". www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

So we are encouraged to tackle people with loud music on buses, but ignore people stealing from shops (which puts our cost of living up)?

As ever we can have all the rules and fines we want for stuff, but if no one's going to enforce them they're largely pointless. "That job would be left to transport safety officers or police officers." Not sure I've ever seen transport police on a bus just randomly. Maybe they're undercover?

Excellent article. Cities also need to provide off-street passenger pick-up & drop-off spots for taxi & shuttle bus services of all types, then start collecting exponentially increasing fines from services that block cycle lanes instead of using designated off-street spaces.