Reservations

[whole diary]

[REVUpminster]

Odd unable to get reserved seat on the Saturday 830am Newton Abbot to London or the 1803pm back. I might try later in week, was told there should still be unreserved on the day. Never had this problem before when HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and there was always plenty of unreserved.

[Red Squirrel]

The last two times I have ridden on Class 80x, the reservation system has been out of commission. Cue much embarrassment as people who have sat in what appear to be unreserved seats are asked to move by other people who have reserved them...

[TaplowGreen]

The last two times I have ridden on Class 80x, the reservation system has been out of commission. Cue much embarrassment as people who have sat in what appear to be unreserved seats are asked to move by other people who have reserved them...

…..but if the reservation system is out of commission I thought all reservations were null and void?

[Timmer]

…..but if the reservation system is out of commission I thought all reservations were null and void?

Correct. But that doesn’t stop some on insisting on their ‘reserved seat’ even when the carriage is probably half empty.

[froome]

…..but if the reservation system is out of commission I thought all reservations were null and void?

Correct. But that doesn’t stop some on insisting on their ‘reserved seat’ even when the carriage is probably half empty.

Indeed. I expect this causes more arguments and hassle on trains than anything else. I've witnessed such conversations numerous times.

And it shouldn't really be surprising. If you are sold a reservation, even though you don't actually pay anything for it but do go to the trouble of obtaining it, you expect to be able to use it.

[grahame]

…..but if the reservation system is out of commission I thought all reservations were null and void?

Correct. But that doesn’t stop some on insisting on their ‘reserved seat’ even when the carriage is probably half empty.

Indeed. I expect this causes more arguments and hassle on trains than anything else. I've witnessed such conversations numerous times.

And it shouldn't really be surprising. If you are sold a reservation, even though you don't actually pay anything for it but do go to the trouble of obtaining it, you expect to be able to use it.

The text describing them is sometime a little woolly, for example:

Advance fares are valid only on the date and train shown on the ticket and seat reservation and are non-refundable.

"valid only" ... "seat reservation" ... so the ticket is only valid in that seat, right??

[Red Squirrel]

…..but if the reservation system is out of commission I thought all reservations were null and void?

Correct. But that doesn’t stop some on insisting on their ‘reserved seat’ even when the carriage is probably half empty.

Indeed. I expect this causes more arguments and hassle on trains than anything else. I've witnessed such conversations numerous times.

And it shouldn't really be surprising. If you are sold a reservation, even though you don't actually pay anything for it but do go to the trouble of obtaining it, you expect to be able to use it.

A couple of weeks ago I arrived early and got on a nearly empty train at Temple Meads, heading for Swindon with two kids. We got table seats; always good if you're in a family group. By the time the train left Bristol it was full. At Bath, a family of four got on with their reservation ticket; there was (I think!) an announcement to the effect that the reservation system wasn't working, but it was barely audible. I was very glad when they walked past us, but they did turf four people out of their seats at the next table. I'm afraid I think I might have asked them to take it up with the guard if they had attempted to turf us out, but it also occurred to me that I would have been pretty miffed if I'd turned up with what I considered to be a reservation and found someone sitting in 'my' seats' - especially on a very full train, with kids in tow.

Not good enough!

[Reginald25]

More generally on reservations. When booking a ticket online for an Off-Peak or Anytime ticket( i.e. not dedicated to a specific train) it offers a reservation usually. This results in seats apparently reserved but not occupied if the passenger (customer) travels on a different train. Eventually if its full, the seats get taken, but it's not ideal. Can't think of a simple way round this.

[jamestheredengine]

More generally on reservations. When booking a ticket online for an Off-Peak or Anytime ticket( i.e. not dedicated to a specific train) it offers a reservation usually. This results in seats apparently reserved but not occupied if the passenger (customer) travels on a different train. Eventually if its full, the seats get taken, but it's not ideal. Can't think of a simple way round this.

Stop offering reservations online, except for customers with disabled or senior railcards. They are in general an unmitigated pain. Make those who want them for the sake of causing smarmy confrontations go to a railway station and queue up.

[TaplowGreen]

More generally on reservations. When booking a ticket online for an Off-Peak or Anytime ticket( i.e. not dedicated to a specific train) it offers a reservation usually. This results in seats apparently reserved but not occupied if the passenger (customer) travels on a different train. Eventually if its full, the seats get taken, but it's not ideal. Can't think of a simple way round this.

Stop offering reservations online, except for customers with disabled or senior railcards. They are in general an unmitigated pain. Make those who want them for the sake of causing smarmy confrontations go to a railway station and queue up.

What a ridiculous comment. People want (and are encouraged by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to make) reservations in order to secure a seat, for what are often journeys of many hours duration. Nothing to do with "smarmy confrontations"

A "survival of the fittest" approach where those who move fastest & have the sharpest elbows have the best chance of a seat would most likely have much worse outcomes......fancy being the TM^‡(resolve) who has to sort that out? Or perhaps you'd like to take your chance & stand from Plymouth to Paddington one Sunday afternoon?

[grahame]

Gentlemen  ...

The current system for the booking of reserved seats that brings the system into disrepute and conflict could be usefully revised. If the proportion of reserved seats actually taken was much higher, it should mean both fewer seats showing as reserved so more spaces for the 'casual', and less chance of regular 'casuals' sitting in seats marked reserved in the first place as they would know they would very likely (an not just possibly) get chucked out.  But ( ? $64,000 ) how to achieve that, without putting people who want a reserved seat having one?

Seat reservations used to have a fee attached with them and - though I'm not going to be popular - I might suggest the re-introduction of a 10p fee. Using the plastic carrier bag model to change behaviour.  Collect all the 10p fees and pass them to a good cause if you like ... waive the fee for bookings on a disabled card, if you like.

I've probably not thought of some problems with this idea but ... but I certainly don't like alternatives such as queuing at a ticket office offered so far. Nor do I like  anything else which will put all but the fittest off travelling by train, or encourages further the system that the seats are all taken by the most fit people who don't need them as they rush from The Lawn, with carriage lobbies reserved for those who are pregnant, with small children, sick, or too frail to run.

[didcotdean]

More generally on reservations. When booking a ticket online for an Off-Peak or Anytime ticket( i.e. not dedicated to a specific train) it offers a reservation usually.

It does generally need a positive request on behalf of the person booking for a seat reservation to be generated with a non-Advance ticket now, compared with the early days of online booking when it was pretty automatic or at least the default.

There is a belief by some that just buying a ticket from selecting a train at a set time in some manner guarantees a seat on that service, even if none is specified. Hence the complaints about trains being 'overbooked' at peak times.

[eXPassenger]

I tend to book a seat on my up train to London as I know which train I plan to catch.  I may miss it though if there are delays getting to the station.

In my experience of paper reservations the normal reaction to an empty reserved seat is to check the originating station and, if it has been passed, use the seat.  The same principle can apply to the electronic signs in the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train).

[Fourbee]

In my experience of paper reservations the normal reaction to an empty reserved seat is to check the originating station and, if it has been passed, use the seat.

Then Broadgage comes back from the buffet

[ChrisB]

Make a reserbvation *only* by buying online & thus tying the reservation to the ticket. If tyou need to change it, then it's changable online via your account. If you want a reservation, book online. Ok, one might not use it, but at least there arent reservations across multiple trains.

Ditto with agencies =- they buy & amend reservations via an online account - one reservation per ticket bought.

Exception - Disabled & Senior railcards, who would still be able to book via any chaneel.