Aibu to not buy 2 year old dd a train ticket for a long journey?

[Bigwheel]

I'm hoping to travel up to Scotland in the new year to visit my parents. The train journey will take about 8 hours in total. I will be travelling with my 2 year old and 5 year old by myself. Money is tight so I was please to discover I didn't have to buy my 2 year old a ticket. However I have since learnt that she doesn't automatically get a seat, she can only sit on one if it's not reserved. I have no idea if the train will be busy (crewe to edinborough, edinborough to Aberdeen) on a Thursday and returning Tuesday in early jan. it will cost about £30 more to buy my 2 year old a ticket, which is a lot to us. Aibu to hope that the train will be quiet and dd will get a seat or should I just accept that this trip is going to cost more than I thought?

Optimistic that's the most exciting news I've had this week! This will revolutionise my train-ticket-buying :-D

BIGWHEEL

I work in the ticket office of a train station, and you do not need to buy a ticket to be able to reserve a seat.

ask at your local station to reserve you 3 seats all next to each other, there is no need to buy a ticket. you can just get seat reservations on their own.

if you have problems, message me and I will see if I can reserve you some and then post them too you?

Definitely investigate family railcards. I have one despite technically not having to buy my daughter a ticket. Most of the time it works out cheaper to buy her a ticket and get the discount than just to buy one for me. A lovely train conductor tipped me off about being able to do this and it has saved me loads.

Oh I see now the extra is with the railcard. In that case, separate seat reservation sounds a food thing to investigate. I do like having a proper seat for everyone as it does make it a bit easier.

I wouldn't buy a seat OP, but I have been on the Crew to Edingburg train a few times and it has been really really busy.

Isodeone Why didn't you just put your baby in the car seat on the table, I have seen loads of people doing this.

OP as an aside when I was on the train to Scotland I was with my little sister who was 5, the train was full and a lady came and asked us ot move as my sister was a child and she was an adult so she had more rights to the seat than my little sister, I said no she can not stand for hours and hours and we had booked the seat. The lady then went to get the guard to ask him to make my little sister move. The guard said they were our seats and we could stay there. I think she was mean thinking that she was more important than dsis just because she was older than her.

Yes there should be a guarantee you get your reserved seats BUT on various occasions we have not because

no seats were being reserved due to delays(????)
our train we had booked on was cancelled and we had to get the next one, our train was delayed and we had to get a later connection......
trains so packed you can not physically get to your seat..
all these have happened when travelling with DD.

A reservation is no guarantee of a seat...