Waiting for a train can be very boring or very interesting, depending on where you're waiting for it. London Euston station has lots of cafés and a large selection of stalls and stands across the concourse. London King's Cross has a wall marked 'Platform 9 3/4' where you can go and laugh at tourists pretending to run through the wall like Harry Potter. Manchester Piccadilly has travelators leading to platforms 13 and 14, which you probably shouldn't use for athletics practice, but we all wish we had the nerve to do it, don't we?

By contrast, waiting on a small country station in the middle of nowhere at 9pm, alone except for a (probably drunk) man wandering along the platform singing at the top of his voice, can be a rather daunting prospect. Often there will only be one or two platforms, so you can't even go for a walk to keep yourself occupied. And don't even think about looking for a shop.

So, what can you do when you're bored and your train isn't due for another hour? You could do the boring thing and take a book or your mp3 player, but then you'll be in trouble when it gets dark, or when the batteries run out¹.

Waiting for the train

If you're having to wait for the train, the likelihood is that either you're early, or the train is late. Saying that, it's probably the latter. If the train was on time, the train company wouldn't let it run. While you wait for the train to turn up, you can indulge in the age-old British traditional game of standing at the edge of the platform and looking along the line, occasionally looking at your watch and tutting. A variant on this is standing further back on the platform, next to the timetable, occasionally tracing it with your finger before looking at your watch and tutting.

You will also probably hear an annoying voice crackle into life, and say "We are sorry to announce that the 11.27 South West Trains service to Guildford has been delayed by approximately [long pause] 31 [long pause] minutes. This is due to the late running of an incoming train from [long pause] Guildford."² This will cause everyone on the platform to look at the timetable, look at their watch, and tut.

If you are lucky enough to be waiting at Clapham Junction station, you have even more options. Clapham is Britain's biggest and busiest railway junction, and has more platforms than you can shake a stick at. This gives you the opportunity to have tremendous fun running up and down the steps to the underpass: you can surface on Platform 15, only to discover your train is just leaving Platform 13, and run along the underpass to try and catch it before it leaves; when you get there, you'll discover that you've just missed it, and that there's now another train leaving from Platform 15 to the same destination.

If your wait is slightly longer, you might not want to go straight to the platform³. You will therefore be looking for entertainment on the concourse. Some other ideas include looking at the rack of information leaflets and timetables - you can plan weekend breaks away to exotic destinations! If you're the arty sort, you could take photographs or sketches of other passengers around you, or station architecture. This should be done with care, as you can expect suspicious looks.

If the station has a newsagent or similar shop, find the magazine rack, and see how long you can spend reading magazines and newspapers before you're told to buy one or get out. This game can be played anywhere, and is not just restricted to train stations.

If you're a smoker, you might decide to have a cigarette while you wait. This is not advisable; you can bet that, as soon as you light up, your train will arrive. Of course, smoking is not allowed on trains these days - and so you begins the hunt for a bin in which to put your cigarette⁴. Central London mainline and tube stations never have bins⁵ and many other large city stations have followed suit. There's usually a litter bag near the doors on the train, so if you've got something to stub the cigarette out on, you might just get away with that.

On the train

OK, so you've entertained yourself long enough for your train to arrive, and safely boarded without any further underpass mishaps. You think you can relax, right? Wrong! You've still got a whole journey to get through. Sure, you can rest on your laurels in the (dubious) comfort of the train, but you'll get very bored very quickly unless you're a trainspotter. What to do next? Well, you could try a counting game; just as children in cars the length and breadth of the motorway network count lampposts as they crawl along in a traffic jam, you could try counting something - stations, if you're on a fast train, or trees, if you have a fast brain. You'll probably get bored of this as well, though. What other options are there?

It is possible to buy 'travel' versions of your favourite board games, which usually come in a small packet and have magnetic pieces, so that you don't lose your rook at the crux of that all-important chess match.

A popular activity can be observed during the morning commute, when all those city-types who rushed to the station begin to tidy their hair, apply makeup, and so on. It helps to know your route if you're going to do this - particularly with eyeshadow or lipstick - otherwise you might find that a sudden corner or shudder of the train can lead to cosmetic disaster...

With pressure from travellers to improve, polish, and generally modernise the network, most train operators are upgrading their fleets. Some of the more modern trains even have a shop on board. This brings out the urge (in even the most hardened bargain-seeker) to spend extortionate amounts on stuff you could buy on the high street at half the price. The upshot of this is that the train companies make lots of money selling journey 'essentials', such as ready-made foods, paperback books, travel games and (if you're lucky) headphones to plug into your at-seat radio.

If you're travelling with a friend, you can come up with your own journey games. For example, you can wander up and down the train during a long stretch of the journey, and play your own on-board version of I-Spy - as one Researcher discovered...

When on the train, see if you can find any small children or babies. Do they smile or cry when you smile at them? I did this with a friend once and every child laughed at me and cried at her. She was quite upset by it.

Another favourite pastime is train surfing. Unfortunately you can only do this on certain trains; Manchester Metrolink is good for this, although it also works on some older trains. You have to stand at the point where two carriages join⁶, with one foot in each carriage. Stand with your arms outstretched, in a 'surfer' position, and see how long you can stay upright as the train goes around corners or over bumpy sections, without falling over. Obviously this is not recommended at rush hour.

Of course, if you're really stuck for ideas you could, y'know... talk to other people. You'll get some funny looks. Most people will probably think you're one of those nutters they've heard about. You'll be very lucky if you find someone who talks back. But the option is there.

As you near the end of your journey, you may observe a phenomenon that usually tends to occur on longer-distance journeys. As the train leaves the station before your destination, people will begin to rummage in the luggage racks and put their coats on. This can be explained by an almost irrational fear of missing one's stop. Passengers intending to alight at the next station will happily sit for up to half an hour in their raincoats and with suitcases on their laps, despite the fact that they will probably have to queue with several other passengers (all of whom were also ready long ago) before they can get off the train.

At your destination

Some train networks (particularly underground or metro systems like London Underground) have automatic ticket barriers. Many major overground stations employ staff to check tickets as passengers leave an incoming train. This can lead to a 'bottleneck' effect. At this point, it's not advisable to get that book out again, although you might want to listen to your music player. Unfortunately you're stuck on the platform, and there isn't much to do when leaving a platform except queue again. You'll have to wait until you're on the concourse before you can beat the boredom.

You may have to wait for some time after you've arrived at the station. You might be waiting to be picked up, or your connecting train might be late⁷. If you're at a major terminus, there will invariably be a multitude of shops and cafés in which to while away your time. Some stations have a First Class Lounge for passengers arriving with first-class tickets; these usually have internet terminals, televisions, and lounge and shower facilities. For the rest of us, however, it's probably best to try to get away as soon as possible; stations aren't nice places to wait, and you'll probably get bored rather quickly.

One more thing you could look out for throughout the journey is a wild book. This isn't as silly as it sounds - the practice of leaving books 'in the wild' for others to find is known as bookcrossing⁸, and it became something of a craze around London's stations and commuter trains in the early 2000s. The basic principle involves reading a book, and then leaving it somewhere for someone else to find, read, make comments on the website and then pass it on. You can't rely on this, however, as only about 20% of released books are found. When you do find one, it can be a nice surprise!