You can already do all of this.I think this is a great idea. As a business traveller, before Coronavirus, I'd choose to drive if for whatever reason I couldn't get a seat reservation regardless of what type of ticket I was using. I would happily pay more for my ticket if it meant a guaranteed seat, and a more pleasant experience on board the train, such as no standing, pushing past people in corridors, and crush loaded services. I think that's the case for a lot of my friends and colleagues too.
I would for most journeys also pay between £3-5 for a seat reservation in addition to the ticket cost if it meant I could select my own seat, and see precise loadings on the train, i.e. what seats have been taken already.
The key is just making sure it's all easily done within 1-2 mins on my smartphone or one of the self service ticket machines, but 90% of the time, I pre-book a ticket anyway that comes with a compulsory / free reservation anyway.
I suspect that the days of very crowded long distance trains are behind us, as Covid will have a long lasting impact on decision making and customer service. Even when / if Covid is finally solved, passengers will still remember, and I predict will expect a cleaner, less crowded and more organised journey as standard.
I'd like to know what happens in this situation:
I'm making a journey from Huntingdon to Edinburgh (GTR to Peterborough then LNER to Edinburgh). It's Maunday Thursday and services are very busy, all the trains were fully booked weeks ago but I'm ok as I purchased my tickets when they first went on sale.
The GTR train from Huntingdon to Peterborough is 10 minutes late. No mass disruption, just one of those things that happens sometimes but it causes me to miss the LNER train. I go onto my smartphone to reserve a seat on the next train but they're all fully booked until for the rest of the day and the following day. Do I:
- Abandon my plans and go home
- Hire a car at Peterborough station
- Jump on the next train, chances are there's an empty seat somewhere for at least part of the way (my app won't know if someone hasn't turned up as unlike an airline you don't have to check in)
- Get GTR to arrange a taxi at huge expense (due to their train being late)