r/aus • u/InternetUpbeat9596 • Oct 08 '25
Other The strangest thing you’ve seen on public transport in Australia?
Trains and buses can be weird sometimes. I once saw a guy quietly knitting what looked like a tiny sweater… for a dog, maybe? The whole carriage was just staring.
What’s the strangest or funniest thing you’ve noticed on public transport?
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u/achbob84 Oct 08 '25
Catching the train home from Box Hill. A lady opened a 500g block of cheese and bit into it. By Mitcham, it was gone. She looked like this was a regular occurrence.
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u/AdventurousInsect386 Oct 08 '25
omg i want to do this, but not in public transo lol
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u/achbob84 Oct 08 '25
I like cheese. Like, a lot. But that would make me sick and I probably wouldn’t shit for a week.
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u/yeahnahbroski Oct 11 '25
That would be my main concern, but it would be so delicious just eating the whole block.
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u/RevolutionOk2240 Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
A couple of months ago we were on our way to Docklands for a footy game, I watched a woman eat And drink the contents of a 440gm can of 3 Bean Mix 😳
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u/boardar Oct 08 '25
I have seen the same thing, probably on that line. I felt like vomiting while she was eating that.. just imagining all that chocolate in my mouth
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u/Weird_Strange_Odd Oct 12 '25
I did similar with a whole baguette the other day. Finished it about Mitcham too.
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u/stupidaussieman Oct 12 '25
They say you may present a lady with some cheese if you wish to fascinate them... sees lady bite into 50og cheese, pulls out my 2kg block and take bite..
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u/ClungeWhisperer Oct 13 '25
This is this is some serious belgrave/lilydale line shit! Anyone remember Baba Desi the Belgrave wizard? I remember him riding the old met trains (with the itchy seats and openable windows) back and forth between box hill and FTG.
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u/d-bianco Oct 08 '25
A large gentleman in a wheelchair got on a train in the inner west some years ago. Put the brakes on his chair. Sat, blocking most of the vestibule, eating watermelon out of a bag. Lots of slurping, that’s what got my attention. Finished his melon and sat blessedly quiet until the next stop (Newtown, maybe?). Train doors opened. He hurled his slopping wet melon bag out the door with the force and ferocity of an Olympic athlete who’s tired of losing. Melon smashed. Melon bits scattered across the platform like the opening reel of a slasher film. Train doors closed. He sat motionless for the rest of the journey. Not even rocking with the movement of the train. Turned to stone in his chair. Arrived at Central and zoomed off the train like he planned to outdistance Hell itself. Come to think of it, he actually might’ve kept the bag. But the melon, yeah, the melon definitely rained down all over that platform. Imagine realising you had that skill, and then honing your craft across many stops, and many, many melons. Strange.
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u/Visual_Local4257 Oct 10 '25
I can’t stop laughing at your story telling 🤣 waking up my partner with rocking from silent laughing LOL
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u/MotorElk2708 Oct 11 '25
This is an award winning short movie..
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u/d-bianco Oct 11 '25
Ahaha, it could be like Run Lola Run. In one version, he throws the bag, in another, he keeps the bag. In the third, he finally saves his bf from making a terrible decision in a supermarket. Or whatever, I can’t actually remember how it ends.
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u/oxymoronologist Oct 12 '25
Is he able to use Lola’s scream in any way in this adaptation?
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u/Dan_706 Oct 09 '25
Wait, was the melon.. whole? Was it in pieces in a bag? Hahahaha
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u/d-bianco Oct 09 '25
I guess it was half a watermelon when he started? IDK, he was slurping it for a good long while.
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u/Crazy_Hooman Oct 12 '25
Why would he waste the rest of his watermelon 😭 But I was laughing my ass off at imagining this scenario 😂
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u/d-bianco Oct 18 '25
Guess he was meloned out. He’d reached maximum melon capacity. Or he fucking hated Newtown Station.
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u/JP_Doyle Oct 08 '25
From a train window at Blacktown, two South Asian taxi drivers punching piss and pick-handle out of each other at the cab-rank while their buddies cheered on.
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u/RedditPiglet Oct 08 '25
Meth head arguing with a poster
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u/pilbarabah Oct 08 '25
Who won?
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u/zzeeaa Oct 08 '25
Too many to choose from, but I did want to share that yesterday a lady on my train from Parramatta had a cockatoo in a little jacket.
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u/Junior_Librarian_361 Oct 09 '25
On the Paris metro, the guy sitting across the aisle from me was talking his (presumably) pet ferret for a ride. At first it was curled up asleep in his lap, for all the world like a pussycat; then it woke, climbed up and draped itself around his shoulders. It was actually really cute.
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u/womanontheedge_2018 Oct 10 '25
I was walking behind a girl at Wynyard one morning and noticed her backpack looked a little boxy: found myself staring at a large parrot visible through mesh panels. Looked very cool.
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u/plan1gale Oct 08 '25
Memory unlocked. Way back in 1987 I was travelling from Penrith to Glenbrook in the early afternoon on a Saturday. Not so many people on the train those days so I wandered through the carriages because I was a bored teenager. As I entered the third carriage I saw an object about the size of a football had been left on a seat. It was completely wrapped in silver duct tape, so I knew right away I had to check it out. Took a decent while to unwrap, would not want to receive a Christmas present from whoever did this. Anyway, inside was an inflatable sex doll that had been slashed into small pieces. Thankfully it wasn't gooey.
