Asking someone to move on train

[openjoy]

Is it unreasonable to ask someone to move if they are sat in a train seat that is allocated to you on your train ticket?

I’ve always thought it was ok to do. There are the screens above the seat that say “seat booked” or “seat available until x” etc. I was on a train recently where a woman asked someone to move as they were in her seat and they refused. It caused a bit of a scene in the carriage.

Should the seat allocation (which is free with the standard ticket booking) be ignored and if you get a seat you do and if you don’t, you don’t?

Of course someone sitting in your booked seat should give it up. The woman a PP describes who said she ‘wasn’t a train traveller normally’ is baffling to me; even if you don’t habitually use the train surely you understand the concept of a reserved seat

I once found a man sitting in my booked seat. Asked him politely to move and showed him my ticket and he said, ‘Do you want to sit here?’, sounding genuinely incredulous. Um, yes, that’s why I asked and also it is my seat…
He moved, slightly ungraciously. Weird.

Personally I think seat bookings should always cost extra, and the extra money used to reduce fares for those willing to take pot luck. That would solve a lot of the issues as so many people don’t turn up for a booked seat.

I don't need them to be happy, I need them to move out of my reserved seat.

Yes, I always ask even if the seats around are free. If you've booked it, you've booked it. Controversially (?), I also sit down next to someone in my assigned seat if they're already sat in the one next to me which is marked as free - I wait until we've attended all stops and then I move to a free double seat if there are any still available. I think it can cause issues further down the line (excuse the pun!) if you don't just sit in the seat you've booked, so think this is all reasonable.

I agree people should generally move if the booked person shows up. My main gripe otherwise is that so many people book seats and don't show up. I see this all the time. I don't know where they go or if they don't make the train or if they just sit anywhere but you can be in a carriage where there are 10+ booked seats and no one shows up to any of them, making some people then stand who didn't really have to.

I would always ask someone to move and I would get pissy with them if they didn’t

Yes I would expect to sit in the seat I had booked, unless there were absolutely loads of other seats available in which case I would just sit elsewhere. However a lot of trains get cancelled and then all reserved seating gets thrown out the window, which is where issues crop up as people still try and sit in a reserved seat when this is no longer applicable and where issues could arise (busy trains, no other spare seats, so you can see why someone would not want to move).

I got the train to Edinburgh recently and my seat had been double booked. I had it booked London to Edinburgh, someone else had it booked Peterborough to Edinburgh. Luckily train wasn't full

We used to travel by train loads, and only once did I have anything other than an apology and immediate moving for sitting in reserved seats.

I'd booked 3 seats for me and dd1 (aged about 5) and dd2 (aged about 2). I'd paid for the extra seat because we had about 4 hours on the train and dd2 was a wriggler.

When we got on, it was heaving to the point of people standing in the aisles as there had been trains cancelled.
I found my seats (2 together and 1 behind). The single one moved immediately, but the other two (who were two small girls about dd1's age) I looked round and their mum came over from where she was standing and we got chatting. They'd been on trains since very early, and this was the first point they'd got to sit down, and they were going further than I was.
The mum offered to move them, but instead we got them to squeeze up with dd1 so three in the two seats, and they had a lovely time for the rest of the journey giggling together and eating all sorts of rubbish snacks, and I sat behind with dd2 on my lap.
I didn't need three seats, and this worked out well. I was glad for them too, as the train stayed busy - the mum took my seat when I got off as there still were no seats available.

If disability book

And if I don't know what train I'm going to get?

Sometimes you have to book a seat if you have an open return even if you don't know what train you'll travel on! Daft rule. But in my experience sitting in a booked seat is absolutely fine as long as you keep a look out at the station it's booked from and ask anyone who is looking at the reservations if it's theirs and move immediately. No need to stand when there's empty seats - otherwise a seat could be reserved for a short 10min hop between stations but you're standing for an hour when you only need to stand for 50mins!

Of course you ask them to move! They’re CFers who try it on. I once politely asked someone to move as he was in my reserved seat. I did it in a pleasant ‘you probably didn’t notice’ way and showed him my reservation. He gave me a scornful look and told me there were other seats free, then went back to scrolling through his phone. I stood there, smiled and said “Well, you can move to one of them then, can’t you?” He ignored me, so I carried on standing there. When someone tried to go past, I explained I was waiting for “this gentleman” to move out of my reserved seat. I got a mouthful of abuse, but he moved!

