But surely that would apply on any train without reservations? ie, you're relying on goodwill which most people would give.
Likewise, if a family found a spare, unreserved, table at the origin, imagine if someone who had reserved a seat at that table then demanded that a member of the family move?
The only sensible policy is that which all TOCs that I know of - other than XC of course - adopt.
As for XC guards, there's at least one who absolutely supports the policy and who did nothing to help a young lady who did not feel confident enough to evict someone from 'her' seat who was sat in the vestibule, yet was happy for other passengers to be bullied by rude obnoxious people who had far more confidence than her to evict passengers. But the impression I get is that most of the guards think the policy is unworkable and ridiculous, and don't adopt it themselves (and they aren't disobeying instructions as they've never been told about it! Looks like certain 'issues' with XCs poor management!)
