Until the mobility turn, the significance of the mundane journey as a
component of everyday mobility was overlooked. This has been redressed and there is
now considerable interest in mobility practices, in life on the move and in the cultures
that are generated in vehicular environments such as trains. As a result, commuting,
which is one of the most mundane, popular and ubiquitous forms of mobility, is
beginning to receive the attention that is its due. In this chapter, the results from a
mobile ethnography of commuting in Sydney are reported. It examines in particular the
corporeality of commuting, the territorialising and de-territorialising that occurs within
the crowded spaces of trains and platforms during peak hours. It argues that passengers
engage in complex ‘choreographies’ to avoid contact with one another and to position
themselves in situations of advantage in the time harassed and compressed conditions of
commuting.
Keywords: Civil inattention, commuting, mobile choreography, railways,
comportment, Sydney Trains.
