Virgin Trains (West Coast) - "Priority boarding"

[800001]

I think anything that helps to ease that 'scrum' at Euston is a good thing.

 

[Llanigraham]

I swear, it's getting to the point where if Virgin gave out free lollipops someone on here would bash Virgin for not thinking of diabetics. They can't seem to do anything right.

If Virgin want to give an extra free perk for booking with them, like miles or priority boarding, great. Everyone else still gets exactly what they paid for - a train ride.

I really don't see why we need to create a mountain here.

Quite!!

 

[Puffing Devil]

Ive booked numerous times from both virgin websites, both times normal post dispatched tickets, tickets arrived the next day. never paid £7.50.

Same here. I feel bad about booking £4.60 advances to Manchester and having them posted out to me. (Adult + Child + Railcard, on Northern).

 

[Senex]

If the "reserved" passengers have boarded before me then that means that I have a good chance of being able to sit in any vacant seat once I'm on the train (because the person with the reserved ticket isn't boarding).

A problem with this with a very busy service might come if too many of the "reserved" first boarders decide they don't like the seat they've been allocated and go and sit in free seats. Then the people without reservations come along and find that there are seats reserved that are not going to be taken because their occupants are already installed elsewhere.

Maybe if this policy is to be more generally implemented then those holding reservations should be required to use the seat they have reserved.

 

[47271]

Anyone who's upset by this can book through another website and find themselves entirely untroubled by the texts.

I agree that this is largely customer engagement froth, but realistically how much extra time are the text recipients getting anyway? Knowing the ways of Euston departures only too well - and being an old hand at playing the RTT platform game - I can't see that there's much more than a minute or two leeway between the train getting prepped and all passengers swarming aboard. If that two minute period can be used productively to spread out the scrum on the ramp then it's a good idea.

I take the point about those with reserved seats choosing to occupy unreserved ones that suit them better, but it's only a tiny minority of general travellers who don't slavishly keep to their reserved seats anyway. Any seat reserved from Euston but unoccupied after departure will soon find itself taken if the train's really that busy...

 

[DaveB10780]

The problem is you don't get this perk if you book somehwere else, as far as I can determine.

Yes but VT knows your details when you book with them because I have an account. I would be surprised if that was true from another web site.

 

[All Line Rover]

For my journey this afternoon I received a text message at exactly the same time as the platform number appeared on the departure boards: 20 minutes before departure, which is excellent.

If Virgin keeps running the system like this (i.e. an alternative to having to stare at the departure boards on the main concourse), I am in favour of it.

But if they go down the route of a "priority boarding" service, as was advertised this morning (but which I note was not displayed this afternoon), this is far from ideal when Transport Focus identified passengers' main gripe with Euston station being the short notice platform announcements.

Consistently announcing the platform 20 minutes before departure, as seemed to be the case for most trains this afternoon, should smooth the flow of passengers boarding each service, avoiding the "scrum". A "priority boarding" service (except for disabled passengers and those with bulky luggage or bikes), on the other hand, would do very little to alleviate the "scrum".
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
A few people have commented that they want measures to be taken to address the problem of unreserved passengers clogging the aisles in carriages where other passengers have made reservations. I'm puzzled as to how this problem can exist. Coaches F and U are permanently unreserved. Virgin advertise this fact prominently. There is no need for unreserved passengers to walk through reserved coaches (other than Coach A, if they want to sit in the Quiet Coach).

 

[edwin_m]

It is little things like this and the discount fares available if you are Only travelling on their services i.e no connections that really annoy me. I have to travel one stop on a Northern connecting service to access the WCML at Virgin's cheap tickets it costs me £10 to get from the WCML stop to Euston and £4 to get to the WCML. However if I book that as a through journey with the same connection at the same station (even through Virgins website), I am not entitled to the £14 fare and the it costs 4x as much.

If you buy both tickets at the same time then doesn't it count as a split ticket? If you do that then I understand if the first train is late and misses the connection, then (as long as it was scheduled to provider the recommended connection time) the operator has to accommodate you on a later train at no extra cost. So you would have got the equivalent of a £14 through ticket.

 

[Marklund]

It's not the seat, more the reduced amount of luggage space that would concern me.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It doesn't matter when you buy the tickets, you can according to the NRCoC use more than one ticket for one journey.

