GWR Castle Class Service not reservable

[Benjwri]

Are the GWR Castle Class services not reservable? They are marked as reservations recommended on RTT, but TrainSplit doesn't seem to be able to offer a reservation on the service. For context I'm trying to reserve a seat on the 13:00 service from Cardiff to Penzance, travelling between Bristol Temple Meads and Bodmin Parkway, but TrainSplit gives the message:

The train operating company does not offer a seat reservation for this ticket on this leg of the journey.

Same is true for the Castle Class service on the return.

 

[JonathanH]

Are the GWR Castle Class services not reservable? They are marked as reservations recommended on RTT, but TrainSplit doesn't seem to be able to offer a reservation on the service.

Counted place reservations, rather than actual seats allocated.

 

[Benjwri]

Counted place reservations, rather than actual seats allocated.

Oh wow, would've expected better considering the length of the journey. Will be taking the preceding XC service to Plymouth then, at least I can guarantee a seat on that!

 

[RPI]

Oh wow, would've expected better considering the length of the journey. Will be taking the preceding XC service to Plymouth then, at least I can guarantee a seat on that!

More likely to get a seat on one of these than an XC Voyager! They're usually busy but rarely full and standing.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Counted place reservations, rather than actual seats allocated.

"We recommend you obtain a reservation that doesn't carry any additional right to a seat or even to board than someone without one".

The railway sometimes makes me laugh as to its incompetence. I'd wonder if it was a half-job of removing actual reservations so they can go over to IETs as and when, but I don't think reservations have ever been placed on these?

 

[bramling]

"We recommend you obtain a reservation that doesn't carry any additional right to a seat or even to board than someone without one".

The railway sometimes makes me laugh as to its incompetence. I'd wonder if it was a half-job of removing actual reservations so they can go over to IETs as and when, but I don't think reservations have ever been placed on these?

It has to be remembered that the HSTs have essentially replaced what would have been 150s a few years ago, in some cases 3+2 150/1s. They are essentially souped-up traction for a plain-vanilla local service, so reservations would almost certainly cause more trouble than they’re worth.

I guess there might be a case for maybe one reservable carriage, but then there’s all the bother of managing it for not much gain.

Given how the London and XC trains can be very heavily reserved well into Cornwall at certain times, I’d say it probably suits everyone better to have a service of turn-up-and-go local trains. There always seems to be significant churn of passengers at places like Plymouth and Exeter in any case.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It has to be remembered that the HSTs have essentially replaced what would have been 150s a few years ago, in some cases 3+2 150/1s. They are essentially souped-up traction for a plain-vanilla local service, so reservations would almost certainly cause more trouble than they’re worth.

I guess there might be a case for maybe one reservable carriage, but then there’s all the bother of managing it for not much gain.

Given how the London and XC trains can be very heavily reserved well into Cornwall at certain times, I’d say it probably suits everyone better to have a service of turn-up-and-go local trains. There always seems to be significant churn of passengers at places like Plymouth and Exeter in any case.

I'm not suggesting they should offer reservations, I would agree with you they probably should not.

What I'm ridiculing is flagging a service in the timetable as "reservations recommended" then not offering any.

 

[mangyiscute]

I've also seen castle class sets often swapped for 158s which would cause lots of issues if there were reservations on the train

 

[bramling]

I'm not suggesting they should offer reservations, I would agree with you they probably should not.

What I'm ridiculing is flagging a service in the timetable as "reservations recommended" then not offering any.

Fair point. Could this simply be an error? It is indeed quite bizarre.

 

[Benjwri]

More likely to get a seat on one of these than an XC Voyager! They're usually busy but rarely full and standing.

Will see on the day, Voyager goes from the same platform 10 minutes earlier and have got a reservation on that now so can just choose.

I'd wonder if it was a half-job of removing actual reservations so they can go over to IETs as and when

The IET diagrams are reservable though, so maybe it’s just that reservations can’t be displayed, so they don’t want to give them?

