Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
It's because the reservations compulsory flag is being misused. It was started as a bodge during COVID to keep passenger densities low, and has continued as a bodge rather than, if the railway wants this feature, it being implemented properly with its own flag which means "tickets for this service aren't sold without reservations"*. It's a silly feature to use on a regional service of course, but if the railway wants it it really should do it properly rather than confusing everyone.
Further confusion then results if someone wants to board the Caledonian Sleeper seated coach having been told "oh, reservations compulsory is just a sales thing" and are turned away.
The "reservations available" flag is also misused, though the consequence of this is lower.
* PKP is an example - they only sell tickets for IC type services with a reservation, but they're largely open tickets and you can just use another train if you want, except the commercially operated EIP services on which there is an actual penalty for boarding having not reserved, and I think most tickets on EIC are train specific too though reservations are not compulsory to board if you do have an interavailable ticket. PKP - and I just checked - manages to use the flag correctly in these instances, with only EIP services having the [R] marker.
