Photo of elderly woman standing on train, ignored by headphone-wearing seated passengers divides internet

A photo of an elderly woman forced to stand on a Sydney train while seated passengers wearing headphones ignore her has gone viral.

It was initially posted to call out the people who weren't giving up their seats, but some are saying the seated passengers may not be at fault - and they're turning on the person who took the photo.

An elderly woman stands on a train while headphone-wearing passengers ignore her.
An elderly woman stands on a train while headphone-wearing passengers ignore her. Photo credit: Facebook/AussieAussieAussieAussie.

In the original post, on Facebook Page Aussie Aussie Aussie Aussie, the photo was captioned "no respect."

"Someone may have offered but the elderly lady said 'No, it's ok I'm getting off soon'," said one Facebook comment.

A few other comments said that the person taking the photo was just as bad as anyone else on the train.

"Who took the photo instead of saying something?"

But there were also people who were outraged by the image, saying that it showed the seated passengers' true colours.

"Gone are the days where the younger generation look after their elders!" said one commenter.

Another said it "disgusted" them to see an old woman being ignored by multiple people.

The post has 32,000 shares and 2800 comments.

Newshub.