ATW seat reservations

[emoaconr]

Not that I'm a fan of reservations in the first place...

I've noticed on the last few long-distance journeys between Cardiff and Wrexham there has been no seat reservation printed on the reservation ticket, and on boarding the trains, there have been no reservation slips on seats. So far I've only seen this on the CDF-HHD, CDF-MAN and BHI-HHD services.

 

[headshot119]

I have a couple of time son Cardiff to Holyhead trains had seat reservations, but on boarding the train have found no reservation slips in the back of the seats.

You also tend to find that only one coach, I think it is coach A has seat reservations.

 

[Geezertronic]

Not that I'm a fan of reservations in the first place...

Why wouldn't you be a fan of reservations?

 

[175001]

ATW no longer issue reservations with advance fares, can only be arranged after a ticket has been bought.

http://arrivatrainswales.co.uk/281010SeatReservations/

 

[Gareth Marston]

ATW no longer issue reservations with advance fares, can only be arranged after a ticket has been bought.

http://arrivatrainswales.co.uk/281010SeatReservations/

Quite frankly the seat reservations as were were a complete nuisance as no one turned up to sit in them most of them time. I have for along time now made a bee line for the reserved seats around the few tables that remain on northbound services form Cardiff on the Marches line safe in the knowledge that I will never be challenged by the person who has a seat reservation. I watch none savvy travelers go up and down looking for spare seats without reservation tags on them when the only empty ones are reserved.

They are also hopeless on certain trains out of New St as the loadings are so great it becomes a scrum and free for all.

 

[merlodlliw]

Quite frankly the seat reservations as were were a complete nuisance as no one turned up to sit in them most of them time. I have for along time now made a bee line for the reserved seats around the few tables that remain on northbound services form Cardiff on the Marches line safe in the knowledge that I will never be challenged by the person who has a seat reservation. I watch none savvy travelers go up and down looking for spare seats without reservation tags on them when the only empty ones are reserved.

They are also hopeless on certain trains out of New St as the loadings are so great it becomes a scrum and free for all.

Agree with you Gareth, I have used the ex CDF 1720 many,many times,spotting where the doors will come to a stop,going to the tables, if the seat is marked Newport to where ever, the chances are no one will challenge.
or I move to the empty ex CDF seat once its left the station,I have found less than a third ever turned up at CDF to claim the seat, agree those not in the know scramble for what's left unmarked,

M

 

[emoaconr]

Oh I see. Well its no skin off my nose anyway. I rarely sit in reserved seats. Too much faff and so many people don't understand how they work, so there will be significantly less argument

I do this journey enough over the years and it was usually most of coach A and some of coach C.

 

[merlodlliw]

Oh I see. Well its no skin off my nose anyway. I rarely sit in reserved seats. Too much faff and so many people don't understand how they work, so there will be significantly less argument

I do this journey enough over the years and it was usually most of coach A and some of coach C.

The 1720 is the most busy CDF to North service, this is always packed from CDF to Newport,a lot of people think if the seat is from CDF to Wrexham & is unused they can not use it at all, the wiser ones and students know different of course.
Many is the time I have told passengers standing(not kids) to sit down on a reserved seat once left CDF and unclaimed.

 

[Flamingo]

Arriva don't use seat reservations any more, now that the Germans own them they put towels on the seats...

 

[merlodlliw]

Arriva don't use seat reservations any more, now that the Germans own them they put towels on the seats...

Ah but only for those with beer bellies on XC routes

 

[krus_aragon]

A month or two ago a guard on a CDF-HHD service explained the lack of reservations as being because a 158 had deputised for a 175, so the seat numbers on the reservations were completely irrelevant anyway.

Situations like these may have helped to encourage ATW to ditch the entire system.

 

[Gareth Marston]

A month or two ago a guard on a CDF-HHD service explained the lack of reservations as being because a 158 had deputised for a 175, so the seat numbers on the reservations were completely irrelevant anyway.

Situations like these may have helped to encourage ATW to ditch the entire system.

Theirs simply not enough available 175's to cover all the diagrams all the time, getting a 158 on them and the Manchester to Cardiff turns is daily occurrence and 150's on Holyhead trains are not uncommon.

 

[krus_aragon]

Theirs simply not enough available 175's to cover all the diagrams all the time, getting a 158 on them and the Manchester to Cardiff turns is daily occurrence and 150's on Holyhead trains are not uncommon.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to suggest that these services are 175 only. What I was trying to say was that the reservations had been numbered and printed assuming that this diagram would be operated by a 175, but on the day it was a 158. Numbering the reservations correctly forces ATW to predict which type of unit will be on which service weeks in advance. Even if they do this, unit swaps for maintainance could still mess up best laid plans.

 

[merlodlliw]

Theirs simply not enough available 175's to cover all the diagrams all the time, getting a 158 on them and the Manchester to Cardiff turns is daily occurrence and 150's on Holyhead trains are not uncommon.

Talking of pacers, on Portos show last evening at Chirk, there was a good view
of a pair of 150s on the CDF/HDD run crossing the viaduct. This was filmed last summer.

When I catch the ex CDF 1720,
3 coach 175 as it should be.
2 coach 158 grab the first seat
2 coach 150 despair. And now 150s running on middle day services to HDD every day.

 

[krus_aragon]

And now 150s running on middle day services to HDD every day.

Erp... :/

 

[Gareth Marston]

Erp... :/

175's = purpose built depot at Chester common sense and best practice says you run the fleet past the door and tuck most of them up to bed in their overnight apart from a handful outposted. Can do preventive maintainence etc

No ATW run most of them 15/16 diagrams out of the 27 fleet on Manchester/Cardiff/West Wales turns which don't run past the depot. Which to be fair is what the brains @ the SRA came up with in 2003 who are now DfT.

 

[merlodlliw]

Erp... :/

the 1120 or 1320 ex cdf/HDD see 150s or a mix of 150 & 158.

M

 

[Greenback]

Put 153's on them instead so we can have more 150's on Pembroke Dock trains!

 

[krus_aragon]

175's = purpose built depot at Chester common sense and best practice says you run the fleet past the door and tuck most of them up to bed in their overnight apart from a handful outposted. Can do preventive maintainence etc

No ATW run most of them 15/16 diagrams out of the 27 fleet on Manchester/Cardiff/West Wales turns which don't run past the depot. Which to be fair is what the brains @ the SRA came up with in 2003 who are now DfT.

Yes, the fact that I see more 175s now in Cardiff than I did back in the Llandudno-Chester area is rather silly. Still, I think having them all under the same TOC (albeit so far from home) is better than having them split between operators as they had been. (The 180 fleet is arguably fragmented beyond repair now.)

I still don't have much more than 'erp' to say to the idea that 150s are now regularly doing the 5-hour North-South run. Might this situation be on account of the ongoing 158 and 175 refurbs?

If there are three types of stock showing up on these diagrams, then I guess that's more reason for seat reservations to make no sense.

 

[emoaconr]

I noticed ATW's 158s seats have been re-numbered with sticky labels... removing the duplicated numbers facing/against on the tables.

I've been on CDF-HHD 150/153 operated services before, particulary on Sundays. Last time I have to say I didn't mind too much at the time because they had 2x 2-car 150's coupled to a 1x 153 which is far more seats than a 3-car 175.