Train seat novice

[AlisonWunderland]

Just to pre-empt me starting a ranty thread next week...

I rarely travel by train, but have booked a 2 and a half hour journey next weekend.
After reading threads on here, I also reserved seats .

Leaving London, it's unlikely I'll have a problem with seat squatters.

The return journey involves changing trains, so I'll be getting on to an already busy train.

What should I do if there is someone in my seat?

Say "excuse me, I think you might be in my seat - is this carriage B, seat 59A?"

You ask them politely to move and almost everyone will. People get on without a reservation and sit in a free seat. Often the seat isn't reserved until later in the journey or the person with the reservation doesn't get on anyway so you can use the seat.

In the unlikely event that someone is in your seat and won't move you can ask the guard to intervene.

Yeah people generally will move, don't worry. It's definitely best to reserve seats if you can, many trains between cities are packed.

Quite often people who have reserved seats don't use them (e.g. travelling on an earlier train), so you may find someone in your seat, but they will normally move if you ask. The exception is if they are in a group and there are visible empty single seats (unreserved), when they may ask if you mind taking the single seat.

I usually don't care about my reservation (I will happily sit in another seat) unless the train is busy. of course, if you sit in another seat, you might be asked to move!

I arrived at a seat I had booked once to find a lady breastfeeding a youngster that was no more than 12 weeks. No way I was moving her, so I took my massive bag and sat in the area at the end of the carriage. Conductor comes around checking tickets, "You can't stay here, love!" and sees my reservation ticket. I tell him that there's feeding mother sat in it. He went and had a look, and then came back and led me to First Class. What a win for an impoverished student as I was at the time!!!

If there was someone sat in my seat and there were other seats available, I personally couldn't ask them to move and would sit in an empty seat.

However I would point out politely that they were in my seat if it was full. If they refused to move then I would involve the guard

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully the train won't be too busy and my seat is free. I'm not great at even low level confrontation!

I had someone in my seat once, he refused to move and the conductor moved me to first class. Result.

I'm actually booked in first class already as it was only £5 more for the off peak train ive chosen!

It's unlikely you'll have any problems in first class. You're not allowed to sit in there without a valid ticket (or the guard has put you in there like the scenario above). I've never seen a first class carriage/section full, even on the busiest of trains!

This is interesting as I'm off to London at the weekend. If you have to get a guard do you go and look for one or do you just stand there until one comes past?

Yeah you should be fine in first class. I've had people get arsey with me when I've told them I've reserved their seat but no one has ever refused to move. If they did I'd get the train manager. If it's a Virgin train they are in a little cabin by the buffet car if they're not ticket checking.

Just politely and neutrally point out that you've reserved that seat. Sometimes I state the seat number to avoid any doubt. Try not to sound too huffy about it, they might have made an honest mistake; the numbers above the seat don't always align perfectly with the reservation tickets. Also, I've come close to ousting someone and just in time realised that I was in the wrong coach. I don't like confrontation but have never had a problem with getting people to move in this way. Sometimes they've appeared a little irked but I think they're more annoyed with the fact that they thought they'd found an empty one but hadn't.