Can't reserve seats on EMR for tomorrow

[Teapot42]

Edited to correct destination.

I'm trying to book seats using the Trainsplit app for EMR Chesterfield to London tomorrow. When I select the option to use the seat selector I get a message that no seat reservations can be made on both legs.

Does this typically mean the trains are full, or does EMR not support this function on Trainsplit?

Or is there something else going on tomorrow which means we can't book a seat in advance? This is for a Super Off Peak Return on the 7:34 out and 20:02 back. Would those journeys typically be busy?

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

I had the same experience just a few weeks ago. My understanding is that seat reservations have been suspended pending the introduction of the 810s. All seats were unreserved on my recent journey.

 

[Teapot42]

So you've basically got to take a punt on whether you'll be standing for two hours? That seems daft even for the UK rail industry...

Surely they are going to have a good idea a day or two in advance what will be running the service so can at least allow you to book ahead?

Presumably this will be for the next months or even years if they need to wait for the whole fleet to be introduced?

 

[Kite159]

Maybe they have disabled the ability to reserve seats on the short distance Chesterfield to/from Sheffield flow to allow for more long distance seat reservations. Although if travelling tomorrow then it might be worth avoiding the EMR InterCity services due to it only being hourly from London.

 

[Teapot42]

Maybe they have disabled the ability to reserve seats on the short distance Chesterfield to/from Sheffield flow to allow for more long distance seat reservations. Although if travelling tomorrow then it might be worth avoiding the EMR InterCity services due to it only being hourly from London.

Thanks for pointing out my error!

Short of driving to Newark and getting the LNER we have little option but to use EMR from here. According to CS, as Advance tickets are still available that means the train is less than 70% booked. Not sure whether that will translate in to seats being free though...

 

[tram21]

Seat reservations are suspended on a select few services, generally the upcoming Class 810 diagrams. However they are unreliable anyway on the Class 222s, should be better with the 810s.

It won't be too busy, especially that early. At St Pancras just make sure you are on the concourse 20-30ish minutes before departure, and you can be one of the first onboard when it opens for boarding.

 

[Teapot42]

Seat reservations are suspended on a select few services, generally the upcoming Class 810 diagrams. However they are unreliable anyway on the Class 222s, should be better with the 810s.

It won't be too busy, especially that early. At St Pancras just make sure you are on the concourse 20-30ish minutes before departure, and you can be one of the first onboard when it opens for boarding.

So there is a possibility this will be an 810? I'm hoping at least they put maximum length on to allow for the reduced service..

At STP as we've got an open ticket, should the 20:02 be full, we can fall back an hour. Means we aren't home until 11, but not the end of the world.

 

[ChilliSauce]

Edited to correct destination.

I'm trying to book seats using the Trainsplit app for EMR Chesterfield to London tomorrow. When I select the option to use the seat selector I get a message that no seat reservations can be made on both legs.

Does this typically mean the trains are full, or does EMR not support this function on Trainsplit?

Or is there something else going on tomorrow which means we can't book a seat in advance? This is for a Super Off Peak Return on the 7:34 out and 20:02 back. Would those journeys typically be busy?

I have had experience of this type of EMR rubbish when trying to just make a seat reservation between London and Sheffield as I already held a ticket .. It gave me " A Place" on the train but not a specific Seat... What good is that !

In the end I made the Seat Reservation from London to Leicester on a Nottingham service and then an onwards reservation from Leicester on the next London/Leicester/Sheffield . On boarding at Leicester I expected the train to be fullish ...but it certainly wasn't ..More vacant seats than the number of people who had alighted at Leicester ..

 

[sheff1]

So you've basically got to take a punt on whether you'll be standing for two hours? That seems daft even for the UK rail industry...

Might be daft but not uncommon. You won't get a reservation on a through train Chesterfield to Manchester or Liverpool for example or any number of other journeys of more than 2 hours.

 

[Kite159]

Seat reservations are suspended on a select few services, generally the upcoming Class 810 diagrams. However they are unreliable anyway on the Class 222s, should be better with the 810s.

It won't be too busy, especially that early. At St Pancras just make sure you are on the concourse 20-30ish minutes before departure, and you can be one of the first onboard when it opens for boarding.

And also probably aim for coach D which would normally be the unreserved coach if seat reservations were in place. Pretty sure from memory the screens at St Pancras have it marked as 1st class so some punters don't consider that it does contain some standard class seats.

 

[tram21]

So there is a possibility this will be an 810? I'm hoping at least they put maximum length on to allow for the reduced service..

At STP as we've got an open ticket, should the 20:02 be full, we can fall back an hour. Means we aren't home until 11, but not the end of the world.

I would hope it'd be a double 222 where possible, but not sure how realistic that is.

It almost certainly won't be a class 810 unfortunately.

 

[Teapot42]

I would hope it'd be a double 222 where possible, but not sure how realistic that is.

Seemingly not realistic...

RTT showing 5 cars on most trips today. Isn't that like a third of the usual provision?

 

[liamf656]

Seemingly not realistic...

RTT showing 5 cars on most trips today. Isn't that like a third of the usual provision?