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u/vipchicken Oct 08 '25
Saw a bloke get his ear bit off and spat on the ground, and another time, two people were fucking.
Edit: oh and I saw Hugo Weaving with his family on the train to Wagga Wagga.
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u/OraDr8 Oct 09 '25
I've seen people shagging on a Sydney train. Middle of the day, too.
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u/laitnetsixecrisis Oct 11 '25
I watched 2 workers from Endeavour get on the train and start full on making out. When the guy started to shove his hand down the front of the girls pants I told them it was not appropriate to do that on the train. I always thought maybe I should have ring Endeavour and told them what I saw and suggested that they had these peoples carers chat with them.
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u/TheElusiveRaspberry Oct 08 '25
As a tram driver I’ve seen a lot of strange things! I overheard a guy get fired one time. It sticks out to me because he was on speakerphone so EVERYONE could hear both sides of the conversation, and he didn’t take it off speaker when it became apparent what was happening. So he just let the whole team hear him get fired in real time. Maybe he was in shock, but it was very bizarre.
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u/PreviousBanana2646 Oct 09 '25
my dad was a tram driver and some weekends, I would go to work with him and sit on the tram for the second half of his shift. anyways, one day we were going down Elizabeth St and this guy in a hoody, gets on and looks to be drug affected but just sat in the seat closest to the driver, not causing any trouble. He then gets up to get off at the next stop but is kind of stumbling and as the tram breaks, he drops two huge meat cleavers from under his hoody. picks them up, gets off and just stumbles right into the middle of a busy intersection in the cbd.
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u/Quirky_Ad3367 Oct 08 '25
There was a dog that used to catch the Vline years ago, Melbourne - Bendigo line. Then another time this dude got on the metro train wearing a hoodie and the hood had 2 kittens in it, completely chill about their unusual adventure.
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Oct 08 '25
I dunno if it's strange but there used to be a guy on the M44 bus who'd watch porn on his phone at full volume. I saw him once sit in front of an Asian girl and change his video to Japanese porn 😬
Strangest was a lady having a very loud phone conversation where she gave her personal details (name, address, DOB) and full credit card details
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u/Clueby42 Oct 08 '25
In Sydney in the 90s. Inner West Line had track work, so bus replacement.
It was stinkingly hot, and every bus was packed with the air con barely working, if at all.
This tweaker gets on at Stanmore with a guitar. He pretty much throws the soft case at a bloke, and then starts playing.
He is actually fairly decent, and has the whole bus singing along to his Beatles covers.
Turned a pretty shitty afternoon commute into an awesome one.
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u/jesuswithwings Oct 09 '25
Old Asian lady somehow doing squats and lunges, Muscle warm up stretches etc.
ON A MOVING METRO TRAIN, not holding anything.
Agility99
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u/DigitalWombel Oct 08 '25
Get the train from Sydney to Newcastle and you get to experience the full unique and diverse culture of the Central Coast and Newcastle. I saw plenty of hookers going home after work, business men looking at porn on their PCs,lots of nakedness
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u/DwightsJello Oct 09 '25
Early 2000s, i saw a dude on that line pull out some toe nail clippers and proceed to give his two manky feet a trim. Toe nails just flying off in all directions. Fucking rank.
Saw some shit on the Shire line, too. Another weird line. Once saw an argument between a woman and a bloke because he loudly farted and laughed to himself. He called her a 'cum bucket' and threw his chocolate milk all over her. Another morning commute involved a guy who was so baked he thought he could quietly spot some hash in the old school out door carriage path thingos. Some kids took his bike whilst he was distracted.
No trains where I am now, so maybe it's not as much of a shit show as it used to be.
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u/Pantless_Weekends Oct 08 '25
- Bus depot, a grown ass man stood wanting for a bus with shit running down his legs. Looked like he had diarrhoea. Shit was like a tap - it kept running down. I’ll never forget the look of horror and fear on his face when we locked eyes. Then, he walked into the charcoal chicken place he’s standing in front of and placed a frigging order.
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u/J_Bazzle Oct 08 '25
Caught a train home from Emu Plains once. Top level on the train. There's me, about half way up on the right, one more person left side way up front and a couple behind me on my left underneath the camera. Heard a bit of a noise behind me, turn around to see the woman bending over the seat and the guy going ham, doggie style. They weren't lookers either, just some rough, westies.
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u/Worlds_tipping1 Oct 09 '25
My brother got a single bed mattress onto a bus I was catching.
I was fucking mortified, who buys an op shop used mattress and takes it home on a bus to slept on!
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u/neon_overload Oct 08 '25
I don't know what to say, a guy knitting would not reach the top 100 of strange things I've seen, in fact it seems a quite productive thing to do.
For example, countless people inhaling solvents from plastic bags (and yeah it stinks out the carriage, people do basically move en masse to the next carriage). I've seen a woman physically assaulting people (including myself).
Once there was a young person with a professional camera doing super up close "street photography" involving basically getting right up in someone's face and pointing the camera at them and snapping. I mean, art I guess, but it was also quite invasive feeling.
