ATW. No reservations. Look what happens.....

[island]

As already mentioned above, reservations are provided for walk-up tickets but not for advance tickets. Your purchase above is a walk-up ticket.

 

[trainophile]

The term 'walk-up' is a bit misleading here, as obviously you can't walk into a station and buy a ticket to catch the next ATW train, and get a seat reservation.

I'd heard that the reason they stopped doing reserved seats was because it wasn't known that far in advance what rolling stock would be on what service up to 12 weeks ahead. However I'm not sure why this is peculiar to ATW, as I'm sure other TOCs have a variety of units in service too, although maybe not quite such a wide diversity.

 

[swt_passenger]

No it's not - the same applies to LM as already mentioned.

... SWT's advances also only reserve the train, not a seat. There may be other TOCs do this.

 

[island]

The term 'walk-up' is a bit misleading here, as obviously you can't walk into a station and buy a ticket to catch the next ATW train, and get a seat reservation.

I'd heard that the reason they stopped doing reserved seats was because it wasn't known that far in advance what rolling stock would be on what service up to 12 weeks ahead. However I'm not sure why this is peculiar to ATW, as I'm sure other TOCs have a variety of units in service too, although maybe not quite such a wide diversity.

I'm not sure what term to use besides "walk-up" for tickets which are normally valid for one use on any train or a number of trains within the period of validity and which can be refunded at a £10 admin fee

I'm also not sure the reason you suggest makes sense, as you can obtain a seat reservation today for a walk-up ticket booked for February.

 

[bnm]

I'm surprised you can still breathe upon that sky high horse of yours :roll:

Like I said. Court of RailUK passes its verdict.

That despite none of you 'hang 'em high' types being either at the incident or in court.

Those that were gave their evidence and the magistrates decided on the guilt of the person accused. By finding the defendant not guilty and of using reasonable force and self defence it rather begs the question as to what the presumed injured party's actions were, does it not?

But no, we have a news report, not a transcript from the court or an eyewitness account of the alleged incident. And from that we get: "violent preacher gets off scot-free" here from the majority of posters.

Sheep. The lot of you. Bandwagon indignation. Praise be that none of you (I hope) are in the judiciary.

 

[185]

The reservation tags say there's a £200 penalty for "unauthorised removal of this label" and £50 for "unauthorised occupation of this seat". I'd love to know if anyone has actually been charged this.

It would have been nice if there was a seat reservation to maliciously remove in the first place. ATW have juggled contracts between ISS and a few others including employing the daytime turnaround (not night) cleaners directly for a brief period.

With staff shortages and no contingency plan, many Chester guards mentioned trains have been running around in a filthy state on many occasions over the last few months.

 

[6Gman]

... SWT's advances also only reserve the train, not a seat. There may be other TOCs do this.

But how can you "reserve the train"? In this context it has no meaning! People have tried to explain this ATW "your seat reservation is Coach ** Seat ** business" but it mystifies me!

(And I'm a 4th generation railwayman )

 

[jones_bangor]

It is annoying when you catch a peak time 2 coach 175 out of Cardiff Central to find loads of the seats "reserved" - usually, and please don't take offence at this, by persons of older years who probably like to buy their ticket in person, reserve their seat etc.

Meanwhile, we who use internet based ticket purchasing have no option (nor time to drive to station) to reserve said seats.

Plus ATW have their generous Club 55+ tickets.....maybe I'm missing something!!

 

[trainophile]

I'm also not sure the reason you suggest makes sense, as you can obtain a seat reservation today for a walk-up ticket booked for February.

You only have to follow ATW on Twitter to see their almost daily list of 2-coach for 3-coach substitutions. I've been on trains where people have been wandering through in a bewildered state, double-checking their reservation coupons, looking for Coach A,B or C, when so such coach exists.

If it's as unreliable as this for even "walk-up" passengers, it's little wonder they attempt to obviate it for services a couple of months away.

