I have written at length on my London page about how you should behave on the Tube, but here are some suggestions about accepted behaviour on public transport all over the country.

If you get on a bus or a train, it is acceptable to sit down next to someone, but on inter-city trains people usually ask “Is this seat free?” before doing so, in case a travelling companion is away at the buffet or in the toilet. If you arrive at a spare double seat, you should sit next to the window and leave a spare seat for other people to use. It is considered impolite to sit in the aisle and expect fellow passengers to climb over you in order to sit down.

There are priority seats on most buses and inner city underground trains. These are indicated as reserved for the elderly, the disabled, pregnant women or people travelling with very young children in their arms. It is OK to sit on these seats, but you should get up and offer your place if any of the aforementioned get on – in fact, of course, it would be polite to do this wherever you are sitting!

You are allowed to stand up on public transport, and if you travel in the London rush hour you will certainly have to do so. Some old buses have a limit to the number of people allowed to stand and you are never allowed to stand upstairs on a double-decker bus.

On long distance journeys it’s considered perfectly acceptable to eat and drink on the train, and alcohol is both sold and consumed. On local transport you should be considerate about avoiding smelly or messy foods but no one will mind it you eat a sandwich or a chocolate bar, drink a can of Coke or a coffee. From June 2008 the drinking of alcohol was banned on the London tube – I imagine that other cities may follow suit, although it is a hard ban to enforce.