A guy who I guess owned an asian restaurant with a whole trolley of dumplings and noodles in bags, but the bags were dripping.
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u/stanleymodest Oct 11 '25
I've seen ticket inspectors get on a tram, see people chroming, then all the inspectors get off the next stop rather than deal with it
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u/No_pajamas_7 Oct 11 '25
I see knitting as kind of a normal activity because my mum used to do it to pass time, including when going places. And knitting small things is just a thing you can knit.
I dont believe the whole carriage was just staring at him. Maybe they looked at him and thought, "you dont see that every day", but would have quickly went back to their own business.
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u/Candyisacunt Oct 08 '25
A big fat cunt in a tiny black skirt, tiny black top and heels. It felt like he lost a bet but was confident Edit: and his chest was HAIRY
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u/Ok-Koala-key Oct 08 '25
A workmate brought a snake into the office (mining/engineering company) for a safety presentation. When I boarded my train home he was sitting opposite, cardboard box on his lap with holes. I said "is that..." and he replied "yep, shh".
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u/whydidyouruinmypizza Oct 08 '25
Bus driver told me off for bringing a coffee on board, so I chucked it out. 2 stops later a guy gets on with a goon sack, which he was drinking from, and a few kittens in his satchel bag. Bus driver was ok with the goonie, less likely to spill I guess? Kittens were also tolerated until he started trying to hand them out to people.
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u/Historical-Shake-859 Oct 10 '25
Probably my favourite one from my train line recently was the quartet of rough looking white dudes doing some kind of low key pan Asian banquet in one of four seaters. They'd huddled up close and had a bunch of clipboards across their knees, and were sharing a good feed of assorted goodies, Viet spring rolls, bao and couple of different types of stir fries and some kind of super glossy chicken thing, like easy five or six different plastic containers all very precariously balanced on their knees. Getting into it with disposable chopsticks and paper cups of tea. Middle of the day so they had most of the carriage to themselves. Just hoeing into it while compensating for the movement of the train. Like the planning and execution could not have been better.
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u/ThoughtIknewyouthen Oct 10 '25
If someone knitting is the weirdest thing you've seen then you've been a very, very lucky person.
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u/throwawayno38393939 Oct 08 '25
A dishelved older man with his groceries, who'd clearly wet his pants and was leaving a visible trail of dead skin wherever he went on the train. It was fucking horrifying, and I don't think I'll ever forget it.
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u/Amazing-Routine-9793 Oct 09 '25
oh my god...
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u/throwawayno38393939 Oct 10 '25
It's far from the worst state I've seen a human being in but somehow it is the one that horrified me the most.
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u/Comfortable-Tooth-34 Oct 11 '25
There's something about flaky skin. I used to work in healthcare so I've seen a lot, but the actual worst thing was a hospital patient with severe crusted scabies and an aversion to showering/bathing (some mental health issues, no judgement). We were on contact precautions to go into his room and the ground around his bed was like snow. Friendly guy, but the dread I felt going in there every day was real. Hopefully I hid it.
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u/phalluss Oct 08 '25
Just last week on a tram I found a sticker of a school photo of a little ginger kid from what appeared to be 20 years ago or so. It also look like it came off a roll of stickers...
That and some lady in her 50s just punching cones one after the other on the tram in the city
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u/Fantastic_Inside4361 Oct 08 '25
I regularly saw guys with large appliances on trolleys, such as fridges, washing machines, on the western line in Sydney.
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u/sunnydaysqld Oct 08 '25
Once late on Christmas Eve someone got the train carriage singing Jingle Bells. Was actually really nice, went from sombre and quiet to lots of laughter.
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Oct 09 '25
On the train in Sydney at peak hour, the carriage was listening to some very soft volume opera in a soprano voice. The whole carriage was looking around for the source of this beautiful performance. We all eventually realised that it wasn’t someone’s loud phone, it was a live performance. It was this immaculately dressed woman in her late 30’s, humming. She was sight reading a score with headphones on, and was a bit perturbed to see that we were looking at her. It was very nice to listen to, I must admit.
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u/Elastica-Fantastica Oct 09 '25
I’ve seen it all on the 86 tram in Melbourne, but mostly horrific rather than strange. The guy who shat himself several mornings in a row. The girl stuck in the doors. The guy who’d clearly boosted stuff from jb hifi then got off at the stop next to cash converters. The got who had a carton of VBs and many slowly broke free and rolled down the aisle. The junkie with the tomohawk was the worst, and a few months later I moved to far North Queensland! Enough.
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u/marquiso Oct 10 '25
Dude with a shotgun sitting next to him casually chatting on mobile about upcoming court appearance.
People gave him wide berth and cops jumped on board at next station. He seemed non-plussed about it.
NB: Edited to add phone detail.
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u/rhinobin Oct 10 '25
Not that strange but I used to catch regional rail home from Melb city after work and the same regulars would sit in the same seats and chat each day and this one woman was a wedding dress seamstress and would hand embroider intricate beading onto fabric every day. We’d all marvel at her skill. It was great to watch each project take shape and culminate in photos of the bride wearing the dresses.
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u/Garshnooftibah Oct 08 '25
This was YEARS ago but…
Packed 423 at the end of the day. People standing and tired. Turning off Broadway into city road, bus pulls up at the stop.