 

[paul1609]

I agree. £2 would seem a sensible sum, and it would reduce the number of "I might as well, it's free" type réservations in a similar way that the 5p bag "tax" has reduced carrier bag usage.

If £1 was refunded for cancelling a reservation, all the better, the system would be yet more trustworthy.

An awful lot of unused short distance reservations are people using the and connections bit South of the Thames due to the unfair loading of fares.
Apparently there are loads of people on SWT and Thameslink commuting on advance tickets to Peterborough that never get used North of Euston Rd
.

 

[moggie]

Well, seemingly VT have managed to pi55 off another significant proportion of their paying customers while the rest will give minimal credit to them after the novelty period has worn off (give it a week).

Isn't the whole point of a regular clock face timetable to enable those who can't predict what train they'll be on before hand (you know, those business types stuck in long all day meetings who pay top dollar for their tickets) turn up and go! Do they stop on the way and reserve a seat with their expensive season / anytime ticket tucked in their pocket? I doubt it.

VT marketing - very smart, not very clever.

 

[exile]

"For my journey this afternoon I received a text message at exactly the same time as the platform number appeared on the departure boards: 20 minutes before departure, which is excellent."

So how is that "priority boarding"?

 

[ScouserGirl]

I normally use Real Time Trains to give me a rough idea what platform to hang around as I don't always trust it am still first on to the train when it does come up correct.

People saying they have received the text 20 minutes before departure, normally the train is announced before departure anyway so this text service virgin provide isn't really speedy boarding is it?

 

[Taunton]

Why do people who have a seat reserved need to get on first. You already have your seat. People without reservations should be the first on.
Having said that on VT out of Euston a big percentage of reserved seats end up not getting used anyway.

As one who commonly buys tickets at departure, and pays the highest fare but receives the worst service, I find this annoying too.

One of the issues is those with reservations will regularly find they don't like the seat they are assigned (no window, wrong way round, not with friends, etc) and will move on to vacant unreserved seat they prefer. Then those of us with high priced tickets board to find the seats either reserved or already taken.

 

[Hadders]

I've got mixed views on this. I travelled from Euston to Coventry last Sunday with tickets booked through VTWC's site during their seat sale.

RTT said the train was due to depart from platform 6. The incoming train was late so I hovered around the top of the platform waiting for its arrival.

20 minutes before departure I got a text saying the train was nearly ready. 5 minutes before departure I got another text saying platform 5 and reminding me of my seat details. RTT also changed to show platform 5. I couldn't see the departure board from where I was standing but it must have been announced at the same time judging by the 'tidal wave' of people that headed towards platform 5.

Of course the seat reservations hadn't been loaded onto the displays in the train - they finally appeared a couple of minutes before the (slightly delayed) departure - cue confused passengers playing musical chairs.

 

[D6975]

Of course the seat reservations hadn't been loaded onto the displays in the train - they finally appeared a couple of minutes before the (slightly delayed) departure - cue confused passengers playing musical chairs.

This, to me is far more annoying than any priority boarding system.
XC are particularly guilty in this respect on the Voyagers that turn round at Temple Meads. Often the reservations don't come up until North of Parkway, and on one recent trip, when they did appear, they were for the wrong service and it wasn't until well on the way to Cheltenham that the correct info was displayed.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Just out of curiosity, am I right to think that the TM has control of loading reservations on 220/221s?

Do the reservations influence what information is displayed on exterior passenger information screens on 220/221s?

Sorry off topic.

 

[Minilad]

Just out of curiosity, am I right to think that the TM has control of loading reservations on 220/221s?

Do the reservations influence what information is displayed on exterior passenger information screens on 220/221s?

Sorry off topic.

Yes the TMs download the reservations when they set the system up. No the info on the screens has nothing to do with reservations

 

[voyagerdude220]

Thank you Minilad for confirming.

 

[yorksrob]

Just watching Dave Gorman demolishing "priority boarding" on the telly

Seems like pointless airline flim-flam, the sort of which Virgin seem particularly fond of, to me.

 

[Philip Phlopp]

Just watching Dave Gorman demolishing "priority boarding" on the telly

Seems like pointless airline flim-flam, the sort of which Virgin seem particularly fond of, to me.

PR over BR.

