Chaos with LNER reservations again

[800001]

I was on a train from Edinburgh recently. Seat reservations not working but everyone told to sit in booked seats. Lots of aggro at every stop with people being evicted. If nothing else, this shows that there are still plenty of walk up passengers.

GWR seem to manage much better. The reservations usually work and, if they don't, people can sit anywhere.

I certainly would not be moving out of a seat if no reservation lights were showing.

No reservation lights to me means sit anywhere

 

[Hadders]

I caught the 16:35 from Kings Cross to Stevenage earlier today. It was a 9-car Azuma. Expecting the train to be very busy I decided to reserve a seat and did this through the LNER app about 16:15.

Upon boarding, about 16:25 the seat reservation screen above my seat showed amber with the current status as 'Available to Stevenage' with next as Stevenage to Wakefield Westgate'. The display did not update at all before I alighted at Stevenage.

Thankfully there was no-one in my seat when I got to it. Had there have been I'm not sure I would have wanted to ask them to vacate it. If seat reservations are going to be available until 5-minutes prior to departure then the onboard displays must be upated dynamically.

 

[800001]

I caught the 16:35 from Kings Cross to Stevenage earlier today. It was a 9-car Azuma. Expecting the train to be very busy I decided to reserve a seat and did thins through the LNER app about 16:15.

Upon boarding, about 16:25 the seat reservation screen above me seat showed amber with the current status as 'Available to Stevenage' with next as Stevenage to Wakefield Westgate'. The display did not update at all before I alighted at Stevenage.

Thankfully there was no-one in my seat when I got to it. Had there have been I'm not sure I would have wanted to ask them to vacate it. If seat reservations are going to be available until 5-minutes prior to departure then the onboard displays must be upated dynamically.

I don't believe that LNER have sorted out 'auto-update' as yet.
So once initial reactions are loaded at Lings Cross which is usually 25-30 minutes before departure, any made after that point do not yet show.

The only way they do update, is if the train manager manually reloads on approach to next station, which should in theory then update any that have been made since initially being loaded.

 

[Senex]

Am I alone in not understanding how it can be that, if the by-laws are clear on a subject (as everyone seems to agree they are on this one) one TOC can simply decide to ignore them and go its own sweet way. Whose job is it to see that the by-laws are observed if not that of the train-crew?

 

[inais20]

Ultimately, here's the problem with LNER's desire to be a reservation-mandatory railway: if they can't even get the basics of running reservations right then what's the point?

I must admit I'm surprised the electronic reservation system on the snazzy-new Azuma fleet can't do realtime updates (yet?). It doesn't seem like a massive technological hurdle!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Ultimately, here's the problem with LNER's desire to be a reservation-mandatory railway: if they can't even get the basics of running reservations right then what's the point?

If they're compulsory then there's no need to display them in theory, it's just a bit of a convenience for those who fancy moving seats for whatever reason. SNCF and Eurostar don't mark reserved seats, nor do PKP (except Pendolinos) where a policy similar to present LNER applies i.e. tickets are sold with a reservation and they aren't marked but can be used on a different train.

 

[Phil Anthtropy]

Saturday morning, 06.40 LNER Leeds to Kings Cross, should have been a 9 car Azuma train, ended up being a 5 car train, cue absolute chaos as reserved seating wasn't operational and people, including elderly, disabled and families ended up having to stand, squashed into the carriages for a journey of over 2 hours.

At one point, there were people standing in first class (luckily, I managed to get a seatfrog upgrade and avoided most of the chaos), many people were angry that despite having booked tickets, and seats, well in advance, they were either made to stand up or asper the announcements, wait for the 07.00 train instead.

I had a quick nap and woke up to find an older woman sat on the floor next to my seat, they had also upgraded a couple of disabled passengers into first class as they were clearly struggling and distressed.

 

[yorkie]

Saturday morning, 06.40 LNER Leeds to Kings Cross, should have been a 9 car Azuma train, ended up being a 5 car train, cue absolute chaos as reserved seating wasn't operational and people, including elderly, disabled and families ended up having to stand, squashed into the carriages for a journey of over 2 hours.

At one point, there were people standing in first class (luckily, I managed to get a seatfrog upgrade and avoided most of the chaos), many people were angry that despite having booked tickets, and seats, well in advance, they were either made to stand up or asper the announcements, wait for the 07.00 train instead.

I had a quick nap and woke up to find an older woman sat on the floor next to my seat, they had also upgraded a couple of disabled passengers into first class as they were clearly struggling and distressed.

Did LNER attempt to enforce invisible reservations, or were they silent on the matter, or did they admit that the train was effectively unreserved?

 

[Taunton]

I see nothing has changed since the 800s first came along.

I did a return trip London to Newcastle then, outward on an 800 with no reservations, excused as "Because it's a new train". On the return in a 225 there were likewise no reservations, excused as "Because it's an old train".

The outward service was apparently one where no trainset would load that departure's reservations electronically, it was happening every day and Kings Cross then started reverting to printed seat labels for it.

 

[Phil Anthtropy]

Did LNER attempt to enforce invisible reservations, or were they silent on the matter, or did they admit that the train was effectively unreserved?

Yes, numerous announcements and apologies that the allocated seats were no longer is use and valid.