Request for advice on travelling to Cornwall in June.

[AM9]

We intend to travel to St Ives on a Friday in June and are concerned that as that is well into the shoulder season, the formation of the train isn't shown (yet) so could be a 9-car, a 2 x 5-car or worst of all a single 5-car. We are focusing on 1C80, the 12:04 to Penzance as so many of the trains involve a change at Plymouth onto a local service. These issues are pushing us towards 1st class but it seems that even then the seating could be difficult. So a couple of questions if somebody could help:

1) If we were to take a chance with standard class tickets in the week, what are the options for upgrading on board, would it have to be a both ways upgrade?​

2) My wife must travel forward facing - I can face either way. From the seating maps online, I can see that there aren't any single table seats facing each other, - they are all airline configuration. I am not keen to pay 1st class for both of us to sit separately in airline for nearly 5 hours. There are of course the twin seats at tables, would I be able to reserve two (either both facing forward or both facing each other) and if I did, what would be the chance of those reservations being honoured on the day?​

The return journey is less critical (1A84) as unless every seat is booked, there's a fair chance of there being some vacant seats at St Erth.

Thanks in anticipation

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

We intend to travel to St Ives on a Friday in June and are concerned that as that is well into the shoulder season, the formation of the train isn't shown (yet) so could be a 9-car, a 2 x 5-car or worst of all a single 5-car. We are focusing on 1C80, the 12:04 to Penzance as so many of the trains involve a change at Plymouth onto a local service. These issues are pushing us towards 1st class but it seems that even then the seating could be difficult. So a couple of questions if somebody could help:

1) If we were to take a chance with standard class tickets in the week, what are the options for upgrading on board, would it have to be a both ways upgrade?​

2) My wife must travel forward facing - I can face either way. From the seating maps online, I can see that there aren't any single table seats facing each other, - they are all airline configuration. I am not keen to pay 1st class for both of us to sit separately in airline for nearly 5 hours. There are of course the twin seats at tables, would I be able to reserve two (either both facing forward or both facing each other) and if I did, what would be the chance of those reservations being honoured on the day?​

The return journey is less critical (1A84) as unless every seat is booked, there's a fair chance of there being some vacant seats at St Erth.

Thanks in anticipation

If you get advance tickets you will have a seat reservation which would mean you can sit down whether on a 5 or 9 car service.
If you get other tickets and you're unhappy with the train's formation there is nothing to stop you waiting for another train.

Seatfrog bids are approximately £10-£12 per person on GWR journeys with a fairly high success rate compared to more competitive auctions such as peak London Manchester/Leeds/Scotland services.

The 12:04 has been a nine carriage set every weekday this week, whether the May timetable change will alter this remains to be seen but seems unlikely considering GWR are apparently trying to increase the length of HSS in Cornwall.

 

[AM9]

If you get advance tickets you will have a seat reservation which would mean you can sit down whether on a 5 or 9 car service.
If you get other tickets and you're unhappy with the train's formation there is nothing to stop you waiting for another train.

Seatfrog bids are approximately £10-£12 per person on GWR journeys with a fairly high success rate compared to more competitive auctions such as peak London Manchester/Leeds/Scotland services.

The 12:04 has been a nine carriage set every weekday this week, whether the May timetable change will alter this remains to be seen but seems unlikely considering GWR are apparently trying to increase the length of HSS in Cornwall.

I prefer to travel on a flexible ticket, both for journeys through Zone 1 and for personal convenience. On a journey as I've described, there's no problem reserving seats, but sometimes operating issues on the GW SWML can force a significant change of stock, the worst case being a 9 or 10-car consist being replaced by a 5-car offering which on a summer day can quickly result in displaced reservations. Waiting another hour for a train is not acceptable, especially when the 11:04, unlike the 12:04 ex PAD doesn't run through to Penzance requiring a change at Plymouth.
I would like to know what upgrade can a guard offer from a standard saver to enable first class travel on the outward journey, i.e. would it be for just the outward leg or would a full upgrade be the only option?[/QUOTE]

 

[yorkie]

We intend to travel to St Ives on a Friday in June and are concerned that as that is well into the shoulder season, the formation of the train isn't shown (yet) so could be a 9-car, a 2 x 5-car or worst of all a single 5-car. We are focusing on 1C80, the 12:04 to Penzance as so many of the trains involve a change at Plymouth onto a local service. These issues are pushing us towards 1st class but it seems that even then the seating could be difficult. So a couple of questions if somebody could help:

1) If we were to take a chance with standard class tickets in the week, what are the options for upgrading on board, would it have to be a both ways upgrade?​

It can be done one-way. The official rule is as follows:

The difference between the price already paid and the sum of the appropriate Standard Single for one leg and the appropriate First Single for the other leg. If cheaper, charge the difference up to the appropriate First Return for the journey (as if upgrading for both directions).

