Notts-Skegness reservations

[harry42]

Senior moderators who generally put me right...feel free to move this thread to where its home is! Sorry if I am not using my minimum storage of common sense

So...I went to book using EMT and NR and even (yes...) the trainline from Skegness to Nottingham next Tuesday (13th August) leaving around lunchtime. 1 adult, 2 children with F+F railcard. £19. Pretty cheap! (Even if could be a 156 for 2 hours!)

Reserve seats? Yes! Preferences? No! OK...'no seats available.'

Try 13:15...None available. 14:15, 15:15, 16:15, 17:09 Nope nope nope nope!

Help?! Is this the truth?

 

[Tomnick]

Skegvegas trains don't have seat reservations, do they?

 

[harry42]

Didn't think they did but EMT and trainline gave me the option

 

[IrishDave]

They show on OpenTrainTimes and RealTimeTrains as having reservations available - e.g. the 1315 on Tuesday 13th. However, I suspect that's just a fudge so that longer-distance advance fares, e.g. a London-Skegness advance EC&Connections, can be tied to a particular Grantham-Skegness train; there are almost certainly no seat reservations on these services.

As another example, if I try Coventry-Euston on London Midland, with Advance Singles I am told that "You have reserved a place on this specific service, but individual seat reservations are not possible." If I try the same trains with an Anytime Return, I am simply told there are no seats available to reserve, which is true - London Midland don't do seat reservations, but they do sell Advance tickets, and they have to be tied to particular trains by means of a dummy seat reservation, usually printed "Coach *** Seat ***". I assume the same applies here.

 

[Jay]

Pretty sure you can reserve the wheel chair space only.

 

[Yew]

Does a HST still go to skeg, could that be reservable? Or at least more of a chance of a seat..

 

[trentside]

Pretty sure you can reserve the wheel chair space only.

Yes, trains operating Nottingham to Skegness have reservable wheelchair spaces - no other seat reservations are available, but obviously this is enough to make the reservation system think it can offer reservations system on the train!
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Does a HST still go to skeg, could that be reservable? Or at least more of a chance of a seat..

As far as I'm aware, reservations aren't available on the HST.

 

[maniacmartin]

The * *** type reservations are called "Counted Place Reservations" and I wouldn't be surprised if they confuse booking engines into thinking reservations are available, then failing when the reservation is attempted.