Train seat reservations

[littlebilliie]

That if you booked a seat it’s yours?

You're not making sense. People who commute on season tickets can't make seat reservations. There isn't a possibility to be organised to do that..
You don't have frequent cancellations? If you commuted you'd see how often it happens.

Do you mean a season ticket costs more than paying per journey? There's quite a simple solution to that.

Chiltern Railways don't have reservations, which I agree with.

Saves the headache of turfing people out of your seat.

I would never sit in a reserved seat and have asked people to move out of mine without incident. HOWEVER, I have also traveled on a packed London to Manchester service where a previous service had been canceled and the seat reservations were not switched on. I arrived early and got a seat, but by the time we left London there were people standing throughout the carriage. Some bloke fought his way past all of them to try to hoof me out of "his" seat - which I had no way of knowing was reserved. I explained this quite patiently. 20 minutes later he returned to say he had informed the train manager who would be there imminently, and would be remonstrating with me.

The train manager did not arrive, and I checked and double-checked that the reservations had not been switched on (and they hadn't). That is the ONLY time I have defended my right to remain in someone else's seat, because I think all bets are off if there are no visible reservations...

We’re talking about seat reservations and somebody saying they should be done away with.

It is the poster you just quoted who thinks they should be done away with. Because she can't always sit on her commute she thinks it OK for my elderly mother to have to risk not having a seat for 3.5+ if a football match or a big concert or other event happens to coincide with a train she booked months in advance. Commutes tend to be short so even if you have a long one the train has usually thinned out after half an hour or so booking on commuter trains is completely different to cross country/long distance services.

It’s an absolute bug bear of mine. I always book seats, and will always take my assigned seat. I also always travel light, so my bag will fit under my seat or on the overhead rack. Your massive suitcase with half your worldly possessions will not encroach on my space and not is it my problem to move up.

My favourite story was on a GWR to Oxford (which was full of people going to Bicester which looks like hell on earth). A sizable group of monks/friars(?) from US and elsewhere boarded with their own seat reservations. They politely asked an oaf of a man and his wife to give them their reserved seats and the chancer decided to try and con the tourists by saying seat reservations don’t count. I pipe up with a ‘that’s not quite true though is it’ and am met with a chorus of people joining in that it’s not on to lie. The man started whitttering that he had paid for a train ticket so deserved a seat (expecting sympathy), to which the chorus responded so had everyone. He whittered on for so long that all vacant and unreserved seats ended up taken, then the guard came and suggested they move so they make a big show of saying ‘they would be more comfortable in first class’. When I popped to the loo they were hemmed in next to the toilet door and the bikes….

I mean I commute everyday and on a shorter commuter route they don’t have reservations that I have seen. I agree with you that I don’t see why all reservations should be done away (including long distance, intercity train journeys) because that PP has cancellations and cannot book seats on her specific commuter train.

Seat Reserved tickets are often the cheapest tickets you can buy in the UK. I personally think they shouldn’t be — that only the most expensive tickets should allow seat reservations.

But the most expensive tickets are the ones you can use on any train - should they come with a reservation for all of the 100s of trains they might be used on?

On LNER (I have no knowledge of another inter city service) you can add a seat reservation to these via the website once you know which train you will be using so in effect they do if you choose to add it.

Yes those tickets are no good in this system except on the commuter trains but its quite easy to plan when you'll travel and there's not a huge difference between prices when buying weeks in advance or on the day.

I was suggesting it was the train company that would miss the chance to rake in the cash - not the passengers.

But it not that straightforward a London to Newcastle train came be as low £30 in advance but was well over £100 on the day the last time I had to buy on the day (which was some yaers ago so I assume its more now). It can mean well over £150 difference on a return trip per person so 300 extra for my parents to visit. Not really an option.

That makes no sense. Why penalise people for being organised and helping trains manage their availability? The more people make reservations the better an idea people have of train capacity. Hence it should be incentivised.

This is why I travel first class (book early to get advance fares and then use Seatfrog)

I only realised recently that the train manager has the authority to open first class when trains are overcrowded- a man who knew this came and sat in first class and when the train manager tried to evict him pointed this out and also pointed out that as the carriages were full of people standing then he had no chance of getting to his reserved standard seat- but if she was willing to to go to his seat and evict the person sitting in it and prevent anyone else from taking it then he would sit in it! He remained in first class for the duration...

On the last rare occasion I used a train (company policy wont allow driving post long haul) from Paddington GWR only had 5 carriages instead of 10. All seat reservations lights were green and it was announced any reservations were cancelled.
Train was rammed and had 2 belters stamping their feet as my colleague and I wouldn't moved, insisting we were in their seats.
They went off to find the train manager, even returned and said he agreed we had to move. We didn't and it made the hour journey pass quickly

It happened to me once. The train was full. I told the squatter that I was going to sit on the table with my feet in his lap and began to do so. I am quite a big lady and he saw I meant business. He called me a bitch. But he moved. I enjoyed that. And yes I can be a bitch.

Yeah prices are ridiculous in the UK, in my country they are still quite reasonable, if I wanted to travel a similar distance buying last minute today it'd cost 46 euros, peak time tomorrow around 60, another 16-22 euros to upgrade to 1st class.

It's a hard balance - to lower prices they would have to be subsedised so should every pay towards trains with those who actually use them paying a small top up or should those who use them bare the brunt of the cost?

The UK should renationalise the railways and train travel should be subsided because it should be encouraged over car travel.

Oh my!

I have seen that with premium economy but never first class.

I always book premium economy. I see more value than economy but not enough to justify first class.

And even in premium economy some people sit my reserved seats but less stressful to boot them out as premium economy is typically less busy.

Or maybe, if prices were lower, more people would use the train so revenue would increase too?

My son was looking at taking the train to go (his new) work. £80 a month, unreliable trains and walking to and from the station (a good 20 mins each side of the train journey)
By car? About £50 a week and quicker…..
That’s just for person. Imagine he could car share etc….

I’ve had the same experience in a much longer journey (2.5 hours by train). It would have costed me 4x more to use the train than the car for 3 of us. We didn’t go in the end.

Thats a massive issue. There’s no reason why a train journey, with all the people on board ends up being so much more expensive than the equivalent car journey

??
At the end of your post you say the train is so much more expensive - but at £50 per week, surely the car is about £120 more expensive per month than the ,£80 the train costs?

And does the £50 take into account all the motoring costs, or just the fuel?

😆

Refusal to leave should mean you have to leave the train at the next stop, no matter how inconvenient that is to the refuser. Enforced 100% every time, only leniency if the seat reservations have been removed for the journey or cannot be displayed.

Better still, anyone with a Railcard then has it withdrawn for a period of time.