Reservation of an entire coach

[BeccaOnATrain]

One of the first class coaches was reserved today on my trip with East Midlands all the way to London.
No idea who they were though!

 

[liamf656]

One of the first class coaches was reserved today on my trip with East Midlands all the way to London.
No idea who they were though!

It might have been the same one I mentioned up thread, if it was in the morning it was for the Sheffield Wednesday football team

 

[johnnychips]

It was more likely Sheff U, who have just beaten Crystal Palace 3-1 away.

 

[JG89]

It might have been the same one I mentioned up thread, if it was in the morning it was for the Sheffield Wednesday football team

It was more likely Sheff U, who have just beaten Crystal Palace 3-1 away.

Yes I'd imagine it was Sheffield United rather than Wednesday, Utd played in London tonight, Wednesday are at home tomorrow!

 

[Mikey C]

It was more likely Sheff U, who have just beaten Crystal Palace 3-1 away.

QPR!

 

[michael74]

GWR advertise carriage and charter train hire link

 

[johnnychips]

Oops I always get them mixed up… Senior moment.

 

[Flying Claret]

Happens a fair bit with Avanti, particularly with Football clubs booking first class.

It can also happen informally. I’ve worked a few Football fan trips where BTP have requested I move passengers out of parts of the train to allow football fans to be in their own carriage, for the benefit of the ordinary passenger

Football fans are 'ordinary passengers'

 

[class17]

Many years ago, on a touring holiday around India, the tour organiser hired a bogie (coach) which we travelled around in. Coupling up to various trains to take us to places around India. We slept in it overnight (folding camp beds in the lounge area or on the luggage racks) and cooked in the kitchen.

It lasted about a month, then they (a couple) did it all over again for the next group.

Great fun.

 

[Springs Branch]

I remember seeing - when compartment & corridor stock was common on long-distance trains - that it was possible to reserve an entire compartment for yourself (or more likely your family / group). This was promoted in part-page adverts in BR timetable books at the time.

I think the stipulation was you needed to purchase travel tickets for all of the seats in the compartment(s) you wanted, irrespective of how many people were actually in there. Presumably 6 in First Class - not sure if you needed 6 or 8 tickets per Third Class compartment. Also, not sure if this facility applied only to the small-ish number of long distance expresses which offered seat reservations back in the day, or if you could do it for a wider range of trains which didn't normally have reservable seats.

 

[ExRes]

In the late 2000s there was a newspaper offer? whereby people turned up on EMT services with a code number written down on a scrap of paper, changing ends on an HST at Sheffield one day the TM was putting all the passengers with said scraps/tickets into Coach D, whether that was her choice or a booked coach I don't know

 

[Wolfie]

Happens a fair bit with Avanti, particularly with Football clubs booking first class.

It can also happen informally. I’ve worked a few Football fan trips where BTP have requested I move passengers out of parts of the train to allow football fans to be in their own carriage, for the benefit of the ordinary passenger

I remember years ago l went to a Wolves v Millwall night match. Wolves beat Millwall and there was trouble in the city afterwards. I was one of about 15 London Wolves members on the last train back to Euston (now 2245 and wasn't much different timing-wise then) who BTP put into First Class to avoid trouble on the train. However, despite him apparently being made aware by BTP, the Train Manager took it upon himself after Birmingham to insist that we had to sit in Standard. To do so safely we had to walk the length of the train. That caused serious complaints to Virgin. At least one traveller was a barrister who made it clear that had he been assaulted as a result he would have been suing both Virgin and the Train Manager personally and calling BTP officers as witnesses. Having seen said barrister at work the Train Manager would have had a "fun" time in the witness box....

 

[Dai Corner]

I remember seeing - when compartment & corridor stock was common on long-distance trains - that it was possible to reserve an entire compartment for yourself (or more likely your family / group). This was promoted in part-page adverts in BR timetable books at the time.

