Travelling vulnerabilities: Mobile timespaces of quiescence

Cultural Geographies

Volumn 16, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 427-445

  Bissell, David ^a  

^a AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Embodiment; Materiality; Mobility; Railway travel; Sleep

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY; MOBILITY; PSYCHOLOGY; RAILWAY; TRAVEL BEHAVIOR; VULNERABILITY;

EID: 70350545658     PISSN: 14744740     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1474474009340086     Document Type: Article

References (58)

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11. See D. Bissell, 'Animating suspension: waiting for mobilities', Mobilities 2 (2007), pp. 277-98.
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13. See S. Williams, Sleep and society: sociological ventures into the (un)known (London, Routledge, 2005).
14. W. Schivelbusch, The railway journey: trains and travel in the 19th Century (Oxford, Blackwell, 1980).
15. See R. Harrington, 'The railway journey and the neuroses of modernity', Pathologies of travel (ed. R. Wrigley and G. Revill) (Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1999), pp. 229-60
16. From December 2007, these services have been operated by National Express East Coast.
17. Virgin Trains, Virgin Trains: First Class Promotional pamphlet (2005a), available from author.
18. Virgin Trains, Voyager: welcome to First Class Promotional pamphlet (2005b), emphasis added, available from author.
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20. 'InterCity' was a British Rail brand introduced in 1966 designating fast, inter-urban, long-distance train services with few intermediate stops. These services are therefore distinguished from other local, frequent-stopping suburban services. Whilst post-privatization long-distance services are not branded as 'intercity', it is a term that is still commonly used by passengers to describe this particular style of train journey.
21. For an extensive conceptual discussion of the relations between comfort and discomfort see D. Bissell, 'Comfortable bodies: sedentary affects', Environment and planning a 40 (2008), pp. 1697-1712.
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23. Schivelbusch, The railway journey.
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26. See for example N. Thrift, Spatial formations (London, Sage, 1996).
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30. Ibid., pp. 126-7.
31. Schivelbusch, The railway journey.
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38. See G. Letherby and G. Reynolds, Train tracks: work, play and politics on the railways (Oxford, Berg, 2005).
39. This is specific to UK railways. Indeed, many rail seat manufacturers have not entered the UK market on account of these restrictions.
40. I. Walmsley, 'Let's have some comfortable seats', Modern railways October (2007), pp. 38-41.
41. The UK railway is a privatized franchise system where private companies bid for the licence to operate train services. There are currently 25 train operating companies that operate services in different parts of the UK.
42. See I. Knowles, 'Impacts of privatising Britain's rail passenger services - franchising, refranchising, and Ten Year Transport Plan targets', Environment and planning d: society and space 36 (2004), pp. 2065-87.
43. Schivelbusch. The railway journey.
44. In these carriages, clear signage instructs passengers that they must moderate their behaviour in accordance with the Quiet Coach rules. This includes refraining from using mobile phones, putting all electrical equipment into 'silent mode', and keeping conversations quiet so as not to disturb fellow passengers. These carriages are usually situated at the end of the train to ensure minimal disturbance from other passengers walking through.
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48. Blanchot A. The space of literature, p. 266.
49. Ibid., p. 265.
50. E. Levinas, Existence and existents (trans. A. Lingis) (Pittsburgh, PA, Duquesne University Press, 2001), p. 65.
51. See Wiederberg, 'Embodying modern times'.
52. Harrison., 'Corporeal remains', p. 424.
53. Lyons, Jains and Holley., 'The use of travel time'.
54. E. Laurier, H. Lorimer, B. Brown, O. Jones, O. Juhlin, A. Noble, M. Perry, D. Pica, P. Sormani, I. Strebel, L. Swan, A.S. Taylor, L. Watts and A. Weilenmann, 'Driving and passengering: notes on the ordinary organisation of car travel', Mobilities 3 (2008), pp. 1-23.
55. Harrison, 'Corporeal remains'.
56. Kraftl and Horton, 'Spaces of every-night life', p. 23.
57. T. Wall, Radical passivity: Levinas, Blanchot and Agamben (Albany NY, SUNY Press, 1999).
58. S. Guyer, 'Wordsworthian wakefulness', The Yale journal of criticism 16 (2003), p. 104.