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Passing on seat reservations

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MidnightFlyer

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This incident happened a few months ago, however I was unsure of the legality of the situation, plus the Train manager never passed me (I didn't want to approach him), ergo I couldn't do anything.

I was on a particularly busy Virgin Trains service from Birmingham New St to Euston one weekend in spring. It was a 9 car 390, and quite busy due to coming from Wolves, and there being a major sporting event in London that weekend. At New St I and several others boarded, and I found myself stood in one of the reservable coaches. A group of women passed me searching for seats together. When they found none they stood next to a table with three men sat there. Hearing the ladies' request, one of the men offered her his group's reservations for a table seat in another carriage, saying they were fine as they had a table already. The ladies thanks the gents and moved away with the reservation ticket to find the table. Birmingham International approached and the train largely emptied briefly so I moved away to find another seat, so I don't know what happened. The guard never did an inspection that journey, but I was just wondering whether or not what the man offered was in breach of by-laws or the NRCoC.

Cheers
 
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redthunder

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Not completely 100% but i dont think it would have breached any by laws as no tickets have changed hands or anything like that (the only exception would be if it was an advance purchase ticket where seat reservations are compulsory) so looking at it, they were just being gentlemen!!!! A Seat Reservation is completely worthless if you haven't got a ticket anyways!!!!!! If I'm wrong I've learnt something new there lol
 

bb21

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I don't see anything in the Byelaws explicitly against it.
 

rdwarr

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There is the general problem of people standing because the people in reserved seats have sat somewhere else though.
 

Robinson

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There is the general problem of people standing because the people in reserved seats have sat somewhere else though.

If a seat shows as reserved from the station I've got on at, but has not been taken (and I haven't already sat down in an unreserved seat), I will most likely assume that the person holding the reservation doesn't want it, and sit in it myself.
 

Deerfold

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If a seat shows as reserved from the station I've got on at, but has not been taken (and I haven't already sat down in an unreserved seat), I will most likely assume that the person holding the reservation doesn't want it, and sit in it myself.

Yes, that could be a problem if the men had been sat there for some time already.

On occasion I am standing as my train leaves Kings X. After a few minutes I'll go looking for a reservation from KX with no-one sat in it. It's amazing how many people don't though.
 

Searle

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At the top of the seat reservation ticket, it says "VALID ONLY WITH TICKET XXXXX", which corresponds to the ticket number of the other part to the advance ticket. Surely if you do what OP says, it's invalid due to the number not corresponding properly? Not that I've ever seen a guard actually check that the numbers match up :P
 

rail-britain

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At the top of the seat reservation ticket, it says "VALID ONLY WITH TICKET XXXXX", which corresponds to the ticket number of the other part to the advance ticket. Surely if you do what OP says, it's invalid due to the number not corresponding properly? Not that I've ever seen a guard actually check that the numbers match up
There are no seat reservation tickets, on the seats themselves
From memory all the Conditions mention is that a seat will be provided, but there is no guarantee it will be the seat as issued on the ticket and/or reservation entry

In general conductors will simply ensure both tickets are present, and the person is seating in the appropriate section of the train for that ticket type
 

IanD

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You can get reservations on non-advanced tickets.

Do these also say 'Only valid with ticket xxxxxx'?
 

IanD

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Suppose that's to stop the fare dodgers reserving seats :)

(Actually I can see that it's to stop people saying "I thought it was a ticket.")
 
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