Half the time the paper seat-back slips are all over the floor anyway. I prefer not to get a seat reservation with my Advance tickets as I dislike table seats and window seats and prefer travelling forwards, so would rather choose my own seat when I board.

Having said that, it's a lot simpler when travelling alone, as if the train is full I can slot in anywhere, but if you're a couple or a family then it does make sense to reserve.

 

[455driver]

What violence? I'll mention it again. Defendant was found not guilty having used reasonable force in self defence.

Not guilty does not mean innocent though does it!

Its not a question of what they know but what they can prove.

 

[Searle]

Like I said. Court of RailUK passes its verdict.

That despite none of you 'hang 'em high' types being either at the incident or in court.

Those that were gave their evidence and the magistrates decided on the guilt of the person accused. By finding the defendant not guilty and of using reasonable force and self defence it rather begs the question as to what the presumed injured party's actions were, does it not?

But no, we have a news report, not a transcript from the court or an eyewitness account of the alleged incident. And from that we get: "violent preacher gets off scot-free" here from the majority of posters.

Sheep. The lot of you. Bandwagon indignation. Praise be that none of you (I hope) are in the judiciary.

oh please stop taking a forum discussion so seriously, it's just cringey

 

[Starmill]

Yes, this. AGA, SWT, and a few other TOCs sell advances and offer nobody reservations. This is all the same for everyone. ATW offers seat reservations to all booking office customers and to all walk-up ticket holders, but online advance ticket purchasers don't get one.

Do you have to visit an Arriva Trains Wales ticket office? Because I have bought ATW advances a few times from a Northern ticket office, but I've been given the same 'counted place' reservations as one gets online. Or is it something in Northern's TIS/the fact they don't know how to do it?

 

[bb21]

Like I said. Court of RailUK passes its verdict.

Of course we do.

What else are we supposed to do? Not discuss the matter at all, since none of us were there? At the end of the day it is all opinions anyway. Some I/you agree with, some I/you don't. No one has access to 100% information regarding anything they discuss. If there is more to this story, and we all have full access to it, people's opinions may well be different.

 

[bnm]

Of course we do.

What else are we supposed to do? Not discuss the matter at all, since none of us were there? At the end of the day it is all opinions anyway. Some I/you agree with, some I/you don't. No one has access to 100% information regarding anything they discuss. If there is more to this story, and we all have full access to it, people's opinions may well be different.

My point is that so many of the posters earlier in the thread rounded on an individual who was found not guilty of any offence with that verdict given on the basis that it was reasonable force used in self defence.

That's why I challenged the assertions that this was violence. That's why I asked why the Catholic Church needed to take any action. There is nothing to sweep under the carpet as was suggested. There was no evidence from the report of playing the religious card to obtain court sympathy.

All supposition which I addressed for balance. I try not to base my opinion on supposition. Or if I am, I make it clear I'm guessing.

 

[island]

Do you have to visit an Arriva Trains Wales ticket office? Because I have bought ATW advances a few times from a Northern ticket office, but I've been given the same 'counted place' reservations as one gets online. Or is it something in Northern's TIS/the fact they don't know how to do it?

I'll have to defer to someone who's less than 100 miles from a Northern or ATW booking office

 

[Tracky]

Any ticket office that can issue reservations should be able to issue a reservation only, if presented with a valid ticket....

 

[island]

Doing so for an Advance ticket may incur a £10 change fee.

 

[headshot119]

Doing so for an Advance ticket may incur a £10 change fee.

Consistently when I've taken advance tickets booked online to ATW ticket offices they try and charge me £10 per seat. And that was on a straw poll survery of six.

Personally I think it's ridiculous to try and charge considering it would have been free if you'd have done it at the booking office originally.

You can debate it or disagree, but I personally don't always want to risk waiting till I have a chance to go to an open booking office when a cheap advance fare can be booked online.

 

[Squaddie]

It is annoying when you catch a peak time 2 coach 175 out of Cardiff Central to find loads of the seats "reserved" - usually, and please don't take offence at this, by persons of older years who probably like to buy their ticket in person, reserve their seat etc.

