Seat reservations on Advance tickets

[bcarmicle]

Do any train operators actually enforce specific seat reservations on an Advance ticket? I have a long trip coming up and haven't been able to get the reservation I wanted, but assuming I found a suitable unreserved seat/a reserved seat where no one turned up, could I run foul of revenue protection or a guard?

 

[yorkie]

Do any train operators actually enforce specific seat reservations on an Advance ticket?

Only if the train is really busy.

 

[BJames]

I would be very surprised if you fell foul of a guard on this.

It's been a long time since I've heard a guard/TM say over the PA that seat reservations are mandatory and must be adhered to. E.g. on EMR I often take a seat in the composite carriage, which on a small number of units is declassified first anyway. Usually on LNER/GWR I just take my assigned seat because the whole train is so busy anyway and I have little preference on seating. Never had anything said to me by RPIs or TMs.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I would be very surprised if you fell foul of a guard on this.

It's been a long time since I've heard a guard/TM say over the PA that seat reservations are mandatory and must be adhered to. E.g. on EMR I often take a seat in the composite carriage, which on a small number of units is declassified first anyway. Usually on LNER/GWR I just take my assigned seat because the whole train is so busy anyway and I have little preference on seating. Never had anything said to me by RPIs or TMs.

Lumo say it but then didn't enforce it.

I seem to recall it was only a small number of LNER guards who were bothered. But with LNER you can of course now reserve the seat of your choice anyway. (You can also do it with Trainsplit for most TOCs though a few don't work, but the LNER system is quite polished and you can just do a separate reservation if you want to buy your tickets elsewhere).

 

[Willie Bee]

the LNER system is quite polished and you can just do a separate reservation if you want to buy your tickets elsewhere).

Yes, I agree 100% .. the LNER system works well .. you can look at the train layout and pick the seat(s) of your choice from the available options.

Unfortunately, it's not the same with TransPennine Express. I was trying to book tickets from their own website for a journey in November (tickets were not yet available on the RailUk site) but was unable to get two table seats together. You have to click on your preferences .. window, table, airplane seats etc, then the site allocated two seats which you can accept, or try again. After several attempts, I gave in and phoned TPE. Their suggestion was just to book any seats, then phone them and they would change the booked seats on their system. In the end, everything worked OK .. booking, telephone call, change of seat .. but it just seems the LNER system is much better.

let's just hope, after all the effort, my TPE doesn't get cancelled.

Liverpool Lime Street to Newcastle, Nov 2nd at 16:24

 

[Kite159]

Lumo say it but then didn't enforce it.

I seem to recall it was only a small number of LNER guards who were bothered. But with LNER you can of course now reserve the seat of your choice anyway. (You can also do it with Trainsplit for most TOCs though a few don't work, but the LNER system is quite polished and you can just do a separate reservation if you want to buy your tickets elsewhere).

Although with Lumo, on some services the number of unreserved seats will be low (especially if they have to replace some seats for extra luggage racks due to the Peterborough incident) so even if you didn't like your allocated seat you won't have much in the way of choice unless you sit in someone elses seat.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Although with Lumo, on some services the number of unreserved seats will be low (especially if they have to replace some seats for extra luggage racks due to the Peterborough incident) so even if you didn't like your allocated seat you won't have much in the way of choice unless you sit in someone elses seat.

On weekends you'd be right. Mine was midday on a Monday, and it was only about a quarter full if that.