Seat Reservations on FGW

[whole diary]

[Jez]

Besides the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) really should put seat reservations out for those that have reserved seats. Even if they are complimentry and at no extra cost to the passenger, its good customer service.

In certain circumstances with a tight turnaround, especially with a late inbound train, is it more important to get that train out again on time or delay it another 10 minutes so reservations can be put on?

Doesnt take 10 minutes to put a few seat reservations out im sure. They often start putting the seat reservations out when the terminating train is reaching its destination ready for the train journey back.  Sorry, if they offer seat reservations then they really should put them out IMO^▸ (in my opinion), otherwise dont offer them at all.

[swlines]

Doesnt take 10 minutes to put a few seat reservations out im sure. They often start putting the seat reservations out when the terminating train is reaching its destination ready for the train journey back.  Sorry, if they offer seat reservations then they really should put them out IMO^▸ (in my opinion), otherwise dont offer them at all.

Passing through a train with several hundred reservations all on a little roll of paper can take an awful long amount of time. Seat reservations can only be printed at a station with a suitable terminal, for my area (SWT^▸ (South West Trains)) that is only really Weymouth, Exeter, Bournemouth and London Waterloo. If the demand is high enough, the printer is broken OR there are networking difficulties with the National Reservation System/Service then no reservations can be printed for certain trains obviously.

If seat reservations are not offered on certain services, then advance purchase is likewise not available on said services. Put it this way, seat reservations are issued so that no more than the trains booked capacity is issued. Therefore all passengers with a reservation should be able to obtain a seat except in the possibility where it is a busy train. Either way, if they're not on display then no reservations apply.

[Ollie]

Besides the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) really should put seat reservations out for those that have reserved seats. Even if they are complimentry and at no extra cost to the passenger, its good customer service.

In certain circumstances with a tight turnaround, especially with a late inbound train, is it more important to get that train out again on time or delay it another 10 minutes so reservations can be put on?

Doesnt take 10 minutes to put a few seat reservations out im sure. They often start putting the seat reservations out when the terminating train is reaching its destination ready for the train journey back.  Sorry, if they offer seat reservations then they really should put them out IMO^▸ (in my opinion), otherwise dont offer them at all.

Doesn't take 10 minutes? lol, ok then.. try saying that for a fully reserved Paddington - Penzance..

[swlines]

Doesn't take 10 minutes? lol, ok then.. try saying that for a fully reserved Paddington - Penzance..

More like 30 minutes....

[Jez]

Besides the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) really should put seat reservations out for those that have reserved seats. Even if they are complimentry and at no extra cost to the passenger, its good customer service.

In certain circumstances with a tight turnaround, especially with a late inbound train, is it more important to get that train out again on time or delay it another 10 minutes so reservations can be put on?

Doesnt take 10 minutes to put a few seat reservations out im sure. They often start putting the seat reservations out when the terminating train is reaching its destination ready for the train journey back.  Sorry, if they offer seat reservations then they really should put them out IMO^▸ (in my opinion), otherwise dont offer them at all.

Doesn't take 10 minutes? lol, ok then.. try saying that for a fully reserved Paddington - Penzance..

I was talking about reserved seats they have on the ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC)) service from Manchester to West Wales. Ive seen the conductor put them out after the train leaves Stockport ready for the return journey back to West Wales. So they are there ready for when the train arrives at Manchester.

Obviously an 8 car 125 service would take longer if the entire train was reserved.

[swlines]

that's because for those routes reservations are printed in advance at Cardiff iirc.
 

[Ollie]

Besides the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) really should put seat reservations out for those that have reserved seats. Even if they are complimentry and at no extra cost to the passenger, its good customer service.

In certain circumstances with a tight turnaround, especially with a late inbound train, is it more important to get that train out again on time or delay it another 10 minutes so reservations can be put on?

Doesnt take 10 minutes to put a few seat reservations out im sure. They often start putting the seat reservations out when the terminating train is reaching its destination ready for the train journey back.  Sorry, if they offer seat reservations then they really should put them out IMO^▸ (in my opinion), otherwise dont offer them at all.

Doesn't take 10 minutes? lol, ok then.. try saying that for a fully reserved Paddington - Penzance..

I was talking about reserved seats they have on the ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC)) service from Manchester to West Wales. Ive seen the conductor put them out after the train leaves Stockport ready for the return journey back to West Wales. So they are there ready for when the train arrives at Manchester.

Obviously an 8 car 125 service would take longer if the entire train was reserved.

Sorry didn't realise that ATW service had been brought into the topic, still thought it was related to the lack or reservations on a Cardiff - Paddington service.

[Jez]

Besides the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) really should put seat reservations out for those that have reserved seats. Even if they are complimentry and at no extra cost to the passenger, its good customer service.

In certain circumstances with a tight turnaround, especially with a late inbound train, is it more important to get that train out again on time or delay it another 10 minutes so reservations can be put on?

