Politics 3 min read By Bethany Hadley
Burnham launches crackdown on loud music on public transport
The prime minister has announced a campaign against nuisance behaviour on buses and trains, with new guidance allowing local transport authorities to fine passengers up to £100 for playing music out loud.
Andy Burnham has launched a campaign against passengers who play loud music on public transport, promising voters «breathing space» inside train carriages and on buses. The prime minister will set out the initiative on Monday, pairing it with guidance that permits local transport authorities to levy fines of up to £100 for non-compliance.
The campaign targets so-called «headphone dodgers» — passengers who broadcast music or calls through speakers rather than using headphones — and is being framed around a simple message: «share the carriage, not the noise». The guidance gives local transport authorities the power to impose penalties on those who refuse to comply, extending enforcement beyond the discretion of individual operators.
The announcement forms part of a broader push by Burnham to address everyday nuisance behaviour in shared public spaces. By focusing on the confined environment of a train carriage, the government is presenting the measure as a practical intervention that affects millions of commuters daily rather than a sweeping regulatory reform.
Under the new guidance, transport authorities will be able to issue fines of up to £100 to passengers who play music out loud and fail to stop when asked. The approach places responsibility on local bodies to decide how and when to enforce the penalties, rather than creating a single national standard applied uniformly across the network.
The campaign is likely to be welcomed by commuters who have long complained about loud music and speakerphone calls on buses and trains. It also carries political weight for Burnham, who has sought to position himself around quality-of-life issues that resonate with voters in urban and suburban areas alike.
Details of how the fines will be collected and how authorities will identify repeat offenders have not been set out in the initial announcement. The guidance is expected to be accompanied by further advice for transport operators on how to handle disputes and when to involve enforcement officers.
The measure stops short of a blanket ban on playing audio in public, focusing instead on non-compliance with requests to stop. That distinction may prove important in how the policy is received by passengers and by civil liberties groups, who tend to scrutinise penalties attached to behaviour in shared spaces.
For now, the prime minister's message is directed squarely at commuters: the carriage is a shared space, and the government intends to give paying passengers more breathing room on their journeys.
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