Great Western Coffee Shop

I came across these "will I get a seat" charts from London Midland:

http://www.londonmidland.com/your-journey/finding-a-seat/

I have seen the posters at Weymouth telling which Summer Saturday trains are best avoided, but nothing to tell me (for example) which are the best trains to / via Bath to catch out of Temple Meads.  Has my URL blindness recurred, or are there no such charts?

It's a useful idea that Chiltern also use.  Perhaps FGW don't as they'd be nothing but red blobs at stations like West Drayton, Southall and Ealing Broadway!

They seem to have become quite popular recently, SWT has posters with the info at popular commuter stations. Other TOCs like FCC print the number of carriages booked in the timetable for peak times which can help you guess which trains are more likely to have seats available.

It is definitely useful for managing demand on London midland routes into London. at some stations trains arrive less 5-10 minutes apart and whilst one may have plenty of seats the other is standing room only. London midland also provide the number of carriages of the train to further inform.

I guess it also (thinking FGW here) doesn't tell you if you'd get a seat but then might need to share any surrounding space (and any attempt at having room to breath) with other people further down the line...