Elderly couple on train

[brummiesue]

Initial thoughts were what utter twats they were especially after hearing that the woman in question is heavily pregnant. I then however saw the unpixelated photo and the poor woman who wouldn't move looks poorly. AIBU to have a little sympathy for them now??
Link below hopefully
mol.im/a/7602911

if this was the other way round, people would love seeing a young mum vilified.

What utter nonsense!

I’ve stopped reserving table seats on trains when I travel with my kids. Two rows of two and you never have any bother with folks sat in your seat. Have a table seat and funnily enough there’s always some rude wanker who ‘needs’ the table for work/thought reservations were cancelled/can’t hear you because of their headphones etc. It’s so rude.

The train company haven’t said reservations were cancelled. And I bet if they were cancelled they’d have upgraded the couple rather than 4 people

They should have moved, rude, obnoxious people.

It seems that all reservations were not cancelled (as sometimes happens) the reservations were still valid a spokesman for train company said it was a shame the family was “let down by others who ignore the labels”.

This couple were completely in the wrong.

Clearly were not told the whole story if reservations were suspended. Presumably this is what the older lady meant when she said that reservations 'didn't matter.'

The mother comes across as a middle class entitled wanker with spoilt, rude brats, IMO. She should not be commenting on a 'posh accent'. Snob.

The mother comes across as a middle class entitled wanker with spoilt, rude brats, IMO. She should not be commenting on a 'posh accent'. Snob.

She was “entitled” - to those seats!

SoupDragon

Well, I wouldn’t have said that if I didn’t think it was true.

Clearly were not told the whole story if reservations were suspended. Presumably this is what the older lady meant when she said that reservations 'didn't matter.'

‘If’ is doing a lot of work there.

You can clearly see the reservation labels in the seat. I’m glad the TM moved them to first class, I’d have done the same. The couple were rude and I don’t blame the mum for shaming them and their behaviour.

and again...

if you are elderly or infirm, or both and want a seat you

1 Reserve a seat in advance
2 Book Assisted Travel where a nice guard carries your bags on and takes you to your seat.

You don't steal seats paid for by other passengers.

They were out of order.

I bet if the seats belonged to men- big burly men or men in suits- they'd have moved.

I’m afraid I’d have sat on the table and farted in their direction.

If there were carriages removed then it's certainly possible that the older couple had reserved seats in one of the carriages that had been removed. I've been in that situation. They only announced all reservations were cancelled as we got on the train, and the cards were all out.
I've also been on a train when they called an open train and told people to use seats in the first class if they were standing. We happened to be right by the first class door, and got seats. However I was surprised how few people too up the offer.

I would be sceptical about the truth being told by anyone whose reaction is to go to the press especially after they had had the situation resolved.

I'm not sure trial by social media is the solution here. There are rude people in the world everywhere, sometimes you just have to grit your teeth, allow yourself to feel annoyed for a bit and then get on with your life. This feels like a tit-for-tat attempt.

If the train had removed its reservations then there would have been an apology from the tm but nobody would be moved to first class. It’s just one of those things.

If the reservations were cancelled due to lack of carriages, there wouldn't have been time to go round removing all the labels. There would have been an announcement though.
Once reservations are cancelled, it's a free for all. I sat on the floor by the toilet with about 10 other people from London to Manchester because someone sat in my reserved seat. Nothing I could do about it as they'd been cancelled.
In fact, I moved to sit on the floor near the 1st class toilet to get more space as my back was bad. The guard moved me on because it was 1st class toilet corridor floor!
Being packed in like sardine on the floor of a dirty delayed Virgin train has been one of my life's highlights.

I would be sceptical about the truth being told by anyone whose reaction is to go to the press especially after they had had the situation resolved.

But it wasn’t resolved by these people. It was resolved by the train company.

I’ve been on trains where seat reservations were suspended. I understand that’s what happened here?

It doesn’t look at all like reservations were suspended. The train company said the squatters ignored the labels.

It’s called manners and consideration for others. Something which is sadly lacking in this generation of entitled brats.

Unbelievable. The older couple were absolutely at fault, yet you're still screeching about 'entitled brats'.

It makes me incredibly nervous to use public transport as I advance in my pregnancy (currently drive anywhere I need to go) as I’ve always been pretty robust and able to shrug situations like this ^ off, but now I feel pretty vulnerable and fragile (have had health complications) the idea of being faced with awful people blatantly refusing to honour seat reservations gives me anxiety!

I do think the trains are an absolute disgrace in the U.K. though and that’s why people behave so badly - everyone is fed up!
I’ve seen this ^ happen multiple times when earlier trains were cancelled - people took the attitude ‘well I booked a seat in the same way all these people did so why should they get theirs and I lose out?’

I’ve also seen cancelled trains lead to a disabled woman sobbing (standing) in a hallway for a 2.5 hour journey due to pain. Train staff tried to find her a seat but every seat (in the very small carriage) was already taken by someone unable to stand. Very elderly, heavily pregnant or disabled themselves- it was an awful awful journey!

Spend time on the U.K. train system and you’ll see disgusting things

I've had all sorts of shit go wrong with reservations:

Labels not placed on seats
Labels placed but in the wrong carriage
People ignoring labels and sitting where they want
Women having to find a different seat or carriage to the one they reserved to avoid creepy men
Conductors saying "reservations are free so they don't entitle you to a seat", scurrying away and locking themselves in their cubby hole

All conducive to situations like the one on the OP.

I avoid British trains like the plague

They don't look old at all and would probably resent being called so.

twitter.com/Manda_like_wine/status/1186574340541825024?s=19

*A spokesman for CrossCountry trains said it was a shame the family was "let down by others who ignore the labels", but hoped they enjoyed the "extra space in First Class".

That's what the train company said. You'd have thought that if carriages had been removed they'd have mentioned it wouldn't you? But they haven't.

If reservations are cancelled they do generally get taken off the seats by the train crew to avoid this exact situation. If they were cancelled due to shortage of carriages, they wouldn’t have been put out in the first place. The train company have already pointed out that it was the fault of the seat pinchers.

Well, if that’s the whole story then they were arseholes. But she shouldn’t have put their picture on SM and their age is irrelevant.