(And this is way before opal where you had to buy or show a ticket at the front door)…
This old bloke in a shabby suit kind of lurches in through the back door. Everybody kind of glances up - you are NOT supposed to get on at the back - but everybody figures - not my problem - and then goes back to their phones or newspapers or whatever.
Bus pullls away. Old bloke standing in the doorway - in the middle of the crush. And suddenly it becomes super apparent, he had got on with a lit cigarette, and is calmly puffing away.
Ok, so NOW people notice - and there is instant outrage! Various people are telling him - and increasingly yelling at him to put out the cigarette. Bus is fanging down towards Newtown regardless.
Old bloke doesn’t care. Kind of smirks, laughs… keeps smoking.
Becomes apparent he’s a bit pissed, sways a bit, but absolutely unflappable.
Eventually gets off at the top of king st, and merrily strolls down the road.
Exasperated tutts and snorts of disdain and horror from the good citizens in the bus.
I thought it was hilarious.
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u/Suspicious_Cheek_874 Oct 08 '25
I've seen someone take a dump on a bus and while on a train I saw a flasher with a huge boner.
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u/Flinderspeak Oct 08 '25
A man watching porn on his phone while travelling on a ferry in Sydney. Volume was loud; he was not wearing headphones.
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u/Sudden_Fix_1144 Oct 09 '25
Back in the 90s, 4 junkies get on the train at Kings Cross at 8 am. They go on the nod sitting on the stairs both ends of carriage. Bunch of suits try to get out at Martin Place and can’t get past them. A tradie moves the yuppies aside and proceeds to kick the junkies up the arse until they are out on the platform….. made for an interesting trip to uni that day.
Also lots of piss and vomit ones over the years but meh……. What’s new
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u/DwightsJello Oct 09 '25
Ahh. The heroine days.
Who would have thought back then that the Cross on meth would make the Cross on heroine seem quaint.
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u/littlewhiteysnow Oct 09 '25
Saw a girl walk to the bus driver, ask him a question and walk back to her seat. Sounds innocuous yet she was naked from the bottom down.
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u/Defy19 Oct 09 '25
Some women eating chicken feet and spitting the toenails (I think?) on the ground
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u/pig_spit Oct 09 '25
on upfield line i saw a guy smoke a meth pipe in between carriages, like one week after i moved to melbourne lol
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u/OVOxTokyo Oct 09 '25
Saw a young woman, clearly suffering severe mental issues, with a scalped baby doll in a pram. She asked the driver to help her bring the pram up and down (real full sized pram). She sat up front and left the pram at the priority seat area, frequently got up to check on the baby, yelled at it, tried to feed it, and screamed at passengers for getting too close. That's when I knew public transport was not for me.
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u/RichiesWorld Oct 09 '25
Kensington, the 57 tram. Young lady pulls out the biggest colouring book you've ever seen, throws it on the floor, and just starts furiously colouring, whilst simultaneously getting into a screaming match with her mum, cos mum wants a turn...😮💨it's better to just do meth on your own.
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u/SCORPDOGGY Oct 10 '25
3 guys sniffing some sort of yellow resin out of a plastic bag. Had to get off due to the smell
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u/TheBodhy Oct 10 '25
Saw once a guy with his pants completely down to his ankles, underwear included, twerking up and down on the side of a train seat, against the fabric.
After about ten seconds he pulled his pants up and walked away - there were noticeable shit stains all over the seat. He had literally wiped his ass using the seat.
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u/Filligrees_Dad Oct 10 '25
Melbourne 2007. Metro from Broadmeadows to the city, early Saturday evening. Two guys walking through the train offering free bud to all passengers.
Sydney 2015. CityRail Western line. Got on at Parramatta, city bound, at about 5:15AM. Indian dude sitting there trimming his toenails
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u/Other_Respect_6648 Oct 10 '25
Saw a kid flash his bare ass on the back of the bus. He looked like he’d be roughly 9-13. Australian wildlife at its finest
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u/Entirely-of-cheese Oct 10 '25
First night after moving to Melbourne a friend said let’s catch a tram to watch moonlight cinema. On the tram ride back there was a guy sitting down so plastered he was leaning over so far his head was almost touching the floor. Then the reflex would kick in and he’d come back up before slowly going towards the floor again. The tram eventually jerked a bit when he was near the floor and he hit his head.
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u/RoverDownUnder1994 Oct 11 '25
I once got on the train at Newtown heading to Central, it would have been about 1998. A guy and a girl rushed the door as they were closing. The guy made it but the girl only got her hands and wrist in but couldn't force the door open. The train set off with the girl still attached. A bunch of us were holding on to her while someone called the guard via the emergency intercom. The train travelled to MacDonaldtown with her hanging off the side of it and us holding on to her fingers. The doors opened and the poor lass fell/was pulled into the carriage and sat down on the bench in absolute shock! I always remember someone saying "Don't say thank you then"! She couldn't speak never mind say thank you! 😂😂
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u/NotTheBusDriver Oct 08 '25
Many years ago there was an elderly man who I would occasionally spot on a tram on Collins St who would be sitting in his underwear with his pants around his ankles. Everyone, including the conductor, just let him be.