Another time when I was younger and less confident, a young man refused to move even though I politely explained why I’d reserved that seat, and he was so nasty I thought I was going to cry (I was only in my teens) but I got the guard and he got the nasty fucker to move.

Don’t give in to these people! They only do it because people give in.

Its fine to sit in an empty reserved seat but you should give it up gracefully if the person who reserved it turns up

The rules and etiquette are:

If the seat is marked as reserved, either with a paper or electronically, for your specific booking, you can ask someone to move out of your reserved seat.

If the seat is marked as reserved by someone else but the person doesn't show up, you can sit there until their reserved station (and beyond if it doesn't interfere with someone else's reservation). It can be good to keep an eye out for these seats as they often get overlooked/missed, especially on crowded trains that have a lot of stops as many people just see "Reserved" and don't check the stops it's reserved for.

If the reservations are down or not in operation, which is usually but not always announced by the manager, and otherwise denoted by lack of reserved signs, no one has a reservation so even if you've reserved that seat you can't ask someone to move out of it.

If the reservations are working as normal but the train is empty and it's not a busy route and you ask someone to move out of your reserved seat, they have the right to make grumpy noises about it to acknowledge your pettiness (assuming it's not for health reasons) but they should still move anyway.

If you've reserved a table seat and two of the three other people don't show up, etiquette is to move so you're sitting diagonally to the other person.

If you're sitting in (proper) first class with strangers next to or opposite you, you should move out of your reserved seat to a different set of seats to give people more space. Tip here is that there are usually at least 2 first class carriages and they only reserve seats in one, so the other typically has far fewer people and you'll usually get a table to yourself. So always check the other carriage.

I always ask people to move
I book well in advance to make sure I get a forward facing window seat - otherwise I’m likely to be travel sick
Also try and book a table near a socket etc

Love this!!!

oh look its the train ettiquette police.

As a rule, yes.

However, recently I was sitting in a priority seat as I was on crutches. It was unreserved. Someone boarded the train and asked the guard to ask me to move as she needed the seat more. I said to the guard that I'd move but he would need to find me somewhere else to sit as there were no other seats available and I needed to sit. The guard found me a seat but it turned out it was reserved later down the line. In that instance, I explained the situation and said they would need to speak to the guard. I'm not sure what the upshot was as they didn't come back.

I was also on a train recently where they had somehow triple booked the seats. That was fun! I didn't have a seat reserved and had managed to nab an unreserved one so was saved from the drama.

As I say, as a rule, you should move if you're sitting in someone else's reserved seats but there are a lot of variables. A lot of problems are caused by overbooking (looking at you, Cross Country)

I booked with my daughter Kings Cross to York. Got on to find a woman in one of our seats with her lunch completely unpacked, eating a Pret salad and earphones in. Showed her my ticket and she had the same seat, same carriage - double booked, and she was going all the way to Edinburgh.

My heart absolutely sank, train was rammed. But she jumped up, started packing up everything and said “Don’t worry, you both sit here I’ll take my chances, it’ll be fine!” She sat in an empty booked seat across the aisle (booked to Edinburgh).

I couldn’t believe her kindness and was so stressed for the first 15 mins as people were still walking down the packed train looking for their seats and there were people standing at the ends. I was terrified she’d be moved and then she’d be standing. There wasn’t a single empty seat but no-one ever turned up for her seat, I was seriously impressed with her kindness and her luck!

While this can be true on peak time trains, it's often not the case off peak. I very rarely book early enough to get a cheap advance fare, so am pretty much always travelling on a standard off peak return booked a week or so ahead with a reserved seat. Anyone on the same train who bought their tickets immediately before travel will have paid the same as me (unless their return journey is at peak time).

Yes it's normal and fine and you should do it, unless all reservations are cancelled.

It is unbelievable that a (thankfully) few people think it is ok to take something that someone else has paid for.

As for the regular commuter that feels she has paid more and is thus grumpy when asked to move, I wonder if she does the same in hotels and airplanes?!

Books in same day, paying top dollar for a standard room and then occupies someone else’s pre booked superior room as she has ‘paid more’ for her standard room?

Or books a super expensive economy price ticket at the check in desk and discovers that someone has paid less in advance for business class, so just sits in their seat!

The mind boggles!

If you have booked a seat, it is yours to sit in. End of.

Id just sit in an empty seat i dont have time to cause drama.

It's very annoying and they should move. We got on a not very busy train back from Penrith to Euston once and a mum and 2 kids were at our table. They said someone was in their seats. We found other seats because the train wasn't busy. We realised at that point that only the table seats had sockets available. Very annoying