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FGW seat reservations

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ValleyLines142

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There's a passenger who every morning gets on the 0755 Severn Tunnel Junction to Portsmouth Harbour service, known for being notoriously busy between Cardiff and Bristol (at present booked for a 150+158). Said passenger gets on the train every single morning and waltzes her way through the carriage to her seat, and on every single occassion I've been on the service someone has been sat in her seat and she has evicted them.

However, the cloud hangs over because every time she gets on the train, she doesn't have a seat reservation ticket in her hand, and she also doesn't even attempt to look at the seat numbers and check where her apparent seat is; she literally just appears to walk up to any seat and evict someone. The seat she is in always has a reservation on it, but it is not the same seat every day. Note that she only goes as far as Bristol, a mere twenty minute journey, and she is also the only person out of the fifty odd that get on at STJ that has a seat reservation for as far as Bristol.

I have a couple of questions on this matter:

1) Is it possible to reserve a seat between Severn Tunnel Junction and Bristol? I thought it was only possible from Cardiff and Newport.
2) Unless she is a huge nerd, how does she know where her seat is?
3) Does she perhaps reserve the seat from say Newport and claim it at Severn Tunnel after?

It's an interesting one, and I'd like to see what she would do if there was a last minute alteration, such as the train being short formed, cancelled or no seat reservations being displayed. I remember one time there were no seat reservations, but I was in Coach B on the day and she is always in Coach A, and I'd loved to have seen what she'd done!

It's an interesting topic to be honest.
 
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Bletchleyite

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1) Is it possible to reserve a seat between Severn Tunnel Junction and Bristol? I thought it was only possible from Cardiff and Newport.

You can reserve a seat between any two calling points on a reservable train. Perhaps relevant to this case fGW (unlike some TOCs) does allow season ticket holders to do block reservations, and I guess it won't automatically be the same seat.

2) Unless she is a huge nerd, how does she know where her seat is?

Perhaps she reads it before she boards? Or perhaps she stores it in her phone?

Personally, if someone asks me to shift I usually ask (politely) to see the coupon, because people so often either try it on or get it wrong, though.
 

ValleyLines142

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You can reserve a seat between any two calling points on a reservable train. Perhaps relevant to this case fGW (unlike some TOCs) does allow season ticket holders to do block reservations, and I guess it won't automatically be the same seat.

That sounds like what it may be.

Neil Williams said:
Perhaps she reads it before she boards? Or perhaps she stores it in her phone?

Perhaps but she seems to know exactly where her seat is.

Neil Williams said:
Personally, if someone asks me to shift I usually ask (politely) to see the coupon, because people so often either try it on or get it wrong, though.

Same.
 

PhilipF

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That route is forever busy, moreover heck of a lot of seats have reservation tickets on the back of them. TBH, I rarely read them, but rarely get 'tipped out', reckon they're a damn nuisance. Are they reset at the end of each journey? Being this route is always so crowded, will be real pleased when higher capacity trains are running on it - but when please?


Philip
 

yorkie

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Perhaps FGW need to promote seat reservations more, as it appears not many people know about it!

And so everyone gets a seat and there is none of this 'oh you're sat in my seat' confrontation?

A happy ending all round obviously? ;)
 

Parallel

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A lot of First Great Western local/regional services in the west don't have reservable seats. With the Portsmouth 158s, it seems two carriages have reservable seats whilst one is left unreserved. I'd argue that the Portsmouth trains actually need less reservations/advance fares because, they are crowded for a lot of the day.
 

Starmill

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Personally, if someone asks me to shift I usually ask (politely) to see the coupon, because people so often either try it on or get it wrong, though.

Bad idea. If you are sat in a seat that is reserved at that point in the journey, you should just move without having to be asked. Failing that be alert for someone whose seat it is and then offer to move quickly. Do not sit there in ignorance of the reservation until someone shows you something you have no right to see.
 

Flamingo

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Bad idea. If you are sat in a seat that is reserved at that point in the journey, you should just move without having to be asked. Failing that be alert for someone whose seat it is and then offer to move quickly. Do not sit there in ignorance of the reservation until someone shows you something you have no right to see.