I think the stipulation was you needed to purchase travel tickets for all of the seats in the compartment(s) you wanted, irrespective of how many people were actually in there. Presumably 6 in First Class - not sure if you needed 6 or 8 tickets per Third Class compartment. Also, not sure if this facility applied only to the small-ish number of long distance expresses which offered seat reservations back in the day, or if you could do it for a wider range of trains which didn't normally have reservable seats.

I remember travelling with family on a Motorail service in the late 1960s. We had a compartment to ourselves but I don't know whether it was reserved for our exclusive use or whether we successfully repelled other passengers.

I think it must have been Paddington or Kensington Olympia to Fishguard. Did Motorail trains carry passengers without cars?

 

[43055]

Had Crystal Palace on a London to Sheffield service once which had the two of the three first class coaches on a 7 car 222 and there was still plenty of room for everyone else in the final first class coach.

 

[Fokx]

Football fans are 'ordinary passengers'

They are but do they always behave as such? No

By ordinary passenger I simply mean someone who has turned up at the station for a purpose such as leisure, perhaps taking their kids for a day out, not realising that 200 hundred joyful fans were heading to their train complete with BTP and Police escort

 

[Springs Branch]

When the Queen goes to Sandringham, i would of thought that the coach she is in is locked off?

I believe the end bay is reserved for her party, but not the whole carriage. (Or was. I fear HM's rail travel days may be over.)

Unfortunately, probably true. Though I suppose - so long as she booked far enough ahead - HM could get help with a wheelchair ramp at either end.

Presumably when Charles accedes to the throne, him having environmental credentials an' all, he'll go back to travelling to and from Sandringham by train. Or will there be a fully electric purple Bentley limousine for him by then?

I remember travelling with family on a Motorail service in the late 1960s. We had a compartment to ourselves but I don't know whether it was reserved for our exclusive use or whether we successfully repelled other passengers.

I'm sure BR explicitly advertised that with a Motorail booking, your car-load got exclusive use of your own compartment - i.e. no risk of some creepy random interloper joining you.

OT, but IIRC Motorail accommodation comprised all Mk.1 FK stock - there being a useful surplus of this kind of rolling stock in the Motorail heyday, on account of Inter-City main line trains (which required a good fraction of fully First Class carriages) having upgraded to some version of Mk.2 by then.

 

[dastocks]

Large groups of children reserved between Eastbourne or Brighton and London at weekends during the summer used to be a thing until quite recently. Sometimes it was a whole train running non-stop.

 

[Hadders]

I believe the end bay is reserved for her party, but not the whole carriage. (Or was. I fear HM's rail travel days may be over.)

In the 365 days the whole of the small 1st class compartment at the London end of the train was exclusively used for HM.

I don’t know if the rest of the carriage was out of bounds as well but I can imagine a load of flunkeys sitting in the adjacent standard class area anyway as there was only 12 seats in each 1st class area.

 

[Vanmanyo]

No I was saying the original set-up was better because it had a partition. The refurb removed it as it operated in First/Abellio days. Like this: View attachment 113813

Ah I see what you mean now sorry!

 

[6Gman]

Unfortunately, probably true. Though I suppose - so long as she booked far enough ahead - HM could get help with a wheelchair ramp at either end.

Presumably when Charles accedes to the throne, him having environmental credentials an' all, he'll go back to travelling to and from Sandringham by train. Or will there be a fully electric purple Bentley limousine for him by then?

Or perhaps he will stick with his little weakness of liking to have a loco and four coaches entirely for his own use . . .

I view his "environmental credentials" as a tad hypocritical.

 

[Wolfie]

Or perhaps he will stick with his little weakness of liking to have a loco and four coaches entirely for his own use . . .

I view his "environmental credentials" as a tad hypocritical.

Hmmmm.... Like his younger son's penchant for biz jets....

 

[nw1]

I remember on CIGs in the 1980s on Portsmouth Direct fasts you'd occasionally get carriages with paper "Reserved seats - numbers...." notices stuck on the windows. Usually a whole carriage.