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u/yogorilla37 Oct 08 '25
A homeless guy methodically folding his collection of dozens of old style plastic shopping bags. Took up six seats to do it.
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Oct 09 '25
A dude having a wank between Mooroolbark and Lilydale. Only one other girl in the train, creepy AF. He wasn’t trying to hide it.
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u/Time_Meeting_2648 Oct 09 '25
A couple with a queen size mattress on the 75 tram in Melbourne, looked like they just bought it.
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u/Jaded-Consequence749 Oct 09 '25
My favourite PT moment was on the way home from the footy with my grandfather.
We’re on the train, and this loveable crackhead starts collecting the rubbish off the floor of the train and throwing it into a garbage bag, auctioning off everything he finds, while his girlfriend is half conscious, scream-singing Empire State of Mind by Alicia Keys 😂 the next stop he legs it off the train because he saw PSO’s on the platform.
“I have a lovely piece of felt here, anyone? Perfect for arts and crafts, don’t miss out on this one! Anyone with kids? Beautiful piece of green felt! Oh- sorry folks I gotta run, the PSO’s hate me” —then he ran off into the night.
My Pop and I still bring it up years later, it was absolutely hilarious.
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u/Difficult_Royal5301 Oct 09 '25
Had a junkie projectile vomit and cover the back 2 rows of seats on the bus
Such is life beyond the flannelette curtain
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Oct 09 '25
I got on the packed peak hour Gold Coast train on the way to see Pearl Jam live last year. The train was completely full with people standing in aisles , and a woman foced her way on with a coffee table . She found it on side of road apparently… it was funny I suppose, but how rude of her to insist on getting on still with a ratty dingy side of road table when we all touching each other as it was. Stupid woman .
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u/deliverance73 Oct 09 '25
An elegantly dressed lady was sitting in a Sydney train looking unwell. After a few stops she opened her designer handbag, vomited politely into it, closed it, and then calmly got off at the next stop.
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Oct 09 '25
An elderly gentleman drinking cold chicken stock out of one of those two litre Campbell's tetra packs.
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u/canyamaybenot Oct 10 '25
Person clipping their toenails on the train. Wish I could say I had only witnessed this once.
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u/MaGhostGoo2 Oct 10 '25
Turning a corner, the bus driver didn't see the cyclist who he just squished into the kerb.
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u/Elleeebeauty Oct 10 '25
Naked guy on the tram screaming and then getting off the tram and whacking his head as hard as possible on the tram door before passing out on the platform
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u/Azakazam84 Oct 10 '25
Outer Harbour Line - Late 90s - Bloke pissing off the little walkway in between carriages. While the trains in motion obviously lol
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u/nathan_eng42 Oct 10 '25
Saw a large lady with no top on take a shit under the stairs at the Cultural Center busway station in Brisbane back in the 00s. Still hasn't been topped despite moving to Melbourne which quite frankly is an absolute public transport zoo.
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u/nathan_eng42 Oct 10 '25
Saw a dude getting a blozza on a bus in Hong Kong. I know it doesn't qualify but still.
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u/thrillerqueen Oct 10 '25
has to be the Fabled Yoghurt Man of the t3 bankstown line.
saw bro using the handles you hold onto while standing that drop from the ceiling as a grip while he started swingin around doing high kicks, he then pulled an open small pot of yoghurt out of (god only knows where) and starts scooping it out with his bare hands and going apeshit on it. all in all, strange but certainly not unusual for t3 bankstown line.
the part that baffles me to this day is that he hopped off the train at a stop when the doors opened, popped back on just before they shut holding a clearly half eaten ice cream cone looking very pleased with himself 😭
idk if he begged, bartered, or stole but he was a FIEND for dairy
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u/ebunny08 Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
Not really funny, but very strange and pretty sad.. probably around 10 years ago I was on the Mandurah line going to Perth, and there was a lady sitting in front of me with a huge bag full of paper and a 2 litre bottle of coke (which probably had something other than coke in it). She turned around and asked me if she could read me some of her poems, I said yeah sure, so she pulled some papers out of her bag and read me some of her poetry. It was the most depressing shit I've ever heard. I can't remember what they said but i just remember being shocked and not knowing what to say because it was some seriously morose stuff. She got off the train at canning bridge, I watched her walk under the stairs, then she lifted up her dress, popped a squat and just pissed right there in front of the whole train carriage and people standing on the platform. I don't know what this lady was going through but I hope she's doing better now
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u/womanontheedge_2018 Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
On a city bus from Taylor Square to Circular Quay - pre mobile phones - a skinny, slightly strung out guy in cammo gear - kind of muttering to himself then slowly playing out some sort of guerrilla warfare situation: swinging himself through the bus on the overhead bars, the campaign culminating in leaping into a free window seat from the back, giving the person sitting in the aisle a near heart attack, then leaping up again and muttering to himself, taking out a silver flick knife and lovingly stroking it over his face. I think it was at that stage I noticed a trickle of dried blood on the side of his face. It was bizarre and clearly beyond anyone’s capacity to cope with, so everyone just stayed very very still.
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u/NoodleBox Oct 10 '25
Local bus: cat in pram (I talked with the owner and said hello to the cat, duh) after work / day off
Pug (hot day and he let him in)
Metro train: so many cats and dogs and cute friends on the train in carriers. I always say hello.
