Ok, but maybe it was the local practice. As I remember it (nearly 20 years ago now), if you went across the hold you would be getting in the way of any other taxiway traffic for sure, as the taxiways were one way at a time with only a couple of 'laybys' to let people through. I would certainly have been yelled at if I'd crossed the line in my PA28 and met a 737 coming the other way...