In practice the staff might come up with a more affordable and pragmatic solution if there are mitigating circumstances e.g. if you booked seats in Standard and your seats didn't exist or reservations not honoured and there was spare capacity in 1st. If it comes to it, it's certainly worth asking the staff on the train.

2) My wife must travel forward facing - I can face either way. From the seating maps online, I can see that there aren't any single table seats facing each other, - they are all airline configuration. I am not keen to pay 1st class for both of us to sit separately in airline for nearly 5 hours. There are of course the twin seats at tables, would I be able to reserve two (either both facing forward or both facing each other) and if I did, what would be the chance of those reservations being honoured on the day?​

Yes, if you book with a retailer that offers a seat selector you can get this when you book. Failing that you can visit a ticket office.

There is a very good chance of such reservations being honoured; reservation displays on 8xx series trains on all the operators I've used them on seem to be more reliable than other trains with displays (e.g. Voyagers) in my experience.

You may want to arrive at the station in good time and it might be advantageous to use the bridge (you will probably arrive off the H&C platforms?) rather than the concourse, but that may depend on luggage you have and which platform the train goes from. You probably know this already, but you can use sites such as Traksy to figure out which platform your train is on before it is advertised

 

[AM9]

It can be done one-way. The official rule is as follows:


In practice the staff might come up with a more affordable and pragmatic solution if there are mitigating circumstances e.g. if you booked seats in Standard and your seats didn't exist or reservations not honoured and there was spare capacity in 1st. If it comes to it, it's certainly worth asking the staff on the train.


Yes, if you book with a retailer that offers a seat selector you can get this when you book. Failing that you can visit a ticket office.

There is a very good chance of such reservations being honoured; reservation displays on 8xx series trains on all the operators I've used them on seem to be more reliable than other trains with displays (e.g. Voyagers) in my experience.

You may want to arrive at the station in good time and it might be advantageous to use the bridge (you will probably arrive off the H&C platforms?) rather than the concourse, but that may depend on luggage you have and which platform the train goes from. You probably know this already, but you can use sites such as Traksy to figure out which platform your train is on before it is advertised

Thaks Yorkie, that just the kind of response that I was looking for. In previous holiday trips to the South West we've travelled from Farringdon to Paddington by Circle/Hammersmith & City so we are used to using the bridge. This time we may just be lucky and use Crossrail which brings us up by platform 1.

I've checked with GWR at Paddington who say that the ticket office there can accomodate our reservation requirements (i.e. choosing which seats) but if I don't get a chance to travel to London in the next few weeks I will try an online seat selector. Can you tell me which of them do offer that facility please?

 

[sonic2009]

Thaks Yorkie, that just the kind of response that I was looking for. In previous holiday trips to the South West we've travelled from Farringdon to Paddington by Circle/Hammersmith & City so we are used to using the bridge. This time we may just be lucky and use Crossrail which brings us up by platform 1.

I've checked with GWR at Paddington who say that the ticket office there can accomodate our reservation requirements (i.e. choosing which seats) but if I don't get a chance to travel to London in the next few weeks I will try an online seat selector. Can you tell me which of them do offer that facility please?

Have you tried to ask GWR on Twitter for seat reservations they may be able to help?

 

[AM9]

Have you tried to ask GWR on Twitter for seat reservations they may be able to help?

Thanks, but I don't use twitter (I could say 'unfortuantely I don't' on rare occasions).

 

[yorkie]

Thaks Yorkie, that just the kind of response that I was looking for. In previous holiday trips to the South West we've travelled from Farringdon to Paddington by Circle/Hammersmith & City so we are used to using the bridge. This time we may just be lucky and use Crossrail which brings us up by platform 1.

I've checked with GWR at Paddington who say that the ticket office there can accomodate our reservation requirements (i.e. choosing which seats) but if I don't get a chance to travel to London in the next few weeks I will try an online seat selector. Can you tell me which of them do offer that facility please?

As far as I am aware the only one that will do this for GWR (and indeed any TOC which allows reservations) is Trainsplit (and any variants of Trainsplit which use the same booking engine)

(For completeness for anyone else reading this, XC, Avanti and LNER also offer seat selection but only for their own trains)

Have you tried to ask GWR on Twitter for seat reservations they may be able to help?

Thanks, but I don't use twitter (I could say 'unfortuantely I don't' on rare occasions).

If you send me the details of your request via conversation message I am happy to contact them via the forum's Twitter account if you like

 

[sonic2009]

As far as I am aware the only one that will do this for GWR (and indeed any TOC which allows reservations) is Trainsplit (and any variants of Trainsplit which use the same booking engine)

(For completeness for anyone else reading this, XC, Avanti and LNER also offer seat selection but only for their own trains)


If you send me the details of your request via conversation message I am happy to contact them via the forum's Twitter account if you like

I was just about to suggest this as well, great shout to use the forums twitter account.