Grand Central Seats

[IanD]

Not sure if this is ths right forum for this.

I've booked a ticket for my mother on the 15:22 Bradford to King's Cross Grand Central service on 03/12. I did it online this time to avoid being sold another pup at the ticket office! After entering seating preferences, RSH advised me that it could reserve a seat but could not match 'some' of my preferences. Does anyone know what Coach C, Seat 07A is? She can't travel backwards so if it is rear-facing is it possible to go to the station/ring GC and ask them to swap? Presumably that particular service is not too popular as the ticket was only £12.55 (senior RC) compared to £19.15 on the other GC services that day but she'd rather not risk being unable to find an alternative seat.

Not sure which preferences RSH could not match as it gave the same message whether I selected 'Forward' or 'Rear Facing' for the direction and 'No Preference' for everything else!

 

[island]

I'm not sure anyone can't travel backwards, although there are some people who greatly dislike it...

Anyway sorry for the rant. Doesn't that train start at Bradford Interchange? I don't know the train but I suspect if your mum gets to the station early she can check and see whether the seat suits her and find another if not.

Don't forget that there are no ticket collection facilities at Bradford Interchange either, unless they've been installed lately.

 

[swt_passenger]

'A for airline' on a reservation doesn't mean much at all nowadays as seats in most modern stock are uniquely numbered, including those on opposite sides of a table.

So whether a particular seat is facing or back to travel depends on whether the stock is always kept in one direction or not.

The fundamental question then becomes are GC's services on this route operated by 180s, and are they always the same way round. If they don't guarantee that, there's nothing much even a ticket office can do to guarantee a particular seat's direction.

 

[Dewedin]

I'm not sure anyone can't travel backwards, although there are some people who greatly dislike it...

Anyway sorry for the rant. Doesn't that train start at Bradford Interchange? I don't know the train but I suspect if your mum gets to the station early she can check and see whether the seat suits her and find another if not.

Don't forget that there are no ticket collection facilities at Bradford Interchange either, unless they've been installed lately.

There is a ticket machine at Interchange and Northern recently enabled Ticket on Departure on their machines.

 

[IanD]

Thanks for the info.

Obviously she can ohysically travel backwards, it's just that she gets uncomfortable dizzy and nauseous when doing so over a long distance. Wouldn't like to be sitting in front of her (or should that be behind??) .

She'll probably end up at the station an hour earlier than necessary so should have the pick of any unreserved seat.

 

[Solent&Wessex]

From my experience of the GC trains from Bradford you will have more than enough seats to choose from so I wouldn't worry about having the wrong seat. They are vastly underused and cart a lot of air around, although I'm led to believe some trains are now carrying a few more passengers of late.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

....She can't travel backwards so if it is rear-facing is it possible to go to the station/ring GC and ask them to swap?....

The Advance FAQs in the manual/FRPP (which have been posted on this forum) state that if you ask at a ticket office or a telesales office/website to change the seats, they should charge the change of travel plans admin fee (£10) per seat changed, however a Train Manager/Guard can allow the traveller to change seats for free if there is space to do so.

 

[btcc fan]

I'm pretty sure that on a 180 seat C7 would be backwards on a service from Bradford. I think I had this seat from London and I was forward racing.

But as others have said there should be plenty of space on the rest of the train as Grand Central put all the standard class reservations in Coach C.