 

[All Line Rover]

If the "reserved" passengers have boarded before me then that means that I have a good chance of being able to sit in any vacant seat once I'm on the train (because the person with the reserved ticket isn't boarding).

And then I come along 3 minutes before departure with my seat reservation in hand. Oh dear. Apparently I'm not allowed to board!

Aww, this sounds good, a positive thread about Virgin, sounds an excellent idea for dealing with the Euston scrum, I'm glad that you are drawing it to our attention...

...oh.

Snap!

Let's pretend there are two passengers - A and B. A has a reserved seat on the train.

If passenger A gets on first, they sit in their seat, all is as it should be.

If passenger B gets on first, they sit in A's seat, A then has to turf them out, potentially causing arguments and also disrupting the flow of passengers who are trying to walk along the coach.

Why do you prefer the second scenario?

It is equally likely that passenger A does not like their reserved seat and decides to occupy a seat that passenger B would have selected.

There is an argument for saying that passengers with Anytime tickets should have first choice of seats because they have paid 'more', but in my opinion a passenger holding a £140 Warrington to London Standard Advance ticket has paid 'more', for what they are receiving, than a passenger holding a £156 Warrington to London Standard Anytime Single ticket. But how do you prioritise the £140 Advance ticket holder, but not the £20 Advance ticket holder?

Thankfully this would all appear to be an academic argument because...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

"For my journey this afternoon I received a text message at exactly the same time as the platform number appeared on the departure boards: 20 minutes before departure, which is excellent."

So how is that "priority boarding"?

Err... it's not. And that's good. Having platform numbers sent by text message, as an alternative to checking the departure boards, is a welcome improvement. It's something that other ticket retailers can also look to roll out if they want to provide the best passenger experience. But it's not what Virgin has been intermittently advertising at Euston station. One hopes it is a glitch with Virgin's marketing department and not an operational decision.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Well, seemingly VT have managed to pi55 off another significant proportion of their paying customers

Judging by this thread, I would say a minority of customers, who happen to be industry aware will be peed off. For the majority of VT customers who do not inhabit the world of RailUK, it will be seen as a good thing. Or ignored.

 

[PowerLee]

Seat reservations should be done away with in standard class, it just seems to cause to many repeat issues.

 

[HowardGWR]

For those of us who have not been to Euston in many decades, can someone elucidate to me how this 'scrum' thing works? I looked up Euston on RTT and all the platforms are listed for hours hence. Why can't they put these on the departure board? Why wouldn't they?

 

[ScouserGirl]

For those of us who have not been to Euston in many decades, can someone elucidate to me how this 'scrum' thing works? I looked up Euston on RTT and all the platforms are listed for hours hence. Why can't they put these on the departure board? Why wouldn't they?

Because they platforms can change last minute the amount of times I've used RTT and the platform has been wrong...
RTT goes off booked platforms at they are put on RTT at midnight and are subject to change!

 

[kieron]

Judging by this thread, I would say a minority of customers, who happen to be industry aware will be peed off. For the majority of VT customers who do not inhabit the world of RailUK, it will be seen as a good thing. Or ignored.

My reading of the thread is that some people are concerned that Virgin may have been using privileged information to send these messages. If not, the worst they can be accused of is trying to mislead people into thinking they are offering their customers more than they are doing. As that's something the marketing industry does all the time, I wouldn't personally expect Virgin to be any better.

The other thing this thread made me think of is the way airlines try to spread boarding out (not only the priority boarding, but also staggering the people boarding after them into a few groups). I wonder if trying to reduce the number boarding at the same time could actually make the whole process faster.

 

[CC 72100]

I know there are other ways of doing it if I'm *that* desperate to do so, but I would find the reservation details 'to hand' by means of a text message on my phone quite useful - having tickets when carrying luggage trying to board a train could be just another thing to fall out of your hand (I'm thinking multiple bags here) when boarding.

Due to work I very rarely travel with a reservation these days, but when travelling home from uni with bags I would save the reservation details in the notes section of my phone as that was easier to get out if required than the tickets which were often buried deep in the wallet.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Because they platforms can change last minute the amount of times I've used RTT and the platform has been wrong...
RTT goes off booked platforms at they are put on RTT at midnight and are subject to change!

There is a difference between the booked platform and the actual platform. RTT will keep the actual platform updated.