Green card for better customer experience from Paddington

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From Railway Mercury and News

In order to ease concourse congestion at London's Paddington station, train operator First Great Western and station manager Network Rail will switch from labelling reserved seats on long distance expresses to labelling unreserved seats. Unreserved passengers wishing to sit will be asked to look for a seat with a green label, indicating the seat to be available for general use.  "At busy times, up to three quarters of the seats on a train can be reserved. This change will significantly reduce the preparation time" said a spokesman for First Great Western "and by getting people onto trains earlier we will significantly improve the passenger's experience.  This new system will also save on specialised printing, and allow us to sell reservations on the concourse until 30 minutes before a train's departure"

The new system, which is to be introduced experimentally on 8th April for services travelling beyond Exeter, Bristol and Cardiff on Thursdays to Sundays after 15:00 (3 p.m.), will ensure that a higher proportion of vulnerable travellers are seated. Under the current system the elderly, those with heavy luggage, medical conditions that reduce their fitness or pregnancy, and the occastional traveller too, are often left behind in the last minute stampede to board; they then have to stand to Reading or beyond.  Surveys show that these vulnerable travellers arrive at Paddington on average 11.5 minutes earlier than robust passengers. During this experiment, the buffet cars on the effected trains will be open from the start of boarding to allow passengers to obtain refreshments prior to departure.

[eightf48544]

Interesting, can't decide whether to be for against what's the day again?

[Brucey]

So a seat with a Bath to Bristol reservation won't have a green ticket for the train's whole journey?

[ellendune]

So a seat with a Bath to Bristol reservation won't have a green ticket for the train's whole journey?

That seems to be the issue for me. I regularly go and read the reservation tickets to find a seat that I can use. If I get on at Swindon I can often use an unclaimed Bristol to Paddington seat. 

[readytostart]

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) (although still testing to overcome some teething problems) can download reservations for a 2+7 rake (assuming good 3G signal) in approximately thirty seconds!

[paul7575]

How come, after so long as passed, three of you have started discussing an April 1st joke as though it was serious? 

Paul

[ellendune]

I picked it up the recent activity - not sensitised to checking dates at this time of year

[Brucey]

How come, after so long as passed, three of you have started discussing an April 1st joke as though it was serious? 

Paul

No idea why!  It came up as a new post when I clicked earlier this morning.

[Btline]

The best way to sort this is to charge ^1 for seat reservations.
That would reduce a huge amount of the "phantom" ones where people buying Savers on Trainline like sites are forced to reserve a seat.

People who desperately want a seat can purchase one, and will make sure they get to the station on time!

How about stopping giving people on advances a seat reservation (just a service)? Low cost travel = no frills.

[JayMac]

How about stopping people being made April Fools in August? 

[readytostart]

Oh dear, should really have picked up on that, still re-iterate my point about HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) electronic reservations, strange that the company with the smallest fleet have had the technology developed. Also saves the issue of 'label nabbers' who rather than going tyo look for a seat that's free will just take the label off and plonk themselves down.