Doesnt take 10 minutes to put a few seat reservations out im sure. They often start putting the seat reservations out when the terminating train is reaching its destination ready for the train journey back.  Sorry, if they offer seat reservations then they really should put them out IMO^▸ (in my opinion), otherwise dont offer them at all.

Doesn't take 10 minutes? lol, ok then.. try saying that for a fully reserved Paddington - Penzance..

I was talking about reserved seats they have on the ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC)) service from Manchester to West Wales. Ive seen the conductor put them out after the train leaves Stockport ready for the return journey back to West Wales. So they are there ready for when the train arrives at Manchester.

Obviously an 8 car 125 service would take longer if the entire train was reserved.

Sorry didn't realise that ATW service had been brought into the topic, still thought it was related to the lack or reservations on a Cardiff - Paddington service.

Sorry, I was just using ATW service as an example as thats the main TOC I travel with.

[bemmy]

In India they paste a printout of all the reservations for a carriage by the door on the outside of the carriage. That way people with reservations can confirm they're in the right place (it even displays your name) and people without reservations can easily identify available seats for their journey without having to walk down the train looking at individual tickets (or, in the case of Voyagers, waiting half a minute at each seat while it says "This.... seat.... is.... available.... till.... Newton.... Abbott...." ).

It also means someone can paste up the reservations for a 25 coach train in about 10 minutes.

[Btline]

That is one advantage of the Vomiters - the reservation can be flicked on in a click.

No, ignore that - the screen is too small*, so scrolling letters are used, which people take ages to read, blocking the aisle and delaying the train!

And they break down too often.

*I mean for "this seat is not reserved" - the one that most people stop to read!

Yet another design fault with the vomiters.

[swlines]

Don't see why Vomits don't show Seat Not Reserved ....

Problem with Vomits, if the first download didn't work (of the reservations) - the system tends to not let it download it a second time.

[Super Guard]

Doesnt take 10 minutes to put a few seat reservations out im sure. They often start putting the seat reservations out when the terminating train is reaching its destination ready for the train journey back.  Sorry, if they offer seat reservations then they really should put them out IMO^▸ (in my opinion), otherwise dont offer them at all.

I'm sorry, but when you've been given a pile of reservations to do, that haven't been pre-sorted and wripped, it can take a while to get them all out - remember the member of staff doing this is the same member of staff who also cleans your train so what do you want doing in a short turnaround time?  Cleaning? Reservations? Getting the return service out ASAP?  What do you think FGW^▸ (First Great Western)/XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))/any TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) is going to prioritise?  The overall cost of a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) delay is OVER ^100 PER MINUTE.

As we all know FGW is being watched by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about), so on-time performance will always be top (after safety of course.)

Edited to add: Read that you weren't referring to FGW in this case.

[swlines]

And don't forget any impacted delay minute that impacts any other services is ^100 per minute on each of those trains too!

[Super Guard]

Very true 

[GaryM]

Is it just me or do other commuters with travel cards get increasingly tired and fed up of boarding a train at Paddington in the evening only to find that virtually every seat in every carriage has a reservation ticket on and there is nowhere to sit? So you either take a chance and sit in a reserved seat with the risk of being kicked out if the person who reserved the seat turns up, or you sit there without being kicked out and wonder why on earth someone booked a seat and then didn't turn up to sit in it The whole setup of seat reservations also causes absolute chaos with people either trying to find their reserved seat, or people without reservations trying to find a non-reserved seat (or a reserved seat in which to "take a chance") It's really not something you need after a long day at work.

I'm a long time commuter on the services to and from London, and both myself and my wife have annual Gold cards spending and extortionate amount of ~^8500 per year between us to travel on these trains but on a number of occasions (which seems to be ever increasing), we have not been able to get a seat on the way home due to virtually the whole train being reserved

Why is it that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) seem to consider the people who pay a huge amount of money up front and guarantee them income in advance to be less important than those who make odd one-off journeys? I can only guess their mentality is that they've already got our money so why should they care when they can rake in even more revenue from one-off journey seat reservation bookings

IMO^▸ (in my opinion), seat reservations should be scrapped (some other companies operating out of London don't even offer seat reservations at all) and it would then be a completely fair system of first come, first served. If you get on the train late and all the seats are taken then that would be your own fault for not arriving early enough. However, to get on a train relatively early only to be greeted by a sea of wall to wall reserved seats that you're not entitled to sit in when you are paying FGW thousands of pounds a year really makes the blood boil

If FGW can't offer a FAIR seating system for ALL it's passengers then they need to look long and hard at either offering some form of compensation to those people who pay thousands up front on travel cards to use their services and can't get a seat due to the ridiculous amount of reserved seats, or they need to give those people the authority to use first class seating on services where the standard class seating is so heavily reserved.

Has anyone already written to or approached FGW over this particular issue? I'm considering doing this myself so it would be good to hear other peoples thoughts and views on this.