It's quite common for people to think that because they have reserved seat "C39", that applies to every train they might catch, not just one. It's also relatively common for people to chance their arm and just claim a seat was reserved. If somebody turned up at a station where the seat was not reserved from, and claimed it was their seat, I would not consider it unreasonable to look for proof. I would also wait for the person to turn up, not just stand up at that station, as I would reckon between a quarter and a third of all reservations sit somewhere else or don't turn up at all.
 

Bletchleyite

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Bad idea. If you are sat in a seat that is reserved at that point in the journey, you should just move without having to be asked. Failing that be alert for someone whose seat it is and then offer to move quickly. Do not sit there in ignorance of the reservation until someone shows you something you have no right to see.

It's *so* common for people to falsely claim seats I'm sitting in that I do at least ask politely what their seat number is. In particular, a lot of people used to interpret the "A", "F" and "B" suffixes (I don't think you get these any more) for airline, facing and back, to mean the coach letter. As I normally choose coach A in a Pendolino, this used to be very common, and I don't think I ever had to move - rather I had to redirect them to their correct seat.

What's also common is someone claiming the window when their reserved seat is the aisle (or vice versa), because the labelling is not very clear.
 

headshot119

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It's *so* common for people to falsely claim seats I'm sitting in that I do at least ask politely what their seat number is. In particular, a lot of people used to interpret the "A", "F" and "B" suffixes (I don't think you get these any more) for airline, facing and back, to mean the coach letter. As I normally choose coach A in a Pendolino, this used to be very common, and I don't think I ever had to move - rather I had to redirect them to their correct seat.

What's also common is someone claiming the window when their reserved seat is the aisle (or vice versa), because the labelling is not very clear.

Similar thing kept happening to me and I got into the habit of asking to see the coupon when told I was in someones seat.

I did try and help a woman once, I was on a TPE service going from Manchester - York, I sat in a table seat which was reserved Leeds - York, all the other seats on the table where reserved until Leeds. Shortly on departure from York a woman arrived, with her mother and two kids, rudely told me I was in her seat, I asked to see her coupon which she showed me, right seat wrong train on an advance ticket, she insisted I was wrong, so I got up and stood nearby, very satisfying when she got stung for anytime tickets for the four of them .:lol:
 

yorkie

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By the way, just in case anyone wasn't sure, my post #8 above was not at all serious and was a parody of this discussion regarding disputes on overcrowded XC trains.
....very satisfying when she got stung for anytime tickets for the four of them .:lol:
Must have been a few years ago then, as it's been the appropriate fare (not full fare) for a quite a while. Also I don't think many TPE Guards would do that, so I guess they failed the 'attitude test' <D
 

ValleyLines142

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By the way, just in case anyone wasn't sure, my post #8 above was not at all serious and was a parody of this discussion regarding disputes on overcrowded XC trains

Yeah I think we gathered that thanks....... :roll:

So hilarious.

Similar thing kept happening to me and I got into the habit of asking to see the coupon when told I was in someones seat.

I did try and help a woman once, I was on a TPE service going from Manchester - York, I sat in a table seat which was reserved Leeds - York, all the other seats on the table where reserved until Leeds. Shortly on departure from York a woman arrived, with her mother and two kids, rudely told me I was in her seat, I asked to see her coupon which she showed me, right seat wrong train on an advance ticket, she insisted I was wrong, so I got up and stood nearby, very satisfying when she got stung for anytime tickets for the four of them .:lol:

It's amazing how ignorant some people can be when people such as yourselves are trying to help them. Oh well, her loss!
 
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headshot119

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By the way, just in case anyone wasn't sure, my post #8 above was not at all serious and was a parody of this discussion regarding disputes on overcrowded XC trains.

Must have been a few years ago then, as it's been the appropriate fare (not full fare) for a quite a while. Also I don't think many TPE Guards would do that, so I guess they failed the 'attitude test' <D

I was still travelling on child tickets, so it goes back a fair way.

After how she spoke to me it doesn't surprise me that she failed the attitude test <D
 
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