What are the rules on the subway?

Short answer

A longer list than most systems publish. No eating or drinking, no smoking including e-cigarettes, and no music without headphones.

The ones visitors break

Eating and drinking on the subway is prohibited, with babies and ill passengers the stated exceptions. A coffee carried on out of habit is the most common way to be on the wrong side of this.

Smoking is banned and the rule names e-cigarettes explicitly. So is playing music without headphones, and so is taking up more than one seat or putting your feet on one.

What you cannot bring

Live poultry and pets are barred — cats and dogs included, with service animals the exception. Folding bicycles, scooters, roller skates, skateboards and balloons are all on the prohibited list.

There is also a category for things that would foul the carriage: improperly packaged food, anything strongly odorous, and unpacked fragile goods.

The ordinary courtesies, written down

Hold the escalator handrail and do not lean on the side panel. Queue on the platform, stay behind the line and do not lean on the platform doors. Let arriving passengers off before you board, and mind the gap.

Offering a seat to elderly or infirm passengers is encouraged rather than mandated. One practical rule to remember: at a terminal station everybody gets off, so you cannot stay on for the return leg.