Your seat is no longer your seat.

[whole diary]

[BandHcommuter]

I think you can also reserve at ticket offices up till 10 minutes before departure - so just remember to do so when you buy your ticket?

Not sure about ticket offices, but the self-service ticket machines which I use certainly don't provide this facility. It looks like the text option is my best bet in future. I found a good alternative on my last trip back from Manchester: Arriva Trains Wales to Newport and change for Bristol. A longer journey, but very pleasant and comfortable, and a choice of empty, unreserved seats throughout the journey.

[Southern Stag]

I think you can also reserve at ticket offices up till 10 minutes before departure - so just remember to do so when you buy your ticket?

I agree it's a pain though, but not so difficult once you get used to their way of doing things. I have never failed to obtain a reservation using the 10 minute booking when I think it'll be busy, only once has someone had to move.....

I don't think you can reserve at a ticket office ten minutes before hand. Lots of people see the ten minute reservation system as the problem rather than the solution anyway.

[trainer]

Lots of people see the ten minute reservation system as the problem rather than the solution anyway.

Exactly so.

[stuving]

If designing new, I'd suggest each display has an LED adjacent to it, coloured (e.g.) Green (or maybe unlit) if the seat is Unreserved, Yellow if it is reserved later in the journey, and Red if it's reserved from this, or a previous, stop. In doing so, we've replicated, and improved on, the main functionality of paper tickets. The displays should be of sufficient size to display information without scrolling.

Of course, I've entered fantasy land. However, under the constraints of the current displays, it's clear a lot more thought could be put in to it. If you have scrolling text, every letter counts. I'd suggest carefully thinking about the exact phrasing, abbreviation station names as appropriate (reservations until Bristol Parkway and/or Bristol TM^‡(resolve) might be better displayed as just Bristol, for example). And the apparent switch to just displaying "Reserved Later" is demonstrably silly.

This is what is in the IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) specification:

TS640 The automatic seat reservation system must deliver the following functionality:

• interface directly with the Relevant Operator^s seat reservation system (which shall be assumed to be the same as the national seat reservation system). The reservation system shall utilise this data to maintain the reservation database for each IEP Train; 
• automatic remote download of reservation data via a communications link immediately prior to the start of a timetabled journey within a maximum of 5 minutes after the service to be operated has been confirmed to the IEP Train; 
• allow on board train crew to load or update seat reservation data for that IEP Train; 
• displays for each seat must indicate whether that seat is free, reserved for part of or for the remainder of the journey. The method of display must be easy for passengers to interpret quickly when boarding, and shall seek to convey an overall impression of
  the extent of reserved and unreserved seats within the saloon; and 
• displays must be automatically updated throughout a journey to indicate the current reservation status for the remainder of the journey.

Presumably that represents what the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) and DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) think ought to be provided.

It does not look to me quite like the results of modern system design practice, meaning that you start by describing who uses it, what for, and what they are doing. If I try that, I get:

Passengers with reserved seats: strictly they need nothing, other than to easily find their carriage (displays inside and out required for IEP) and seat (no requirement for numbering!). Since we all know it needs to show "reserved" for other reasons, these passengers need it to do so too. Also, if there is a dispute, they need something to point to (see below).

Passengers without reservations: need to easily pick out seats free now, and if possible for their journey. Without reservations during the journey, the minimum is "free until x" or "reserved". Having "reserved until y" is better if you may have to stand and wait for a seat.

If you add reserving seats during the journey, that possibility could be indicated by static signs or the display. However, if there are unreservable seats, they need to be indicated.

If there is any dispute, both passengers and train staff need what has already been defined. If extra information can be provided, e.g. origin and time of reservation, that may help staff in particular sort out who is right, but also to spot system errors or the results of abuse of the system. A case can be made for such extra information to be provided only to staff.

Note that I agree the wording needs come care - the TOCs might not like "free", but labels including "reserved" plus qualifications do get rather long, and there are few good alternatives.

In addition to spec. item 4 in TS640 above, there is more help on offer to find free seats.  The IEP specification also includes a passenger counting capability, which surprises me - I had no idea that is now reliable enough to support this feature:

TS1931 The PIS^▸ (Passenger Information System) must utilise the data from the passenger counting system to indicate to passengers within the IEP Train the status of the occupancy of each IEP Vehicle.

It occurs to me that passengers would find life a lot easier if most trains used their displays in the same way. That could emerge from the national ticketing setup, though that looks unlikely at the moment. It should not be difficult to alter trains already in service, since this is "only software".

(PIS = Passenger Information System)

[Fourbee]

Passengers without reservations: need to easily pick out seats free now

Made me think of this system in use in Gunwharf Quays (Portsmouth) car park. Wonder if it could be adapted for use in a train? Lights hang over each bay and show red when occupied and green when free. Also, drivers can be directed at junctions to another area where a defined amount of spaces are available.

