Virgin Trains (West Coast) - "Priority boarding"

[Master29]

Or because they are, quite reasonably, unable or unwilling to be tied down to particular trains - and have already paid for this in the form of a walk-up fare.

Fair point, but that doesn't mean sitting in reserved seats belonging to others does it.

 

[Bletchleyite]

You can (de facto) sit in a reserved seat if you want, provided you move out of it immediately and without argument when the reserver appears. There are too many "phantom reservations" not to work like that.

 

[cjmillsnun]

The problem is largely that they are 15 year old technology!

Stickers saying "if the reservation screens are not lit up, reservations have not downloaded yet, and so all seats except in coaches F and U may be reserved" might help, though.

Oh come on. 15 years ago it was perfectly possible to make a reservation system that was instant. Even on an 11 car train you are talking a few kilobytes of data at most.

The problem is down to a poorly designed system.

 

[Starmill]

You can (de facto) sit in a reserved seat if you want, provided you move out of it immediately and without argument when the reserver appears. There are too many "phantom reservations" not to work like that.

What about thw 'invisible reservations' that are enforced by XC on their Turbostar routes?

 

[Senex]

What about thw 'invisible reservations' that are enforced by XC on their Turbostar routes?

No problem with the system in principle, but it needs much better exchange of data between train and base so that seats that have been properly taken by turn-up-and-go passengers are no longer shewn as free on the database. But an operation as contemptuous of its turn-up-and-go passengers as XC isn't remotely interested in making it work properly.

 

[Bletchleyite]

No problem with the system in principle, but it needs much better exchange of data between train and base so that seats that have been properly taken by turn-up-and-go passengers are no longer shewn as free on the database. But an operation as contemptuous of its turn-up-and-go passengers as XC isn't remotely interested in making it work properly.

Or you just show a *small* number of seats clearly as "this seat may be reserved" and anyone in it takes the risk. This is how DB do it, and I'm surprised XC haven't just copied that.

 

[bramling]

Oh come on. 15 years ago it was perfectly possible to make a reservation system that was instant. Even on an 11 car train you are talking a few kilobytes of data at most.

The problem is down to a poorly designed system.

One way or the other this issue should have been resolved long ago.

It's not acceptable for reservations not to be displayed by the time the train becomes available for boarding. If this can't be achieved, reservations should be abandoned on the service.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Or you further increase the availability of reservations for those with walk-up tickets (mobile app, TVMs etc - or even on board) and you move to a system of not marking them and instead simply having defined reserved and unreserved coaches.

If everyone bar the three unreserved coaches of an 11-car Pendolino knew they had a seat of their choosing for sure, the Euston scrum might subside somewhat. I certainly no longer rush to the gate on easyJet flights now I know I've got the seat I want.

 

[bramling]

Or you further increase the availability of reservations for those with walk-up tickets (mobile app, TVMs etc - or even on board) and you move to a system of not marking them and instead simply having defined reserved and unreserved coaches.

If everyone bar the three unreserved coaches of an 11-car Pendolino knew they had a seat of their choosing for sure, the Euston scrum might subside somewhat. I certainly no longer rush to the gate on easyJet flights now I know I've got the seat I want.

Sounds good - one of the reasons I'm not particularly fond of reservations is where you can't guarantee getting the seat of choice.

Getting all this to work when they can't even get the current setup to work well is of course another matter.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's an awful lot easier to get to work, because there is no need to communicate available seating to the train. And all the issues about reservations not being placed go away, because they're never placed. And XC's system would work, because once you know which train you're getting on as a walk-up passenger, you just grab a reservation for it using your phone, a TVM or whatever.

It would also get rid of the situation of full-whack walk-up ticketholders not having the opportunity to reserve because they can't plan which train to use. Once you've decided, reserve, even if that's 5 minutes before departure - or don't, and take a seat in the unreserved coach(es). And the guard could go through releasing unclaimed seats using a handheld mobile device of some sort.

 

[al78]

Or you further increase the availability of reservations for those with walk-up tickets (mobile app, TVMs etc - or even on board) and you move to a system of not marking them and instead simply having defined reserved and unreserved coaches.

If everyone bar the three unreserved coaches of an 11-car Pendolino knew they had a seat of their choosing for sure, the Euston scrum might subside somewhat. I certainly no longer rush to the gate on easyJet flights now I know I've got the seat I want.

Maybe, but there is another reason for wishing to board a train quickly, which is when carrying luggage that is too big to go in the overhead racks, and so will only fit comfortably into the vertically stacked luggage racks. On Virgin trains at least, there are only three of these on any coach and nowhere near enough space for everyone to put a suitcase in them, so being at the back of the boarding scrum means having to find a suitable place to put your suitcase so that it will not cause an obstruction.

 

[Bletchleyite]

True, though the stress of finding a place for this reduces when you know you need not rush to grab a seat as you do.

 

[Trackman]

I used realtimetrains today for my platform at Euston (25 mins before departure), the VT staff let me through the closed gate and checked my ticket. As I was chatting to some of the staff before boarding a message came through on the radio saying they would be a platform change.. I think the air con had failed big time and couldn't be reset. Anyway, VT staff were are all on their mobiles trying to find out what platform it would be. Some of them used realtimetrains and one girl had a signalling layout on her phone (they were quite happy to show me). anyway they used an incoming 14.50 Pendo on platform 15 so I followed them they let me on again whilst it was hastily being 'prepared' People were still getting off! I missed a really mad 5 minute scrum, although I could be still sat on the train at platform 3 now!

 

[bramling]

I used realtimetrains today for my platform at Euston (25 mins before departure), the VT staff let me through the closed gate and checked my ticket. As I was chatting to some of the staff before boarding a message came through on the radio saying they would be a platform change.. I think the air con had failed big time and couldn't be reset. Anyway, VT staff were are all on their mobiles trying to find out what platform it would be. Some of them used realtimetrains and one girl had a signalling layout on her phone (they were quite happy to show me). anyway they used an incoming 14.50 Pendo on platform 15 so I followed them they let me on again whilst it was hastily being 'prepared' People were still getting off! I missed a really mad 5 minute scrum, although I could be still sat on the train at platform 3 now!

That's the risk taken when using RTTT or even just the Working Timetable.

One has to weigh up the potential benefit most of the time, versus the rare but non-zero risk of ending up on the wrong service.

I very nearly ended up on a non-stop Cambridge train at KX due to a last-minute untimetabled reformation. Obviously much more of a problem if you're in a hurry to get somewhere or the service you end up on is non-stop to somewhere far away.

Most of the time however it's a pretty civilized way of boarding.