No seat in 2nd class train carriage

zagfles

discat11 wrote: »

A lot of ticketing staff IME would welcome mandatory seat reservations since there would be fewer petty arguments about reserved seats and few would think it sensible to misbehave as they or their booking agent could easily be traced by the seat number.

How? Last time I bought a ticket with a seat reservation I paid cash, and wasn't asked for name/address. Or are you assuming everyone pays by card?

Dollardog

Even reserving a seat doesn't guarantee you a seat as I found out to my cost a couple of weeks ago.
Because I can't walk/stand for long periods, I booked advanced tickets to travel to Manchester and back. Getting there, no problems. On arriving at Piccadilly for the journey back however, I found that the train had been cancelled. I was told that the next train was in an hour. Enquiring if there was another way, I was told I could go via Sheffield but would have to change. As I'm not good at walking and didn't know how long I would have to change trains, I elected to wait for the next train. That was supposed to leave Manchester at 17.44. At 17.39, the board in the waiting area said to go to the platform. On reaching the platform, the board there said there was a delay and it wouldn't be in until 17.51, after that, every time I looked at it, it was adding a minute on. By this time, it was the rush hour and the platform was getting very full. It was open and very cold. The train finally came in at 17.59, so I had already been standing in the cold for around 20 mins, my legs had virtually seized up. I went to the train manager who was at the back of the train and explained that I ha bought a ticket in advance for a reserved seat on the previous cancelled train and realised that there was no reserved seat for me on this train but did need to sit down. He told me very rudely that there were no reservations on this train and it was pot luck where I sat. I had to get on as by this time the train was filling up. I got on only then to get completely stuck in a line full of standing passengers, I could not get any further down the train as the aisle was blocked completely, some passengers had large suitcases too. By this time, it was too late to get off, there were standing passengers behind and the train was pulling out of the station. I ended up having to stand from Manchester to Sheffield, around an hour. I was in such pain, I was almost in tears. I managed to get a seat when people got off at Sheffield. I could hardly move and was in pain for days after.
It will be a long time before I decide to take a train journey again. I thought that by paying a month in advance and reserving a seat, I would be ok. Lesson learned!!

zagfles

Dollardog wrote: »

Even reserving a seat doesn't guarantee you a seat as I found out to my cost a couple of weeks ago.
Because I can't walk/stand for long periods, I booked advanced tickets to travel to Manchester and back. Getting there, no problems. On arriving at Piccadilly for the journey back however, I found that the train had been cancelled. I was told that the next train was in an hour. Enquiring if there was another way, I was told I could go via Sheffield but would have to change. As I'm not good at walking and didn't know how long I would have to change trains, I elected to wait for the next train. That was supposed to leave Manchester at 17.44. At 17.39, the board in the waiting area said to go to the platform. On reaching the platform, the board there said there was a delay and it wouldn't be in until 17.51, after that, every time I looked at it, it was adding a minute on. By this time, it was the rush hour and the platform was getting very full. It was open and very cold. The train finally came in at 17.59, so I had already been standing in the cold for around 20 mins, my legs had virtually seized up. I went to the train manager who was at the back of the train and explained that I ha bought a ticket in advance for a reserved seat on the previous cancelled train and realised that there was no reserved seat for me on this train but did need to sit down. He told me very rudely that there were no reservations on this train and it was pot luck where I sat. I had to get on as by this time the train was filling up. I got on only then to get completely stuck in a line full of standing passengers, I could not get any further down the train as the aisle was blocked completely, some passengers had large suitcases too. By this time, it was too late to get off, there were standing passengers behind and the train was pulling out of the station. I ended up having to stand from Manchester to Sheffield, around an hour. I was in such pain, I was almost in tears. I managed to get a seat when people got off at Sheffield. I could hardly move and was in pain for days after.
It will be a long time before I decide to take a train journey again. I thought that by paying a month in advance and reserving a seat, I would be ok. Lesson learned!!

Firstly send a letter of complaint to the train company - the train manager should have been far more helpful.

Secondly - don't be shy of asking people if they wouldn't mind giving up their seat as you're unable to stand for long. In this day and age of political correctness and professional offence takers, people seated are often reluctant to ask those standing who look like they might need a seat in case they offend - like Jimmy Carr I think it was said - I'd rather see a pregnant woman standing than a fat woman crying :rotfl:So ask - some may refuse, but you really will find someone who will help.

wealdroam

Dollardog wrote: »