Given how the London and XC trains can be very heavily reserved well into Cornwall at certain times, I’d say it probably suits everyone better to have a service of turn-up-and-go local trains.

Once the Castle Class go though there will be reservations on the 802s that replace them.

I've also seen castle class sets often swapped for 158s which would cause lots of issues if there were reservations on the train

As above a castle class is far less likely to be swapped than an IET.

 

[RPI]

There's no reservations on the HST's as they'd need to be paper ones, IET's obviously have digital displays

 

[WelshBluebird]

It has to be remembered that the HSTs have essentially replaced what would have been 150s a few years ago, in some cases 3+2 150/1s. They are essentially souped-up traction for a plain-vanilla local service, so reservations would almost certainly cause more trouble than they’re worth.

And of course it isn't that long ago those services were pacers!

 

[mangyiscute]

There's no reservations on the HST's as they'd need to be paper ones, IET's obviously have digital displays

was up in scotland recently and their hsts and 158s had reservation slips on the seats - i was like what a throwback I haven't seen these in ages! had to steal a couple (obviously at the terminus station)
But yeah this is probably the main reason - a staff member would have to go through the whole train putting in these small slips of paper

 

[John R]

I can’t imagine the Castle Class will be busy at that time and if it starts off busy it’ll be a lot quieter by Weston as most of its traffic will be local.

Voyager services on the other hand…

 

[Adam Williams]

Fair point. Could this simply be an error? It is indeed quite bizarre.

It's not uncommon for the timetable "reservations recommended/available" flag to be completely at odds with what's actually possible via RARS.

 

[plymothian]

Loadings on 2C77 (13.00 Cardiff - Penzance) Mon - Thurs tend to be busiest between Newport and Bristol (a lot cheaper than via Hereford than Birmingham), Bristol and Weston SM (connections off XC and ex-Paddington), and Taunton - Cornwall (connection off ex-Paddington for Cornish traffic), Exeter - Newton Abbot (local university).

It is certainly one of the more heavily used services from Bristol and on Fridays it is a lot busier throughout.

It's not uncommon for the timetable "reservations recommended/available" flag to be completely at odds with what's actually possible via RARS.

Indeed, the last Exmouth services are marked as 'reservations recommended', and you certainly can't get one on a local DMU service!

 

[RPI]

Loadings on 2C77 (13.00 Cardiff - Penzance) Mon - Thurs tend to be busiest between Newport and Bristol (a lot cheaper than via Hereford than Birmingham), Bristol and Weston SM (connections off XC and ex-Paddington), and Taunton - Cornwall (connection off ex-Paddington for Cornish traffic), Exeter - Newton Abbot (local university).

It is certainly one of the more heavily used services from Bristol and on Fridays it is a lot busier throughout.



Indeed, the last Exmouth services are marked as 'reservations recommended', and you certainly can't get one on a local DMU service!

I seem to end up working that one a lot and it is pretty up and down all the way! Quite a lot of long distance get on at Newport heading west having travelled down the Marches.

Now just need catering....... (ducks behind a wall)

 

[Snow1964]

Indeed, the last Exmouth services are marked as 'reservations recommended', and you certainly can't get one on a local DMU service!

Don't want to go too far off topic, but why would GWR have 2 different reservation policies for different parts of journey on same train

Reservations recommended between Yeovil Pen Mill and Frome
Reservations available from Frome

Realtime Trains | 2V69 0618 Yeovil Pen Mill to Filton Abbey Wood | 09/03/2023

Real-time train running information for 2V69 0618 departure from Yeovil Pen Mill to Filton Abbey Wood on 09/03/2023. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[mangyiscute]

Don't want to go too far off topic, but why would GWR have 2 different reservation policies for different parts of journey on same train

My only guess would be that it is usually a lot busier in that first section than the rest of the journey (although that seems extremely unlikely for that service)