Can a train be full?

[Jan Mayen]

Does any train company allow all seats to be reserved on a paticular train? Or do they always have unreservable seats?

Assuming all reservable seats are taken, is there a way this can easily be comunicated, other than by setting the reservations compulsory flag?

 

[Haywain]

Does any train company allow all seats to be reserved on a paticular train? Or do they always have unreservable seats?

Caledonian Sleepers don't have unreservable seats, AFAIK, and are compulsory reservation.

 

[Jan Mayen]

Caledonian Sleepers don't have unreservable seats, AFAIK, and are compulsory reservation.

Can they refuse to carry someone if all seats and berths are taken?

 

[Haywain]

Can they refuse to carry someone if all seats and berths are taken?

I believe so. The compulsory reservations are, and always have been, genuinely compulsory - they offer very limited amounts of seating.

 

[PeterC]

Presumably the West Country Slreper is the same. I don't know about Eurostar but I would be surprised if there weren't.

There used to be quite a few "Limited" trains in British Railways days.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Presumably the West Country Slreper is the same.

I believe GWR's sleeper allows unreserved passengers (where capacity allows)

 

[blimmo]

I believe it is only Caledonian sleeper and Eurostar (being more of a French train than a British one) that are truly compulsory reservations.

 

[Snow1964]

I believe it is only Caledonian sleeper and Eurostar (being more of a French train than a British one) that are truly compulsory reservations.

Even the all line rover has in its terms and conditions, valid on Caledonian sleeper (seated reservations compulsory, or supplement for a berth) and Eurostar is excluded,

 

[PeterC]

I believe GWR's sleeper allows unreserved passengers (where capacity allows)

So still able to be "full" if all seats are taken?

 

[tram21]

Any train can be full if there are enough people on it! And boarding of a service can be stopped when it is deemed that it is too full.

This happens regularly at London St Pancras by EMR who adopt queuing systems and stop boarding when they think a train is too full (their definition seems to be different to the average passenger who would think it would be when it is physically impossible to get on) even if you have an Advance ticket or seat reservation.

 

[Tetragon213]

Any train can be full if there are enough people on it! And boarding of a service can be stopped when it is deemed that it is too full.

This happens regularly at London St Pancras by EMR who adopt queuing systems and stop boarding when they think a train is too full (their definition seems to be different to the average passenger who would think it would be when it is physically impossible to get on) even if you have an Advance ticket or seat reservation.

As a regrettably extensive XC traveller, I can fully (no pun intended) confirm that there is such a thing as "full".

A few weeks back, travelling from Sheffield to Birmingham, we left people behind on the platform, such was the overcrowding.

 

[Snow1964]

As a regrettably extensive XC traveller, I can fully (no pun intended) confirm that there is such a thing as "full".

A few weeks back, travelling from Sheffield to Birmingham, we left people behind on the platform, such was the overcrowding.

Happens at busy times on GWR too, have seen trains between Bristol and Westbury leave passengers behind.

Even seen a DMU take 7-8 minutes at Bath Spa due to crowding affecting churn. Adding 6 minutes to station calls does nothing for timekeeping or line capacity, so from operational viewpoint having over-full trains is detrimental to running an on time service.