Carriage reserved for a school

[NeilCr]

Got on a St Pancras - Margate train this afternoon at Canterbury West. The train information indicator showed that the last carriage was reserved for a school

Not many people boarded there - as far as I could tell anyway - those that did moved towards the front of the train

We got to Thanet Parkway where the Train Manager announced that we might be there a bit longer as said school party were boarding. They then piled into various carriages. Bought out my child allergy and one guy disappeared further down the train!

I was getting off at Ramsgate so no hardship but it did make me wonder about the practicalities of it all

First of all (if they did) locking out a carriage for the major part of a journey. My experience of St Pancras is that as soon as a train pulls in people start boarding so that would need some control there

Secondly. If a carriage is reserved for a school should they not use it?

This is slightly tongue in cheek and I can see the practical issues but it did give me pause for thought while waiting for my bus

 

[james_the_xv]

My sister's school had half a pendolino car reserved for a trip to London from Coventry. It's a safeguarding thing and most TOCs are happy to assist if travel is off peak especially.

In this situation, you'd have hoped that would have been communicated to the school group and they would board the reserved section. But a lot of teachers are very flustered on school trips and are just focused on getting the right number of children in the right place, so can't say I blame them tbh

 

[norbitonflyer]

Seems to have been a lack of communication between the railway and the school staff, who should have been told where to wait on the platform for their reserved carriage. Having the children spread over all six (twelve?) carriages would not have been ideal for the school staff, who would then need to round them all up to get off at the right stop.