In the first photo, the man in the doorway who appears to be taking a lot of space is leaning against a wheelchair ramp which is enclosed in a blue case in the doorway. The ramps are deployed by the train driver when needed.

First of all, those pics definitely Melbourne, not Sydney.

It looks like touching the ceiling is an adaptation to not having anything else to grab onto. Most buses and many trains have a continuous rail at grabbing height. The single-deck Melbourne trains don’t. They have only those vertical yellow bars, which people are using if they can reach them.

I think we’ve all been taught that we can catch bad flu bugs on public transit, which leads us to futile gestures like trying to hold on with less of our skin in contact with the surface … as if that will save us.

Cheers, Jarrett