Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 17:55 28 Mar 2024
- How do I renew my UK passport and what is the 10-year rule?
- Passengers pleaded with knifeman during attack
* Family anger at sentence on fatal crash driver, 19
- Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
28th Mar (1988)
Woman found murdered on Orpington to London train (*)

Train RunningCancelled
16:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
17:48 Reading to Gatwick Airport
17:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
17:57 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street
18:04 Bristol Temple Meads to Filton Abbey Wood
18:04 Bedwyn to Newbury
18:08 London Paddington to Frome
18:26 Newbury to Bedwyn
18:37 Westbury to Swindon
18:51 Filton Abbey Wood to Bristol Temple Meads
18:55 Bedwyn to Newbury
19:24 Newbury to Bedwyn
19:29 Gatwick Airport to Reading
19:33 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill
19:55 Bedwyn to Newbury
20:13 Swindon to Westbury
20:16 Frome to Westbury
20:49 Newbury to Bedwyn
20:56 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington
21:16 Bedwyn to Newbury
Short Run
14:49 Plymouth to Cardiff Central
15:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
15:15 Plymouth to London Paddington
15:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
15:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
15:42 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
16:19 Carmarthen to London Paddington
16:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
16:35 London Paddington to Plymouth
16:50 Plymouth to London Paddington
17:03 London Paddington to Penzance
17:30 London Paddington to Taunton
17:30 Warminster to Bristol Temple Meads
17:36 Swindon to Westbury
17:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
Delayed
13:59 Cardiff Central to Penzance
14:15 Penzance to London Paddington
14:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
14:36 London Paddington to Paignton
15:03 London Paddington to Penzance
16:03 London Paddington to Penzance
Additional 17:17 Exeter St Davids to Penzance
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 28, 2024, 18:02:40 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[133] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[132] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[53] Return of the BRUTE?
[44] If not HS2 to Manchester, how will traffic be carried?
[41] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[32] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: A forum for passengers ... with input from rail professionals welcomed too
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: Seat reservations - what could possibly go wrong?  (Read 1456 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« on: July 31, 2021, 18:54:41 »

Melksham to Evesham on Thursday. Advance tickets both way, so reserved seats. How did the reservation system work?  I was booked on seven main network trains.
1. Local train without reservations
2. System turned off
3. All Green showing
4. Switch on but my seat showing "available"
5. Paper tags (but my seat taken by a shopping bag!)
6. Correct
7. I had no reservation - used an IET (Intercity Express Train) only because local train cancelled

I did note that reservations seemed to be clumped - especially on train no. 5 (Worcesterhire Parkway to Cheltenham Spa) - all towards one end of the carriage I was in.  I do wonder if this is the best in terms of helping us social distance as much as possible.

Perfect storm of system failures and things going wrong, or something carefully set up by GWR (Great Western Railway) and XC (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) for me, knowing the trains I was on and wanting to help me make an interesting post?
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
broadgage
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 5398



View Profile
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2021, 19:34:53 »

Reservations only work when not really needed.
Half length train, reservations usually automatically voided.
Very busy train, reserved seat liable to be taken by someone else who declines to move. Staff unlikely to help.

Logged

A proper intercity train has a minimum of 8 coaches, gangwayed throughout, with first at one end, and a full sized buffet car between first and standard.
It has space for cycles, surfboards,luggage etc.
A 5 car DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) is not a proper inter-city train. The 5+5 and 9 car DMUs are almost as bad.
trainbuff
Transport Scholar
Sr. Member
******
Posts: 245


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2021, 22:10:17 »

Melksham to Evesham on Thursday. Advance tickets both way, so reserved seats. How did the reservation system work?  I was booked on seven main network trains.
1. Local train without reservations
2. System turned off
3. All Green showing
4. Switch on but my seat showing "available"
5. Paper tags (but my seat taken by a shopping bag!)
6. Correct
7. I had no reservation - used an IET (Intercity Express Train) only because local train cancelled

I did note that reservations seemed to be clumped - especially on train no. 5 (Worcesterhire Parkway to Cheltenham Spa) - all towards one end of the carriage I was in.  I do wonder if this is the best in terms of helping us social distance as much as possible.

Perfect storm of system failures and things going wrong, or something carefully set up by GWR (Great Western Railway) and XC (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) for me, knowing the trains I was on and wanting to help me make an interesting post?

Isnt social distancing finished now?
Logged

Invest in Railways in Devon and Cornwall!
TonyN
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 471



View Profile
« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2021, 22:19:25 »

Quote
I did note that reservations seemed to be clumped - especially on train no. 5 (Worcesterhire Parkway to Cheltenham Spa) - all towards one end of the carriage I was in.  I do wonder if this is the best in terms of helping us social distance as much as possible.

Cross Country Turbostars are the worst case. A couple of weeks ago a was traveling from Pershore to Preston on an E Ticket on my phone that gave me a reservation on the 08:14 Turbostar from Worcestershire Parkway to New street. Of course there was no paper label as I had only bought the ticket 10 minutes before boarding the train.

Also the whole of the area at the standard class end of the train between the doors and the cab is labled not to be used. This achives nothing as the Guard uses the back cab and would be no closer to passengers between the cab and the first set of doors than he is when passing through the rest of the train.
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2021, 07:11:28 »

Isnt social distancing finished now?

Formally, yes - but there is still a recommendation to choose quieter service (leaving customers to guess which those are going to be?) which suggests to me that allowing space remains a good idea.

I am no expert at the spreading of disease, but where there is a continuing strong recommendation to continue to wear face masks, especially in more crowded places, I would have thought that spreading out and keeping good space between people still makes sense.  Or did the virus and physics suddenly change on 19th July?   I have been, and will continue, to sit away from other people when on a bus or train where I can, and would like to see reservation and booking systems allocating seats to help make that happen.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page