Overcrowded trains/empty First Class carriages

Scarlett

South West Trains always announce that customers are allowed to use first class seating in peak hours; on my line they did, anyway.

Anic

On a journey back to Glasgow from Preston at the September Holiday Weekend last year our Virgin train was the usual cattle wagon with people standing all along the aisles and in the doorways etc.

As with all pre-bought tickets we had seats booked with the seat number aobut thirty somehting. When the train came in we didn't know which end of the coach to get in so I went one way with my son and hand luggage and my husband when the other way with the case. My son and I were lucky in that the doors stopped right in front of where we were standing and we got our seats quit quickly but the coach soon filled up with people and luggage in the aisles and nobody being able to move. You can imagine my worry when I couldn't see my husband anywhere and the train had pulled out of the station.

I needn't have worried though because I called his mobile to see where he was only to discover he had parked himself in first class. When the inspector came along to check the tickets he explained his was with me at our booked seats in the next coach but as he had just announced over the tannoy that luggage was not to be left unattained (is that the word?) then he couldn't leave his suitcase at the only space available (in first class) while he tried to clamber through all the bodies and luggage further up the train. The inspector said that was fine - just as long as he didn't take any of the free food or drinks!!!

A couple of minutes later an elderly couple and another couple with a small child came and joined him as the Inspector had told them to go and sit in first class rather than standing in the doorways.

grex9101

WHA wrote:

What is needed is true "privatisation", i.e. the train companies having a lot more freedom about which routes, where to stop, timings, train size, etc., or even better, a single train company operating the lot. Of course, we had that with gold old British Rail, but state ownership ruined what could have been a national treasure.

I think you'll find that what we ACTUALLY need is a return to TRUE nationalisation.

The government pays more in subsidies to PRIVATE companies than it ever spent on good old BR...
Renationalisation would only save us, the taxpayer, money in the long run.

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Trow wrote:

It's more complicated than that. When the captain gets his figures (i.e. weights of passengers, baggage and freight) he decides how to load the aircraft based on the weights and where the passengers are expected to sit. Once the passengers are on board (but before take-off) the air steward will confirm where the passengers are and the captain may adjust the settings for the flight if there is a significant difference.

It is possible then that fourteen passengers less in the rear and more in the front might have a detimental effect.

But then I only know the basics - for more info ask a commercial pilot!

I would imagine they endangered the aircraft because they refused to comply with flight crews instructions.

Astaroth

Personally on my trips from London to Leeds I normally just pay the £10 to upgrade to first class on the train - most the time I use the wireless interent on the Malard trains which costs almost £10 for the duration of the journey but is free of charge in First class so it is basically no additional cost but you get the benefits on the train (like a seat ).

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Astaroth wrote:

Personally on my trips from London to Leeds I normally just pay the £10 to upgrade to first class on the train - most the time I use the wireless interent on the Malard trains which costs almost £10 for the duration of the journey but is free of charge in First class so it is basically no additional cost but you get the benefits on the train (like a seat ).

Oh the joys of standing from London to Leeds ! And you can easily drink a couple of quids worth of free coffee during the journey and not be hassled by too many sticky fingered, grizzling rugrats. Well worth £10.

Outtathaway

Wireless internet? Free drinks? Now that first class, on South West trains only difference between standard and first class is that first class has more space and 'lamps' on the tables

ribenagirl

Hmmm.....just got me thinking. Say, for example, you bought a standard class ticket, but got on a train and found you were going to have to stand up most of the way anyway. Is there anything to stop you going to STAND in one of the first class compartments? I mean, technically, you're not actually occupying a first class seat that you haven't paid for, are you, and you'll be able to stand in relative comfort compared to the hoi polloi?

S'pose the worst that could happen is, they'd go and tell you to stand somewhere else....might have to give this a go!

black-saturn

I was on a really crowded train coming back from London with 2 small children once who were wingeing all the way home. In the end I sat in the first class carriage with them. When the conductor asked for an extra £5 I said "when you offer a first class service I'll pay first class prices". She just walked off.

If I were you I would write to them with a complaint and send the ticket to them. You might get all your money back.

grex9101

black-saturn wrote:

I was on a really crowded train coming back from London with 2 small children once who were wingeing all the way home. In the end I sat in the first class carriage with them. When the conductor asked for an extra £5 I said "when you offer a first class service I'll pay first class prices". She just walked off.

If I were you I would write to them with a complaint and send the ticket to them. You might get all your money back.

You'll be glad to know that you were in breach of the railway byelaws by doing this, and if a revenue protection officer was on board you would have been cautioned and possibly charged.

What a great example to set for your kiddywinks. Let's hope they grow up with more sense than you obviously have.