Nope. They only have 25 units for service and 21 are out and about. Most days they'll manage to keep almost all 222s in traffic which is frankly an amazing achievement

 

[Teapot42]

Nope. They only have 25 units for service and 21 are out and about. Most days they'll manage to keep almost all 222s in traffic which is frankly an amazing achievement

Sheffield to London is normally one fast and one slow hourly. The fast is normally 10 car, the slow 5.

I'd guess they will be running a mix of shorter runs and slower due to the works, so not overall a third, just on the flow from Sheffield.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Dec 2025 ==

And also probably aim for coach D which would normally be the unreserved coach if seat reservations were in place. Pretty sure from memory the screens at St Pancras have it marked as 1st class so some punters don't consider that it does contain some standard class seats.

Thanks very much for this tip - we chose Coach D both ways (it was actually the same unit) and you are right, not many realised there is a small standard section. There were quite a few spare seats on the way back, but other coaches looked full.

 

[tram21]

Sheffield to London is normally one fast and one slow hourly. The fast is normally 10 car, the slow 5.

That's not correct unfortunately, I wish it was but they should generally be 5, or 7 coaches if you are lucky.

 

[Teapot42]

That's not correct unfortunately, I wish it was but they should generally be 5, or 7 coaches if you are lucky.

Hmm... Got to admit I don't use the route much, but I'm sure in the past one train was longer. However, checking on RTT today they are all 5-car. That seems very poor provision and it's no wonder the times I've used this in the past it's been busy.

Makes the decision to deny paths for an alternative route from Sheffield even harder to understand.

 

[edwin_m]

I passed through St Pancras on Saturday. The 1603 to Sheffield was a 10-car. The 1533 was running late due to after-effects of a fatality, so the two were running at minimum headway resulting in a delay to the 1605 Nottingham.

A queueing system has appeared since I was last there - not sure if this is temporary, permanent or something to do with the lack of reservations on certain trains. It would be helpful if they added arrows to the signs at the start of the queues, as lots of people couldn't work out which side the sign referred to. And there was no Derby queue, presumably because there aren't normally regular departures terminating there, so quite a few people were confused.

 

[Teapot42]

I passed through St Pancras on Saturday. The 1603 to Sheffield was a 10-car. The 1533 was running late due to after-effects of a fatality, so the two were running at minimum headway resulting in a delay to the 1605 Nottingham.

A queueing system has appeared since I was last there - not sure if this is temporary, permanent or something to do with the lack of reservations on certain trains. It would be helpful if they added arrows to the signs at the start of the queues, as lots of people couldn't work out which side the sign referred to. And there was no Derby queue, presumably because there aren't normally regular departures terminating there, so quite a few people were confused.

The queueing system seems rather pointless. I spotted the signs, but my wife didn't, and neither did the many who had to push past us to get the Nottingham train.

Regulars (and those who know about RTT) knew which platform anyway, so could go through the barrier before those waiting for the platform to come up on the screen.

I don't think many trains left on time on Saturday to be honest, we were late in both directions and I'd been checking earlier departures and they were as bad.

 

[Trainman40083]

I passed through St Pancras on Saturday. The 1603 to Sheffield was a 10-car. The 1533 was running late due to after-effects of a fatality, so the two were running at minimum headway resulting in a delay to the 1605 Nottingham.

A queueing system has appeared since I was last there - not sure if this is temporary, permanent or something to do with the lack of reservations on certain trains. It would be helpful if they added arrows to the signs at the start of the queues, as lots of people couldn't work out which side the sign referred to. And there was no Derby queue, presumably because there aren't normally regular departures terminating there, so quite a few people were confused.

Often a queuing system at St Pancras, when there is disruption on the ECML.

 

[Haywain]

Regulars (and those who know about RTT) knew which platform anyway, so could go through the barrier before those waiting for the platform to come up on the screen.

The way the barriers at St Pancras are managed can make that rather difficult.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Dec 2025 ==

Often a queuing system at St Pancras, when there is disruption on the ECML.

There's often a queuing system at St Pancras when there's not disruption on the ECML or anywhere else.

 

[ChilliSauce]

EMR in the form of Transport UK can't manage a queuing system at St Pancras ... Because if they could those with Seat Reservations for the service in question would be allowed on board first to take their reserved seats.

 

[Trainman40083]

EMR in the form of Transport UK can't manage a queuing system at St Pancras ... Because if they could those with Seat Reservations for the service in question would be allowed on board first to take their reserved seats.

They still have seat reservations? Thought they were always broken.

 

[Teapot42]

The way the barriers at St Pancras are managed can make that rather difficult.

There didn't appear to be any management on Saturday evening. We went through before the platform came up on the boards as I'd seen the train coming in to the platform on RTT. There were already a lot of people on the platform waiting.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Dec 2025 ==

They still have seat reservations? Thought they were always broken.

I was told no reservations at all at the moment due to the transition to the new 810s. I did ask how long this was likely to be the case for but didn't get an answer.

As an aside, I did notice the EMR page for Chesterfield still lists the X70 - which must have been withdrawn over 2 years ago - and gives a link to Hulleys for the 170 to Chatsworth.