Even reserving a seat doesn't guarantee you a seat as I found out to my cost a couple of weeks ago.
Because I can't walk/stand for long periods, I booked advanced tickets to travel to Manchester and back. Getting there, no problems. On arriving at Piccadilly for the journey back however, I found that the train had been cancelled. I was told that the next train was in an hour. Enquiring if there was another way, I was told I could go via Sheffield but would have to change. As I'm not good at walking and didn't know how long I would have to change trains, I elected to wait for the next train. That was supposed to leave Manchester at 17.44. At 17.39, the board in the waiting area said to go to the platform. On reaching the platform, the board there said there was a delay and it wouldn't be in until 17.51, after that, every time I looked at it, it was adding a minute on. By this time, it was the rush hour and the platform was getting very full. It was open and very cold. The train finally came in at 17.59, so I had already been standing in the cold for around 20 mins, my legs had virtually seized up. I went to the train manager who was at the back of the train and explained that I ha bought a ticket in advance for a reserved seat on the previous cancelled train and realised that there was no reserved seat for me on this train but did need to sit down. He told me very rudely that there were no reservations on this train and it was pot luck where I sat. I had to get on as by this time the train was filling up. I got on only then to get completely stuck in a line full of standing passengers, I could not get any further down the train as the aisle was blocked completely, some passengers had large suitcases too. By this time, it was too late to get off, there were standing passengers behind and the train was pulling out of the station. I ended up having to stand from Manchester to Sheffield, around an hour. I was in such pain, I was almost in tears. I managed to get a seat when people got off at Sheffield. I could hardly move and was in pain for days after.
It will be a long time before I decide to take a train journey again. I thought that by paying a month in advance and reserving a seat, I would be ok. Lesson learned!!

That doesn't make sense.
You say you didn't go via Sheffield because that required a change of trains.
You then tell us that you managed to get a seat after Sheffield when some people got off.

Did you go via Sheffield or not?

zagfles

wealdroam wrote: »

That doesn't make sense.
You say you didn't go via Sheffield because that required a change of trains.
You then tell us that you managed to get a seat after Sheffield when some people got off.

Did you go via Sheffield or not?

It makes perfect sense to me. The first journey required a change of train at Sheffield. The later train was direct to the OP's destination but stopped at Sheffield where some people got off so the OP could sit down.

discat11

zagfles wrote: »

How? Last time I bought a ticket with a seat reservation I paid cash, and wasn't asked for name/address. Or are you assuming everyone pays by card?

Since even if you pay cash on any other mandatory seat reservation travel service (i.e. airline, even domestic) you are asked for proof of identity I would assume this would be normal in the circumstances also.

discat11

I would agree that dollar dog needs to write in.

I also agree that there is no excuse for staff 'rudeness' although I fail to see how the guard could have obviously been more helpful given the circumstances.

It isn't in their control to turf someone else out of a seat (unless they know that person is a member of staff travelling) and of course they could actually get through the train to do this.
It sounded very much from DD's post this would have been an impossible task.
The train was already running late and as such it was the guards priority (after safety) to get the train out as soon as was possible to prevent further accumulative delay, fruitlessly walking up the outside of the train with DD in an attempt to get someone else to give up their seat would have meant a fairly significant delay which no guard is going to be able to justify.

s/he should/could have said 'I'll try and help when we leave the station' however -although they'd have known the chances of that being possible were minimal to be fair if they had any experience at all.


It's all very well criticising the staff member for being 'rude' but at least try to understand what they could have done and what they clearly couldn't have rather than making a coverall judgment they were unhelpful for the sake of it.

Alienna

discat11 wrote: »

Since even if you pay cash on any other mandatory seat reservation travel service (i.e. airline, even domestic) you are asked for proof of identity I would assume this would be normal in the circumstances also.

On trains this isn't the case. I've reserved a lot of seats - all you need to do is choose where you want to be, and voila! A reservation for you. The only thing you have is the seat reservation ticket - to prove the seat is yours.

Flying by air and travelling by train CAN NOT be compared. Travelling by train is like travelling by bus (Apart from more expensive, and the majority being longer journeys and less frequent.) There are a lot more restrictions and checks on air travel due to security and safety. It's normally only a few minutes to the nearest station should an emergency or incident arise. It is a lot longer and harder to get to the nearest airport!

Alienna

discat11 wrote: »

It's all very well criticising the staff member for being 'rude' but at least try to understand what they could have done and what they clearly couldn't have rather than making a coverall judgment they were unhelpful for the sake of it.

While I agree - you don't know what's going on in the background, there are ways of saying things. Even if the Guard didn't mean to be rude, he appeared that way - first impressions count. Communication is a basic level of customer service, and it's gone out the window!

zagfles

discat11 wrote: »

Since even if you pay cash on any other mandatory seat reservation travel service (i.e. airline, even domestic) you are asked for proof of identity I would assume this would be normal in the circumstances also.

As someone else said earlier the comparison with airlines is irrelavent. Airlines require ID for regulatory purposes and also, because fares vary a lot depending when booked, they don't want people to buy tickets when cheap and sell them on ebay when the price goes up. It's got nothing to do with seat reservation - in fact airlines often overbook.

Doing the same on trains would be a nightmare. It would take the flexibility out of booking to always have to decide in advance what train you want to get. What about short journeys, commuter journeys, you really expect people to prebook seats on these? And not have the flexibility eg to get a later train if they have to work late? That would definitely drive more people off the rails (excuse the pun) and onto the roads.