Illustrated in this blog:
http://cherrybyte.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/car-park-signing-in-gunwharf-quays.html
And a closer picture of the lights:
http://stuartmale.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/parking-lights-1.jpg?w=640

I think there is a similar system in use at some Heathrow T5 car parks.

[readytostart]

Always worth remembering is that on a five car XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) Voyager the whole of coach B will be fully unreserved, on a four car there are usually batches of unreserved seats in the high numbers of coach C which will only be booked if specifically requested or if the journey being made cannot be accommodated in one of the lower numbered seats, ie someone wanting a seat from Cheltenham to Edinburgh but all the other seats are booked Plymouth to Birmingham. Along with that there are seats in coaches C and D which do not have reservation screens and are therefore never reserved.

The problem with the system is that it keeps being tinkered with by people who don't have to work the trains and deal with the aftermath. The current display set up now not only has to download all the reservations to the train (using nothing more technical than an old dial up modem) but also has to download text and stations for each seat when it 'may be reserved later'. This is a nightmare when trying to download in an area of poor signal, with the train sometimes just 'giving up' half way through the download due to a disconnected phone line.

The problem is most likely going to get worse as XC try to move people towards purchasing tickets from the XC website and ticketing app, both of which offer reservations on the day. XC are not fans of passengers purchasing open tickets at booking offices, as although it may be the traveller's intention to only travel on CrossCountry services, they still need to pay the seller's fee to another TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company), I believe 9% is the rate for that. Not a problem so long as it's an hour before departure from the originating station as it will show in the initial download, but afterwards, although the train dials up to check for new information and in theory reservation displays will be updated, in practice, there's already so much data in the train management system, that it doesn't recognise the odd new reservation

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for posting those very informed points in explanation of the problems, readytostart! 

[readytostart]

It also doesn't help that it went from a trial of eight standard and two first class seats per train to almost the whole train despite there not being the demand for it. Personally I would have thought that a phased introduction in line with rising demand would have been better. Even then I would have always left a designated area where seats could never be reserved.

[JayMac]

Of course, the major problem is that the CrossCountry network currently has insufficient capacity versus the number of people wishing to travel on it.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the architects of Voyagerisation and Operation Princess in the early/mid 2000s (Virgin, the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about), and the worst culprit, Richard Bowker, first with Virgin and then the SRA^» (Strategic Rail Authority - about)) didn't foresee or plan for future growth.

Increasing frequency was all well and good, but there was little consideration given to additional bums on seats.

[trainer]

There was never a truer posting than this. I wholeheartedly agree.

[brompton rail]

 I do believe that it was DaFT^» (Department for Transport - critical sounding abbreviation I discourage - about) that would not permit Virgin XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) to obtain further Voyagers (or carriages), though I am unable to quote chapter and verse.

A similar situation to First TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) who wishes to order more Class 185s than DaFT would agree to. Subsequently fTPE were given the Manchester Glasgow/Edinburgh routes with no additional stock. This results in gross overcrowding on many services between Manchester and Leeds, and Manchester and Sheffield - e.g. 1520 Manchester Piccadilly to Cleethorpes (Doncaster only at the moment) is a single two car 170 which is full and standing from Manchester, and full and "all breath in and out at the same time please" from Sheffield at 1611.

[John R]

Though the TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) situation will soon be eased as the Scottish services become electric releasing the Class 185s for strengthening of their other services.

[readytostart]

Increasing frequency was all well and good, but there was little consideration given to additional bums on seats.

Well, there is a reason why no XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) Voyager had a coach E, was initially a plan to increase the four cars to five (adding a coach B) and the five cars to six (adding a coach E) but the DFT^▸ (Department for Transport) refused to fund it.

[chuffed]

Travelled Bristol TM^‡(resolve) to Paignton last Sunday afternoon at 1615. My ticket said Coach F35A Reserved. Someone else was sat in it with white earphones in. Then I discovered that the train seats had numbers that were different to the numbers next to the scrolling displays. So which do you follow... the electronic gizmo or the numbers on the seats ?. I gave up and sat in an empty seat and my print at home ticket was given just the briefest cursory glance on the barriers at TM. It was so small(one quarter of a A4 sheet) that I know he couldn't have read it properly. No one else looked at it except me when I threw it away at journeys end.

Conversely the return ticket was scrutinised as if it was the Magana Carta at Paignton, on board by the Train Manager and at the exit barrier at TM. In fact the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) woman brandishing the barrier card  took so long looking at it, I asked to be let through !. The scrolling displays continued to advertise the reservations for the completed down  journey, long after we left Paignton this morning. As a result people were just shrugging their shoulders and sitting anywhere !

[bobm]

The XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) HST^▸ (High Speed Train) I caught from Plymouth to Totnes on Friday had both the electronic displays and the paper reservations in use.

The seat next to me had a seat top ticket reserving the seat from Newton Abbot to Birmingham New Street and the display said it was available until Newton Abbot which obviously ties in but it caused a few delays as some people stopped to read both bits of information above a seat before deciding to sit down and clear the aisle.