Avanti introduces social distancing measures on its trains

[whole diary]

[grahame]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52670790

Rail passengers have been urged not turn up without an advance ticket and to wear face coverings when they travel on the West Coast Mainline.

Avanti West Coast made the announcement as part of new social distancing on its services between Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds.
Passengers might be refused travel if the guidelines are not followed.

The measures take effect on Monday and Avanti says it may not allow carriages to be more than a quarter full.

"We're appealing to our valued customers to help us and other passengers by only travelling with a reservation," said Avanti West Coast's managing director Phil Whittingham.

"If everyone does this, we'll be able to keep social distancing in place on board, both for our customers and our people.

"If customers do turn up without a reservation, we'll do our best to help but we can't guarantee they'll be able to take the train they want."

Because of this, the train operator is asking passengers to book in advance on the Avanti mobile app where possible, to avoid using facilities at the station or handling cash.

I think you can reserve on all Avanti trains?  Essentially the franchise metrics are like the old Great Western (HST^▸ (High Speed Train)) before Greater Western?

Very interesting to see if a company / brand like London North Western tries the same on trains not reservable (until now?)

Noting article talking about Leeds ... think that's wrong?

[Robin Summerhill]

As I keep banging on about, it will be interesting to see what happens to jorneys of less than 15 minutes such as Warrington/ Wigan/Preston

[grahame]

From Business Traveller

In the case of LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about), which operates almost only mainline trains over the East Coast Main Line, you will find seat reservations are compulsory from 1100 hrs on May 18 when checking Lner.co.uk

This requirement from LNER applies whether you purchased your ticket from LNER, from another TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) or through an online rail agent such as Trainline.

Details are complex so I suggest you refer to each TOC’s website.

LNER Twitter feed:

To support social distancing, our services will be reservation only from Monday. We’ll have full details on our website over the weekend and here’s some tips for those customers who do need to travel with us.

That's - err - rather short notice!
1. You must book your train ahead
2. We've not given you details (much) ahead

[grahame]

And from the Northern Echo ...

LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) said it was ramping up services from Monday and said the safety of staff and passengers remained its 'top priority.'

A spokesperson said: "The safety of our staff and customers is always our top priority.

"To support social distancing for customers who do need to travel with us at this time, all LNER services will be reservation-only from Monday."

To enforce the rules, LNER said it was asking passengers to ignore their reserved seat and to sit in a window seat, with one person per row of four seats, and two empty rows between each passenger.

People travelling as a household will be allowed to sit together but must maintain "a safe distance" from other passengers.

I can see where they're coming from, but feels to be clear as mud.   More a "(train) regulation ticket" than a "(seat) reservation ticket". 

LNER Site says

I've NOT reserved a seat with my ticket:
* If you're travelling before 11am on Monday 18 May you can board as normal and we ask you to adhere to social distancing while in stations and onboard our trains.
* If you're travelling after 11am on Monday 18 May you will need a seat reservation which you will be able to make on our website from Monday morning. Alternatively, you will be able to do this in our station Travel Centres from Monday morning.

I HAVE reserved a seat with my ticket:
* Your existing reservation remains valid but will no longer be linked to a specific seat number. We're asking you to choose your own seat onboard from 11am on Monday 18 May, using our guidance below:

+ Sit at a window seat
+ One person to every two rows to leave a 2-metre gap (one row in First Class)
+ Use alternate sides of the train
+ Avoid facing other passengers

If you are travelling as a household, you can sit together, but please ensure you maintain a safe distance from other customers who are not in your group.

also on that page ...

To help keep you safe when you travel with us and to support social distancing, we are working to ensure a safe number of customers can travel on each of our train services.

To manage this, we are introducing reservation only travel from 11am on Monday 18 May 2020, until further notice. This means that anyone who needs to travel after 11am on Monday, with LNER, will require a seat reservation.

except it's NOT a seat reservation, is it?  It's a train regulation ticket!

... and I'm still being asked for my seating preference when I book (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) engine!)

London Kings Cross to York
Coach H
Seat 42: Quiet coach, No smoking, Window, Forwards

[Robin Summerhill]

There are such things as the thin end of wedges.

I am concerned because both companies that have now announced compulsory reservations have sections of their routes that will be used by short distance commuter and leisure traffic. I dealt with the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) in my post yesterday, and as a further example LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) run all or the vast majority of services on the route from Leeds through Wakefield, Doncaster, Retford, Grantham and Peterborough.

I can see some resistance developing to having to reserve a seat on these shorter runs, and this could discourage traffic, especially the leisure market.

Furthermore (and I could bang on about this as much as some can bang on about buffets...) it is not always possible to know what train(s) you are going to use. How long does a meeting take, for example? How can you specify with any degree of certainty what train you will be using if that would be reliant on connections (eg from other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company), airlines etc)? How long will it take you to go around the shops?

If his procedure looks like it might become permanent, I can see it driving (no pun intended) a lot of people back into their cars.

We could lose 20 years progress in a few months if we’re not careful.

[IndustryInsider]

There should currently be no leisure market, and the idea is to discourage traffic.  I can see no hint of this temporary procedure becoming permanent.

[Robin Summerhill]

There should currently be no leisure market, and the idea is to discourage traffic.  I can see no hint of this temporary procedure becoming permanent.

I hope you are right, but I am concious of this idea being raised on a few occasions before the pandemic started, for example with Virgn's submission to the Williams review.

[plymothian]

There are such things as the thin end of wedges.

I am concerned because both companies that have now announced compulsory reservations have sections of their routes that will be used by short distance commuter and leisure traffic. I dealt with the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) in my post yesterday, and as a further example LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) run all or the vast majority of services on the route from Leeds through Wakefield, Doncaster, Retford, Grantham and Peterborough.

I can see some resistance developing to having to reserve a seat on these shorter runs, and this could discourage traffic, especially the leisure market.

Furthermore (and I could bang on about this as much as some can bang on about buffets...) it is not always possible to know what train(s) you are going to use. How long does a meeting take, for example? How can you specify with any degree of certainty what train you will be using if that would be reliant on connections (eg from other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company), airlines etc)? How long will it take you to go around the shops?

If his procedure looks like it might become permanent, I can see it driving (no pun intended) a lot of people back into their cars.

We could lose 20 years progress in a few months if we’re not careful.

Erm, but compulsory reservations are what leisure travellers have been calling for for years as the trains are always "overbooked" and "dangerously overcrowded".  We're [sic] getting what we've [sic] been moaning for.