I have to agree, even after the ear blast. I’ve got some Denon earbuds that came with a range of rubber plugs to fit your exact ear size. They’re brilliant at reducing ambient noise so you can listen without having to fight the outside world with volume. Unless of course you’re on the Bakerloo line. That’s one noisy train line… 
Those things send my mate MENTAL. Like uncontrollable mind bending rage. It’s weird.
I can’t use earbuds because it hurts 
(the physical “contact” with the ear, not the sound, have tried many)
So when traveling I use a couple of noise-cancelation headphones, they are pretty expensive but totaly worth it.
Downside is that they are as big as normal/studio-headphones so it’s not easy to have them in your pocket.
In addition to many of the recommendations given above, I advice you stop listening to music while on the train/buss. In order to hear the music properly in such situations, you have to pump the volume up to levels that you most likely should avoid. Take care of your ears, man, you don’t want tinnitus and/or hyperacusis!
I’m a guitarist, in the past, with my band, we give a show in a bar.
In one song, the drummer had shooted very hard the crash cymbal, unfortunately my right ear was near this cymbal, for three days i’ve had a continuous whistle in my ear.
And since this, my ear lost some audition, now i can hear high pitch sounds ( 17khz-17.5khz ) with my left ear, but with my right ear i hear 15khz-16khz sounds but not higher 