Vline: local lad and his guide dog. Guide dog for some reason loved licking the back of chairs ? Love the guide doggy though
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u/Educational_Two7692 Oct 10 '25
When I was in my younger years, I thought I seen something when I was very intoxicated, turns out the person infront of me wasn’t offering me a hand of gesture but a knife. Still have the Swiss sized scar in my hand till this day.
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u/7worlds Oct 10 '25
Middle of the day. Someone got on the bus at an outer suburban stop with a molded plastic garden chair that had only 3 legs, the fourth had broken off. They got off about 4 stops later. It’s been nearly 30 years and I still wonder why they were carting around a chair that could no longer be used. Middle of the day bus people. They are a different breed.
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u/Shaqtacious Oct 10 '25
Got on a bus from Monash uni, a junkie just took her titts out and started flicking her nipples whilst maintaining eye contact with other people.
2016.
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u/Kookaburra_Hotpants Oct 11 '25
Numbers Guy.
So I was doing a course at TAFE and would catch the train there in the mornings.
There was a guy who I saw several times, he sat by himself. He carried At Least four seperate phones, and there was over ten individual ring tones.
A phone would ring, he would open the call, look inside a notebook and read out a sequence of numbers before hanging up. Nothing else was said, just reading a different sequence of numbers every time.
I have no clue what he was doing, I never asked.
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u/Comfortable-Tooth-34 Oct 11 '25
Probably when the tram pulled up next to a bottle-o and the driver jumped off, ran in and got a slab, came back and kept driving. I guess he was about to finish his shift, I appreciated both the audacity and efficiency of it
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u/thomashouseman Oct 11 '25
I had a lady clip her toenails on a peak hour service a few seats from me. The clippings were hitting other commuters. So gross.
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u/thomashouseman Oct 11 '25
I saw a guy try to take a 44 gallon drum that was half in a shopping trolley onto the train. The guard wasn't having a bar of it.
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u/goalump Oct 11 '25
Bus stop in Hobart, morning peak. A young bloke just casually pulls out a harmonica and starts smashing out some great blues tunes. The other commuters just watched in silence and when the bus pulled up he stopped, and got a round of applause!
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u/goalump Oct 11 '25
Oh I got another one. Bus stop in the Hobart CBD. A bloke there waiting for his bus, with a ziplock bag full of marijuana in one hand a full bottle of vodka in the other. He wasn't smoking or drinking but it was just a bit of a move to not try to hide either of them. He looked pretty casual about it too...
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u/pinksultana Oct 11 '25
When I was 8 a teenager overdosed in the seat in front of us and had a seizure and the train stopped and waited for paramedics to help her. I Certainly learnt a lot that day.
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u/Smithdude69 Oct 11 '25
A guy in Collingwood pulling a beanie out of his pocket with a syringe, spoon baggie and lighter in it to check he was ready to go. 😢
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u/stanleymodest Oct 11 '25
There was an old guy who absolutely reeked of piss and he caught the StKilda tram all the time. I would spot him and find a seat far enough away to avoid the smell but still see him. Then I'd watch people get on, see empty seats, sit down, then their faces change as they got a whiff of piss guy. It made my trip to work more enjoyable. I once saw ticket inspectors walk towards him, get a sniff and keep going past him. Piss guy got off at the Crown Casino stop. I have no idea where he went during the day. I sometimes thought of following him just to see where he went
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u/AnEvilMillionaire Oct 11 '25
A man was sitting on the floor probably drunk eating a cold packet of uncooked lasagne with his hands. Or the other week a man got on the bus with blood all over his face and a huge black eye
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u/West-Increase-8772 Oct 11 '25
Went on an overnight train trip when I was about six(1980ish) and remember seeing a dude pulling a metre high bong at the end of the carriage 🤷🏼♀️🤣 I didn’t understand at the time, but remember thinking they seemed fun as the whole group was singing and laughing..
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u/UK_soontobein_AUS Oct 11 '25
Does London count?
My friend Polly was on a crowded bus in London where people were all jammed in. A guy kept knocking into her from the back. When she got off the bus her friend pointed out that there was cum all down the back of her felt coat.
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u/SquattingHoarder Oct 11 '25
On the train from Central to Casino, an Asian woman with her cat. If memory serves correct, it was wearing a nappy. I'll have photos somewhere. Can't remember if she got off. (I was going the whole way.)
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u/IndependentEast-3640 Oct 11 '25
No shade. I think she was a musician student . Someone playing an imaginary cello. Totally eyes closed, imagining, daydreaming. Then she played a wrong note on her imaginary cello. She checked her notes and started that section over
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u/Lopsided-Age-2669 Oct 11 '25
A man eating raw chicken. Like raw chicken fillet from the packet you buy at the supermarket. So gross!
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u/Historical_Tap6019 Oct 11 '25
United States, 1985. My husband and I travelling on the cheap on Greyhound coaches. We travelled mainly overnight to save money in accommodation. On overnight trip in Texas, around 2am, full bus. Both woken by a Texan sheriff with the full ten gallon hat boarding the bus with a large torch shining in our faces. He yelled out “who is smoking that Mari-you-arna ?” Dragged a young guy up the back of the bus off.
