10 minute seat reservations

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

Those reservable during the journey specify this.

So you do take pot lucjk if you choose to sit in one - but I agree, there is a debate as to whether this should happen. However, if it didn't, I suspect it would be fully reservable, and thus booked before departure - thus unavailable to anyone boarding. So only slightly better in that it might not be booked during its journey. But not much. But definitely a benefit for those joining without a reservation.

[bobm]

I know what you mean Oxonhutch.  There are some seats which are cannot be reserved under the 10 minute rule - but I don't know which ones they are!

[ChrisB]

Oh, there are more of that kind than can be reserved. They are all in one coach, I think.

[JayMac]

Four car XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) Voyagers have reservable seats in every coach. Five car have one unreserved coach, B.

There are also 4 unreservable seats in coach C on the right as you enter from the toilet end. Coach D has 8 unreservable seats at the cycle storage end. 2 to the left and 6 to the right as you enter from that end. Coach A (1st Class) is fully reservable, as is Coach F (former Quiet Coach).

On four car XC Voyagers I always try and seek out one of these 12 unreservable seats if I don't have a reservation, especially on longer journeys. There's no way then that you'll have to move later in the journey should someone have made a '10 minute reservation'.

[ChrisB]

I don't suppose C & D Coaches are oriented such that these seats are at ends that abut each other?....

[JayMac]

Sadly not. Which is why, if I'm heading to Brum or beyond from Bristol I tend to choose one of the services which start at Bristol TM^▸ (Train Manager, or possibly Ticket Machine, depending on context). Plenty of time then to bag one of the unreservable seats.

Seat plans here:

http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/media/61862/voyager_seat_plan.pdf

[readytostart]

On XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) trains seats in coaches A and C can be reserved on the day and will contain a message along the lines of "May be reserved en-route, available xxx to xxx". If additional reservations are made then then the train will be called using all the power of 56k modems and the stations contained in the message will be updated. Reserved seats in any other coaches cannot be added to after the closing of reservations the night before.

[thetrout]

The 10 Minute Reservation system does sometimes take reservations from Stations AFTER the train has already left them... (I've tried it, it does work and it did upset someone as First Class was full and standing; hence why I tried it)

I don't actually use the website to look up how it works. The format works like this:

TMR <Boarding Station Code> <End/Interchange Station Code> <Time train leaves in 4 digit military time> <Optional 1ST for First Class Seating>

So it looks like this when written down:

Standard Class:	TMR BRI» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) EXD» (Exeter St Davids - next trains) 1444
First Class:	TMR BRI EXD 1444 1ST

Would give you a reservation for the 14:44 from Bristol Temple Meads - Exeter St Davids.

I've just tried it for the 20:29 from Bristol Parkway - Bristol Temple Meads in First Class. That train has already left BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains).

This is what happened



As the train is in Bristol area, it shouldn't take long to download via it's GPRS^▸ (General Packet Radio Service - e.g. data over mobile phone) Modem.

[ChrisB]

You forgot to say to what number you send the text....by deduction, I assume it to be 88008

[thetrout]

You forgot to say to what number you send the text....by deduction, I assume it to be 88008

Yes I did, my bad. Yes in all cases the text goes to 88008 :-)

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) now also offer Advance Tickets up to 15 minutes before the train leaves

Admin Note: edited to fix quotes - bobm

[johoare]

From XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) tweets....looks like a service failure...

See what you're referring to....services are xx41 Mon-Fri with later departure on weekends if engineering works

We'll make sure this is recorded & passed on to the relevant people so it can be addressed - though I'm afraid in the meantime, there isn't an alternative we can use to book, I'm afraid. Perhaps worth trying to book via TMR from Oxford? Just trying to think out of the box as a short term workaround

Looks like a failure of their software supplier with train running data....

4 weeks later and it's still not been addressed