Reporter Dale Haslam continues his regular blog on his daily train commute in and out of Bolton.

AS I get older, my tolerance level for selfishness and discourteousness shrinks, and nowhere else is this more evident than on the railway.

While there are bound to be more incidents of rudeness when lots of people are crammed into a small space and all trying to get somewhere fast, there is no excuse for being lazy and ill-mannered.

Take, for instance, Platform 14 at Manchester Piccadilly, which is probably the busiest part of the station because the vast majority of local services stop there.

Thick yellow lines have been painted on the ground right by the stairs that lead on to the platform, similar to a box junction on a road.

It does not take a genius to work out what it indicates, yet, any day of the week, you will see dozens of people standing there, blocking the entrance.

Then there are those who put their bags on train seats so others have to stand up or, worse still, those who put their feet on seats.

Bolton station cannot escape the trend.

Some people walking to the platforms seem incapable of keeping to the left, so there is a game of human dodgems every time you walk by.

It is a sad state of affairs when signs are needed to remind people how to walk properly.

But my biggest bugbear is people who storm on to the train before letting people off.

This problem has become worse at Bolton during the rush hour since — in its infinite wisdom — TransPennine Express decided to reduce the number of carriages on their busiest services.

Each morning, I prepare to get off at Bolton in the hope that the crowd of those wanting to get on are going to let me. I am thinking of bringing a cattle prod to work next week.

I am not saying these things make me fly into a fit of rage, it just disappoints me a bit. It never makes me lose hope that people will become kinder, though.