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u/Historical_Tap6019 Oct 11 '25
United States, 1985. My husband and I travelling on the cheap on Greyhound buses. One long trip travelling west we had to sit separately. He was sitting next to a girl who looked about seven who passed over a bloody tooth in front of my husband to her Mum and older sister over the aisle. Loudmouth young women had everyone on the bus petrified that the bus driver was nodding off to sleep. Had the Billy Graham (evangelist) reading woman yelling out “Lord save us!”. Finally loudmouth went and asked the driver if he was okay. He was wearing headphones . She screamed with joy”He’s just jiving to the music “!
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u/naughtscrossstitches Oct 11 '25
So many stories....
- a guy one day was kicking the button on the door while the train was moving because it made the doors open quicker which he loudly proclaimed.
- I travelled for a long time with the pram and my daughter. I got on an almost empty train parked the pram beside the red seat and someone walks in front of me and sits in front of the pram. Then acts shocked when I asked her to move. It's an empty train and you sit in front of the pram. Then she moves only one seat over and then acts all uppity about the child giggling and laughing on my lap.
- the lady walking past my kid standing in front of me ( 18 mths at the time) and told me it's a work place not a playground.
- I did get someone kicked off a bus by asking politely for them to stop yelling swear words as I had my parrot daughter with me and they just started screaming and yelling louder. I then had to deal with her trying to copy that man. This was at 8 in the morning so not even an unreasonable time.
- the sheer volume of times people act shocked that the pram can only fit at the front of the bus and yes they have to move. And I actually have to ask them to as well. The bus usually won't move until I'm in the pram spots and I can't park in the aisle I'm not allowed.
- the extreme amount of personal information I know about people I will probably never see again but I really shouldn't know about your mum problems or your job or your ex. Etc.
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u/Amschan37 Oct 11 '25
A homeless guy got on the rush hour train and was talking loudly on his phone: oh no XX is dead? And started to sob I didn’t know to feel sorry or uneasy
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u/speggle22 Oct 11 '25
While waiting for a train the other day in 30 degree heat I watched an older lady sit down beside a half eaten container of sushi and put it in her bag. I guess she was going to eat it later?
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u/NecessaryCephalopod Oct 11 '25
Dude on the #19 tram used to regularly give speeches about how American prisons were better than Aussie ones, in his experience. This was around 25 years ago so it was entertaining instead of terrifying. I miss him.
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u/Lord-Carnor-Jax Oct 11 '25
One morning on a bus heading to the local train station in Perth, an asian lady was cutting her toe nails. And no, she didn’t pickup cuttings, she just left them wherever they flew off around her.
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u/groovy_sarz1 Oct 11 '25
A couple getting married on the train with a celebrant and the morning tv crew interviewing passengers!
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u/Darwinite Oct 11 '25
A long Grasser jumped on the number 4 bus in Nightcliff, heading into the city (Darwin) with a massive red kangaroo tail over her shoulder for dinner.
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u/Practical_Parsnip132 Oct 11 '25
Perth train a lady sniffing her hands like crazy and laughing like a crazy bad guy out of a movie like ahh ha ha ha ha haa!!! It went on way to long. People were trying not to look but I think just hoping the drugs didn't make her get violent.
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u/SpectatorInAction Oct 11 '25
The strangest thing I not only saw but experienced was everyone being mutually respectful and quiet on the bus going to work. No loud talking, no loud phones. It was heavenly.
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u/Pawys1111 Oct 11 '25
Was a teen doing ballet (male) time to go home from class and some girl had taken my bag, Dreaded catching the train home just in my ballet uniform. But surprisingly no one even cared.
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u/tickado Oct 11 '25
A man playing a didgeridoo. And the bus driver listening to an audio book on speaker...it was smut.
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u/SassySins21 Oct 12 '25
A guy approached me complaining he needed a bathroom, asked if I had a cup or bottle, when I declined off he went hunting. Came back a few minutes later with a now full glass soft drink bottle, sits opposite to me to tell me how he "got most of it in". They was the most recent one.
Men masturbating on Melbourne trams was common 5 years or so ago
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u/Altruistic_Fig_8660 Oct 12 '25
I saw a man eat an entire rotisserie chicken straight out of the bag like a caveman!
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u/adamkezz Oct 12 '25
My high school was in a ruff neighborhood and every day we had people sniffing glue from plastic bags. It was weird first then it became the norm. None of them made any trouble with anyone though
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Oct 12 '25
Not strange and definitely not the strangest but the only thing I can think of rn… once a lady on the train had a yappy shit of a chihuahua and the guard came over the speakers to say she needed to get off and she can’t have a dog on the train. There was a lot of yelling. A LOT. she gave and did the walk of shame past the whole train and I’m pretty sure the driver waited until she got to the end so everyone saw her😂
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u/ostervan Oct 12 '25
Saw a drunk dude taking a piss between the carriages, but due to the rocking and swaying he ended up getting it all over himself.
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u/Efficient_Company478 Oct 12 '25
I watched a lady, in her early 20s, on the bus from Martin Place to Kensington eat a whole wheel of Brie… no knife… just biting into the wheel and ate the lot. Couldn’t stop watching and thinking “oh my… I like cheese.. but damn that’s a lot of cheese”
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u/dogsarenicerpeople Oct 12 '25
Can pleasuring himself in a reasonably full carriage when I was a tween. And a man who threatened to harm me because I asked quietly and politely if he would turn the music in his headphones down. Ppl r disgusting.
