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Just been looking at trips down in Devon etc and there is something odd going on with the reservations etc.
EMR app tells me a train is sold out... GWR app would happily sell me tickets for the same train but fell over at the payment stage...
As seat reservations were needed that box is ticked on the app but it just says Coach ** seat *****
Chose to go somewhere else instead today and again booked tickets for a local jaunt down the coast from Dawlish Warren to Torquay again it said I needed seats but just said Coach *** seat **** at the station there was staff just selling tickets to anyone that wanted them.
Now my other question is as I have an off peak return I assume my reservation is “optional” the e ticket does say “optional reservation” which i take to mean it was optional for me to have one?
Just been looking at trips down in Devon etc and there is something odd going on with the reservations etc.
EMR app tells me a train is sold out... GWR app would happily sell me tickets for the same train but fell over at the payment stage...
As seat reservations were needed that box is ticked on the app but it just says Coach ** seat *****
Chose to go somewhere else instead today and again booked tickets for a local jaunt down the coast from Dawlish Warren to Torquay again it said I needed seats but just said Coach *** seat **** at the station there was staff just selling tickets to anyone that wanted them.
Now my other question is as I have an off peak return I assume my reservation is “optional” the e ticket does say “optional reservation” which i take to mean it was optional for me to have one?
I did wonder if that was the case, was just odd that for the same train EMT said it was sold out but GWR app would happily sell me a ticket it seemed, not sure about the folks who were buying at the station but didn’t over hear any of them being told they have to pick a train and stick to it etc.
I am planning to travel to Reading later this week with Contactless payment (sadly no railcard discount). Do I still need to get a seat reservation in advance?
I am planning to travel to Reading later this week with Contactless payment (sadly no railcard discount). Do I still need to get a seat reservation in advance?
No. The public message is that reservations are recommended wherever available, but they remain compulsory solely on LNER and CS.
It rather shows the ludicrousness of the whole situation when there are services on which reservations are purportedly "compulsory" (according to the timetable data) where you can use a contactless card as payment...
No. The public message is that reservations are recommended wherever available, but they remain compulsory solely on LNER and CS.
It rather shows the ludicrousness of the whole situation when there are services on which reservations are purportedly "compulsory" (according to the timetable data) where you can use a contactless card as payment...
Absolutely, and it also adds to the confusion when different sales channels are not consistently explaining the situation - as the OP has found with EMR showing 'sold out' but GWR simply failing at the payment stage.
Witness also something in the data that means that (some?) WebTis-powered online sites have been showing the following warnings for months now, with absolutely no foundation in fact:
No wonder that folks are confused and are not returning to the railways in sustainable numbers!
Absolutely, and it also adds to the confusion when different sales channels are not consistently explaining the situation - as the OP has found with EMR showing 'sold out' but GWR simply failing at the payment stage.
Or GWR's booking engine insisting that journeys not just on their own services but on connections with TFW Rail and Southern require a reservation, then to concede that it can't get one on TFW Rail but issuing (no assigned seat) reservations for the other legs even though Southern say that reservations are neither available nor required.
That of course has the side-effect that on some trains you'll only be offered a First Class fare, when if you rocked up you could buy a Standard one from the TVM.
I can see why they are doing it, but isn't that, you know, potentially fraud in the eyes of the law?
whats the easiest way to get a reservation with GWR if you have already purchased a ticket, such as a Rover?
LNER has an easy way to do it online, and with XC it can be done easily by text message.
Does anyone know if GWR has anything simple like this?
whats the easiest way to get a reservation with GWR if you have already purchased a ticket, such as a Rover?
LNER has an easy way to do it online, and with XC it can be done easily by text message.
Does anyone know if GWR has anything simple like this?
I think this question is appropriate for this thread – I suspect that availability of reservable seats or counted places may explain some of what I’ve noticed. If I’m asking in the wrong place, apologies, and maybe the powers that be can move it.
If all goes according to plan, I will be travelling from Penzance to Reading on Friday 2nd October. In view of the coronavirus-related uncertainty, I would prefer not to have an Advance ticket, and as GWR have reasonably priced walk-up singles, this is what I am trying to buy; but to avoid any risk of not getting on the train I would prefer to make a reservation sooner rather than later, and not wait to buy a ticket on the day. The line between Exeter and Taunton is closed that week, and I am determined to avoid the replacement bus; my preferred option is a diverted through train from Plymouth, but changing to SWR at Exeter would be quite acceptable. However, there seems to be a problem with buying tickets.
Trainsplit finds no flexible fares at all, and most of the fixed-time ones include a bus journey. If I use the advanced options to exclude bus travel, I get just one flexible journey opportunity, via Basingstoke, but if I switch to ‘fixed time’, I get the same flexible super-off-peak single at £61.10 offered on a few other journey opportunities, also via Basingstoke. If I add in the information that I have a Network Railcard, there is still just the one flexible option (slightly cheaper as it involves splitting and using the railcard); fixed-time gives more choice, but this time most options really are fixed-time.
NRE offers mostly bus options, with one Basingstoke one, a couple of Advances on diverted GWR trains, and one option with no fare shown at all that supposedly involves a 17.58 train from Exeter through the blockade to Bristol Parkway. Asking it to avoid Taunton gives several Basingstoke options at £61.10 and some journeys on through Plymouth-Reading trains, of which some are on advances and some have no fare shown.
The GWR site also tries to put me on the bus, with just one Basingstoke option arriving late in the evening. Asking it to avoid Taunton gives a reasonable number of Basingstoke options (though none between 12.50 and 15.50), all at £61.10, and none on diverted trains.
I haven’t tried actually booking any of these options, so I don’t know whether some of them might fail at a later stage.
Can anyone explain these oddities?
And does anyone have any idea a) whether what actually runs on the day is (assuming no dramatic changes in the coronavirus situation) likely to be the same as the timetable currently in the system, b) how busy GWR and SWR are likely to be on that date, and c) which departures from Penzance are likely to be HSTs?
Thankyou for any information you can provide.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Further to this, I've gone part of the way through trial bookings with both Trainsplit and GWR, and they seem happy to sell me (flexible) tickets with an itinerary involving the 10.50 from Plymouth to Exeter and the 14.25 from Exeter to Basingstoke*, but without seat reservations. Does this indicate that the counted places have already sold out more than two weeks beforehand, or that if I completed the booking I would in fact get a counted place but no specific seat, or that due to the Tiverton blockade the trains haven't been opened for reservations, or what?
*albeit Trainsplit gives few other options (as described previously), and for some reason suggests getting a local train up the hill at Exeter and boarding the Waterloo train at Central.
As I understand it, on SWR's Exeter-Waterloo trains the normal position is that there are counted places for Advances and no reservations of any kind for flexible tickets, and I presume this continues in the current situation; is this right?
It looks as if it would probably be simpler just to turn up and buy a ticket on the day -- I get the impression from what people say above that I'm unlikely to have problems boarding trains, and I've got all day to make the journey anyway.
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