On a commuter train from Horsham to London Victoria right now.
A young girl left her big rucksack on her seat and wandered off down the train.
Within 2 minutes some of the other passengers around started to mildly panic. One demanded to speak to the driver, another started to look inside the bag with another going “I wouldn’t do that. You might set something off”, and another just moved to another carriage.
2 mins after that the girl returned (presumably she had gone to the loo) with the passengers scolding her for leaving a bag unattended.
Remember a few years ago someone left their bag on a seat at the airport.
No mass panic, police or bomb squad like they constantly tell you, just the cleaner came over had a quick check inside it and presumably took it over to lost property.
i’m a seasoned aisle sitter, let me chime in - its completely fine to take the aisle seat when there’s a spare window, but you have to accept that the journey will be spent in a near constant state of readiness to gesture at the empty seat/stand aside.