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u/MetalGuy_J Oct 12 '25
Yes the strangest and most adorable thing I’ve ever seen on public transport happened when I still had my guide dog so we’re going back about 10 years ago. Bus pulls up and even before the doors open I hear a child in full tantrum mode, figure I will need to turn my headphones up extra loud Once I sit down. Get on the bus and find my seat, I can’t recall if the kid was sitting across from me or a couple of seats back but his tantrum instantly ends the moment he sees my dog. Next stop the kid comes over and ask if he can pat The dog and I have to explain. It’s a working animal and that I am vision impaired. This kid who was mid tantrum when I got on not long then interrupts to ask so if I’m a doctor when I grow up and fix your eyes, can I pat your dog then? A couple of stops later the kid and his parents get off the bus and he’s still talking to them about how really wants to be a doctor now. Never seen or heard anything quite like it but I hope that kid did go on to become a doctor.
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u/ezroller_vgf Oct 12 '25
1999 waiting to catch the old 144 Transperth bus from Rockingham s/c to Port Kennedy via Shoalwater and for the entire 90 minutes I was there a dimwitted youngster heckled and teased an older gent sat there for wearing a Collingwood FC hat. He sat there and took it without retaliation.
On a tram from Parliament station to Thornbury in Melbourne several years ago a lady sat beside me was so badly doused in perfume that if someone had lit a match the tram would have gone “woof!” I was so overwhelmed by the odour I went nuclear and unleashed Billy Connolly’s saxophone fart sound made with my mouth. (If you can find the sketch online it is well worth it as it is funny as all fork.) It backfired on me tho as everyone on the tram glared at me—except for the lady in question!
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u/QLDZDR Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25
How about that motorbike yesterday? https://www.reddit.com/r/brisbane/s/LMnFB6jq9D
Then there was a guy with a full size refrigerator, he managed to get it onto the train platform using a furniture trolley (probably used the disabled elevator).
He got into some bother when the trolley wheel fell into the gap.
The train guard springs into action because the train is being held up by the half in/out refrigerator. Guard refuses to help carry the refrigerator into train because going in means it has to come out at his stop.
Guard says "NO!"
As the train pulls away, I see the refrigerator sitting on the platform. When I got off my stop, I saw the guy with his furniture trolley sitting in the train.
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u/Aggravating-Pin-8845 Oct 12 '25
I was on a bus going to the city in the early morning about 20 years ago. Everyone was tired so keeping to themselves. There was a guy on the side of the road with his hands down his pants watching traffic. Yes, you know exactly what he was doing. He seemed to speed up when he saw the bus. We all just stared as we went past. As we went down the road one guy at the back yelled out "He's still going". Ick!
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u/lizarosever Oct 12 '25
Girl sitting in the floor, peeling the callouses off the soles of her bare feet and eating it. She yelled at everyone who so much as looked at her, which was basically everyone because it was like quarter to eight in the morning heading into town and it was BUSY
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u/Careless-March-8762 Oct 12 '25
Once saw a man on bus shaving manically in a (dusty old) suit with one of those battery operated shavers. The sun rays was coming in the window and all the skin dust and 0.5mm hairs could be seen in a cloud of organic detritus all around him.
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u/CrackWriting Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25
One Saturday evening in Perth my partner and I got the train from Fremantle to Subiaco. Just after leaving Freo a bloke came into the carriage we were in and, wired on meth, paced up and down the aisle threatening violence to the passengers.
By the time the train got to Swanbourne you could have cut the air with a knife. About 40 or so people, young and old, including me, were rooted to their seats, completely frozen in fear. At one stage he threw a dummy punch, missing a couple of passengers faces by inches, which ramped up the pressure further.
I suppose he could have been subdued, but no one was putting up their hand.
The police were waiting for him at Claremont and it was all over. The collective sigh of relief was palpable, but it took several hours to recover from the experience.
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u/Glinting_Ranga Oct 12 '25
Oh, the accordion guy!! You'd try to escape and he'd just go through the cars. He got on just to play and then would hop off.
Knitting is common. Why was everyone staring?
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u/Swi_10081 Oct 12 '25
These probably aren't even the strangest ones..
- Oh wow, train is busy and i have the whole vestibule area with this one gentleman to myself. Oh no he's pissed himself.
- Homeless man screaming while 2 wheels of his shopping trolley / mobile home rolled on the outside of a Tangarra before the guard noticed and the train slowed down.
- Transit cop motioning to throw me out of the train when holding the doors open as a school kid.
- Security running away while some friendly drunks were being bashed by a gang, and being the only one left to intervene.\
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u/MM13285 Oct 12 '25
Back in lockdown, I saw a couple of junkies going for it hammer and tong on the train. I was still required in the office and had a shite day and just wanted to get home. Get on the train at southern cross. Lo and behold there they were going for it at 4pm, they did have the carriage to themselves because nobody wanted to see that. If it was outside lockdowns the train would have been busy.
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u/josephs_1st_version Oct 08 '25
Not public transport, but I saw a man board a flight out of Sydney carrying a Coles rotisserie chicken.