Train seat reservations

So what? Why does this mean they should be done away with? Is it because you’re disorganised so just want to sit in other people’s seats without issue?

Also I frequently travel between London and my hometown and rarely have cancelled trains / seat reservations.

Guard's wife here.

If people won't vacate booked seats then the Guard will tell them that the train isn't going anywhere until they move.
If they kick off about that then BT Police are called. BT Police have the power of arrest. By this time the culprits have usually vacated the seats with a lot of huffing and puffing

Does she book assistance. We do if DH is travelling as he's disabled and when this happened they made sure he got his seat.

There are a myriad of reasons people may not be able to avoid peak times.

A friend has regular appointments at a specialist hospital in London and they're never later than 10.30. It takes 2+ hours to get there, so she has to go in the rush hour. I've had to do it when I've been on courses in London, too.

The train I was on was crowded, no idea where the guard was but it would have been a nightmare trying to find him. I tried to go to the toilet, fortunately being a priority seat it was close. Five people were standing in there that's how crowded it was.

I’ve had people refuse to move before now. They had put the reservation cards on different seats to confuse matters. The train manager wouldn’t do anything about them.

I didn't say they were dicks but actually they were to the young staff member who couldnt magically give us both the seats we'd booked. She repeatedly said they would get seats, they weren't interested and insisted we had to move even though we had booked the seats just like them. Well they got the seats they wanted and we had a wonderful time.

Then you find the Guard and he will shift him/er. If he/she still refuses then BT police will come and have a quiet word with him/her.

She doesn't she gets an 11 o'clock train going towards London and midday train out of London to avoid peak times at both ends. She still need to know she will be able sit down. The type of people that won't move out of someone else's booked seat aren't going to offer up their seat (even if it's a priority seat) if all seats are a free for all are they?

There is a lot of variations in train prices so there isn't a price the rest of you pay, is it a return, did you book well in advance, have you paid for a pass.

By the way it wasn't peak commuter time, train was crowded due to cancellations.

That was hardly the other people purely being dicks though was it? They booked seats, just like you did, to find they were taken. Why didn’t the staff member say straight away to them that he’d find them seats? Why did he wait until you decided to give yours up to find more seats?

The problem is that you can never absolutely guarantee someone will have a seat surely? If your train is cancelled, or the train before or after yours is cancelled, they’ll often then suspend all seat reservations for everyone on trains either side. So it becomes a free for all. You might not even know that’s happened until you go to get on. Now I’m sure a train guard would do his best to find a seat for elderly or disabled people. But the guarantee of “their seat” is still not a thing when that happens.

Indeed. Most surprising.

Oh that is wonderful. I once went to a sporting event with my kids. There had been a mix up and they'd sold the seats twice. We were there first so when they arrived they kicked off and young staff member trying to sort it was getting flustered so I said ok have the seats. Staff member said she'd get us seats. Instead of sitting half way back we ended up sitting with players familied. My kids got taken on to do warm up with players and given team shirts at the end. Id love to have seen their faces.

Not travelling at 5.30pm would be a good start.
Also often you get on and they're cancelled. You can never guarantee them.

Obviously no one needs to use a bag like that. I've asked people to move them too. A bag can't have reserved a seat!

But if someone is travelling and needs a seat, they could A avoid peak packed commuter times and B have to pay the same price as the rest of us if a seat is needed.

What about my 80 year mother who has a 3.5 hour train journey to us should she just stand for that time? Or sit on the floor. Knowing she has a seat is what makes her able to travel.

I'm in my 70swith arthritic hips. I use trains to visit my kids, one is a 5 hour journey. I need to know I can sit down for the journey or I wouldn't risk travelling. I did once ask a young man to move his bag off a priority seat when my train was cancelled so I had no reservation. He refused and I said I had no idea of why he needed a priority seat but was absolutely sure I needed it more than his bag. He moved his bag.

But that PP claimed they did not which shocked me.

I am quite an imposing person and can absolutely switch on my “do not fuck with me - I will fight you” childhood underclass persona when necessary so I don’t think anybody has dared not to move. But my experience is even that I don’t need to switch on as most people don’t argue if somebody has a reserved seat and they don’t.

I genuinely don’t know what I would do if somebody refused. On a plane it’s easy. On train? Maybe contact the train manager?

(I also disagree that you cannot physically drag somebody out of your seat…..)

Cabin crew always act, they have to avoid conflict so won't let anything escalate.

I can hardly believe anyone would openly challenge someone for trying sit in their own reserved seats?

But if they just absolutely refuse to move what would you do? You can’t physically drag a pregnant woman out of a seat so if they just carried on sitting there I honestly don’t understand how you actually kick them out.

I've only ever had one occasion when someone refused to move. I'd booked 4 table seats for me and my 3 children for quite a long train journey and a group of 4 adults was in them when we boarded. I wouldn't have been that bothered if there had been other seats but the train was packed so I asked them to move. They insisted that they had booked the seats though refused to show me their reservations even though I showed them mine. In the end we took the only seats left in the carriage, right behind them. I had my elder son on my knee and my daughter had the youngest on her knee. It was a fairly tight squeeze and it's possible my boys might have kicked the back of their seats occasionally but they were actually remarkably well behaved considering the situation. But the grumpy woman in front decided to fetch the train manager to get us moved. That was a mistake. He looked at everyone's tickets and discovered that they had indeed booked those seats on that service...for the day before! And as the tickets were only valid on the specific date they were in fact not only in my seats but didn't have valid tickets for the train. He made them move and charged them all full price for new tickets. I felt fairly smug.

@Pistachiocakeborrow a dog? What a totally bizarre suggestion.