Until the late 80s, it was not obvious that reservations were available on these services, at least the reservation symbol wasn't shown in timetables. But I don't think I ever saw individual seat reservations - just these group ones.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Apr 2022 ==

I've seen pictures and well, they look very mid 2000s lmao.

Is that such a bad thing, given that IMX very recent - last 10 years or so - trains have tended to focus on packing the punters in rather than comfort (thinking of Thameslink, for example)? Also the biggest fleet replacement in recent times took place in the early 2000s, so IMO something "2000s" would be "modern". Remember the 444s, 450s and 377s, all "modern" units, were introduced in the first half of the 2000s.

 

[trebor79]

I believe the end bay is reserved for her party, but not the whole carriage. (Or was. I fear HM's rail travel days may be over.)

Yep. Lots of restricted airspace recently due to HM helicopter flights to and from Sandringham. Rumour within aviation circles is that this will become more frequent as she is now too frail to make the trip by road or rail.

 

[Dai Corner]

Or perhaps he will stick with his little weakness of liking to have a loco and four coaches entirely for his own use . . .

I view his "environmental credentials" as a tad hypocritical.

I seem to remember he often used the royal train when his first wife was still alive. A middle aged woman would park her car next to whatever obscure loop or siding the train was in.

I don't think either of them were there for the rare track or haulage.

 

[GordonT]

Hmmmm.... Like his younger son's penchant for biz jets....

And his late father's penchant for wildlife conservation.

 

[Vanmanyo]

Is that such a bad thing, given that IMX very recent - last 10 years or so - trains have tended to focus on packing the punters in rather than comfort

I wasn't saying that dont look uncomfortable, just very 2000s decor, I'm sure they are way more comfortable than what we class as 'first class' on modern trains

 

[Anonymous10]

I've been on scouting trips which half a class 143 were reserved for

 

[LowLevel]

I remember years ago l went to a Wolves v Millwall night match. Wolves beat Millwall and there was trouble in the city afterwards. I was one of about 15 London Wolves members on the last train back to Euston (now 2245 and wasn't much different timing-wise then) who BTP put into First Class to avoid trouble on the train. However, despite him apparently being made aware by BTP, the Train Manager took it upon himself after Birmingham to insist that we had to sit in Standard. To do so safely we had to walk the length of the train. That caused serious complaints to Virgin. At least one traveller was a barrister who made it clear that had he been assaulted as a result he would have been suing both Virgin and the Train Manager personally and calling BTP officers as witnesses. Having seen said barrister at work the Train Manager would have had a "fun" time in the witness box....

I can't imagine the train manager would have had that difficult a time defending themselves. The BTP are responsible for the orderly conduct of the users of the rail network, complimentary first class upgrades to make segregation easier are not an obligation of the train operator to ensure that passengers don't misbehave/act like feral animals. "The passengers were offered the opportunity to purchase a first class upgrade and declined to do so" would probably be the end of the matter.

Personally provided you were well behaved yourselves I wouldn't have had a problem with it, and at that time of day it seems a bit petty, but the idea of successfully personally suing the guard for enforcing the railway ticketing regulations seems somewhat unlikely to me.

You might have had more luck with suing the BTP for failing to prevent the other fans from misbehaving, but again I doubt it - people behaving like scum is roundly tolerated in the UK.

 

[GordonT]

I've been on scouting trips which half a class 143 were reserved for

Scouts are used to "no frills" accommodation thankfully.

 

[Dunnideer]

Presumably when Charles accedes to the throne, him having environmental credentials an' all, he'll go back to travelling to and from Sandringham by train. Or will there be a fully electric purple Bentley limousine for him by then?

The last couple of times I’ve dealt with Prince Charles on the Royal Train he’s been driven (and actually drove himself one trip) to/from the station in a blue Audi e-tron. Haven’t seen the Bentley Mulsanne meeting the train for a few years now.