I travel from Bath to London Paddington each day and since the new IET / 800’s were introduced have had consistent luck in getting a seat.
I’m always careful not to sit in a reserved seat as I’ve got lots of work to get on with generally and just want to get on with it. This morning on finding a table of four unoccupied in a carriage seemingly without seat reservations I sat down and got by bag unpacked. A man came along and said ‘you’re in my seat’ and I said ‘I don’t think there are any reservations’, we had a bit of back and forth with him getting angrier and angrier, saying that he was going to move me himself, and my pointing out that this would be assault and that I didn’t want to end up sitting in someone else’s seat. For full context and disclosure it ended up being a lightly loaded train and indeed stayed that way to Paddington.
Having read this forum for the last year or so I’ve ended up with the opinion that in the event of no reservations being indicated that reservations are lost. I know that this isn’t everyone’s position but in my defence and as I’ve said, I travel every day and spend 6 hours travelling to and from work so I feel like I do deserve to sit down especially if there’s not a reservation.
I said if he was unhappy, to get a member of train staff and I could talk to them... at that point bizarrely GWR’s ‘Director of Project Operations’ who I won’t name but he’s googleable rolled up (he travels from bath too but normally in 1st class) and asked what the problem was. The angry reservation holder said that I was in his seat, I explained that if I moved that I’d end up sitting in someone else’s seat - he (the GWR chap) turned distinctly unfriendly at this point. I said to the angry passenger with the reservation that ‘it’s ok he’ll probably upgrade you to first class’ at which point the GWR chap said ‘it’s none of my business’ then slapped his down on my shoulder saying that I’d made my position quite clear and he took the man off...probably to 1st class.
It was the oddest encounter I’ve had on a train and I feel whilst not wanting to make a fuss about, it a fairly senior member of GWR’s management really mishandled something that was fundamental his companies fault - he could have just taken the angry bearded man away and not lectured, patronised and (gently) hit one of his customers who has incidentally spent about an unfathomable amount (over £50k) with his company over the last 3 years.
I think I just wanted to get it off my chest but will be interested in your thoughts. My wife thinks I should complain to GWR for the physical contact.
I’m always careful not to sit in a reserved seat as I’ve got lots of work to get on with generally and just want to get on with it. This morning on finding a table of four unoccupied in a carriage seemingly without seat reservations I sat down and got by bag unpacked. A man came along and said ‘you’re in my seat’ and I said ‘I don’t think there are any reservations’, we had a bit of back and forth with him getting angrier and angrier, saying that he was going to move me himself, and my pointing out that this would be assault and that I didn’t want to end up sitting in someone else’s seat. For full context and disclosure it ended up being a lightly loaded train and indeed stayed that way to Paddington.
Having read this forum for the last year or so I’ve ended up with the opinion that in the event of no reservations being indicated that reservations are lost. I know that this isn’t everyone’s position but in my defence and as I’ve said, I travel every day and spend 6 hours travelling to and from work so I feel like I do deserve to sit down especially if there’s not a reservation.
I said if he was unhappy, to get a member of train staff and I could talk to them... at that point bizarrely GWR’s ‘Director of Project Operations’ who I won’t name but he’s googleable rolled up (he travels from bath too but normally in 1st class) and asked what the problem was. The angry reservation holder said that I was in his seat, I explained that if I moved that I’d end up sitting in someone else’s seat - he (the GWR chap) turned distinctly unfriendly at this point. I said to the angry passenger with the reservation that ‘it’s ok he’ll probably upgrade you to first class’ at which point the GWR chap said ‘it’s none of my business’ then slapped his down on my shoulder saying that I’d made my position quite clear and he took the man off...probably to 1st class.
It was the oddest encounter I’ve had on a train and I feel whilst not wanting to make a fuss about, it a fairly senior member of GWR’s management really mishandled something that was fundamental his companies fault - he could have just taken the angry bearded man away and not lectured, patronised and (gently) hit one of his customers who has incidentally spent about an unfathomable amount (over £50k) with his company over the last 3 years.
I think I just wanted to get it off my chest but will be interested in your thoughts. My wife thinks I should complain to GWR for the physical contact.