I don't really understand why you would be annoyed by the age of the people with reserved seats.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

Politeness costs nothing, and I suspect this guy's got away with it by hamming up his religious connections to the Bench.

As someone who is religious (CoE) and takes it seriously. Assulting someone over a seat reservation is taking it a bit far, if it were me who had someone sitting in my seat I would politley ask if they could move to another seat and if they refused I would ask the guard for advice on what actions to take.

One thing I will mention that the Catholic Church does go to the extremes though (CoE is far safer, anyway moving on) the bloke probably lost his rag over the fact that his church ran out of holy water and used his reserved ticket as an excuse to assult the other passenger.

 

[PaxVobiscum]

As already mentioned above, reservations are provided for walk-up tickets but not for advance tickets. Your purchase above is a walk-up ticket.

Yes, sorry - I don't know why I failed to notice or remember the ticket type. Maybe it was because I did book them up 3-4 weeks early. You are quite right of course and I was havering.

 

[thelongestroad]

I know some people think they are great, but I believe the poorly managed ATW franchise has had it's day.

For a moment I thought I was reading from a Bob Crowe quote then..

 

[Waverley125]

the seat reservations you receive when booking a ticket, have printed on them 'Valid with travel ticket' in big letters.

Even if the reservation coupons have not been put out by the train crew, anyone who can present their reservation ticket has a right to the seat. The reservation is not voided due to the lack of time to put coupons out, it is merely non-apparent to passengers without reservations which seats are reserved and which are not.

 

[IanD]

the seat reservations you receive when booking a ticket, have printed on them 'Valid with travel ticket' in big letters.

Even if the reservation coupons have not been put out by the train crew, anyone who can present their reservation ticket has a right to the seat. The reservation is not voided due to the lack of time to put coupons out, it is merely non-apparent to passengers without reservations which seats are reserved and which are not.

You'll never win that argument on here!

 

[westv]

I thought that if there isn't time for seat tickets to be set out then no reservations apply to that particular train. Not sure about other TOCs but isn't that why EC sometimes mention that a particular train has no reservations.

 

[bb21]

the seat reservations you receive when booking a ticket, have printed on them 'Valid with travel ticket' in big letters.

Even if the reservation coupons have not been put out by the train crew, anyone who can present their reservation ticket has a right to the seat. The reservation is not voided due to the lack of time to put coupons out, it is merely non-apparent to passengers without reservations which seats are reserved and which are not.

I disagree completely, however I have no intention of getting into a debate about it again, as we have been through this numerous times before.

 

[williamus]

I know we're talking about ATW and I hesitate to talk about Crosscountry in glowing terms, but I've just come back from a Totnes/Birmingham trip with tickets booked a couple of weeks in advance and not only were designated seats provided, I was able to go online and change the seat offered (to avoid the Voyager pillar-in-the-window effect).

As an aside, Crossountry now charge for collecting tickets at a TVM - I believe the only way to get them free on-line is an e-ticket printed at home.

 

[Hyphen]

Only on journeys which allow e-ticket do they seem to charge, which looks to be advances. Where it doesn't allow you to get an e-ticket, collection from TVM is still free.

Of course, if e-tickets aren't your thing, other retailers will sell you the exact same ticket for the exact same price and allow you to collect for free.

 

[island]

the seat reservations you receive when booking a ticket, have printed on them 'Valid with travel ticket' in big letters.

Even if the reservation coupons have not been put out by the train crew, anyone who can present their reservation ticket has a right to the seat. The reservation is not voided due to the lack of time to put coupons out, it is merely non-apparent to passengers without reservations which seats are reserved and which are not.

That is something that generates a lot of heated discussion on this forum! Staff will sometimes announce that reservations are not being upheld on the train.

 

[185]

For a moment I thought I was reading from a Bob Crowe quote then..

ATW are poop. Well, so sayeth the papers :P
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=93736