LNER has now joined dome other TOCs in moving over to electronic signs above seats to show reservations instead of paper tickets. There are several problems with it.
Firstly, it slows down boarding considerably as it is not possible to scan down the carriage and spot unreserved seats. Although Red/Amber/Green lights are used to show where a seat is reserved for part of all of a journey, these are not visible until one is very close to the seat. If the bulbs protruded outwards it would improve the situation.
Secondly, the screens used for the reservations are so small they cannot show where a seat has multiple reservations for different legs of a journey. When I boarded the train this morning, the seat I occupied showed 'reserved to Doncaster'. However, when the train got to Newark someone arrived to take the seat and I discovered the sign had changed to 'reserved to Kings Cross'. I moved to another seat which read 'reserved to Peterborough' but was unoccupied, only to find at Peterborough someone came for the seat and, yet again, it had changed to 'reserved to King's Cross'.
Just how are passengers meant to know which seats are available? This isn't like Cross Country's 10 minute reservations issue. LNER know at the start of the journey which seats are reserved but passengers on the train do not know which these are.
Firstly, it slows down boarding considerably as it is not possible to scan down the carriage and spot unreserved seats. Although Red/Amber/Green lights are used to show where a seat is reserved for part of all of a journey, these are not visible until one is very close to the seat. If the bulbs protruded outwards it would improve the situation.
Secondly, the screens used for the reservations are so small they cannot show where a seat has multiple reservations for different legs of a journey. When I boarded the train this morning, the seat I occupied showed 'reserved to Doncaster'. However, when the train got to Newark someone arrived to take the seat and I discovered the sign had changed to 'reserved to Kings Cross'. I moved to another seat which read 'reserved to Peterborough' but was unoccupied, only to find at Peterborough someone came for the seat and, yet again, it had changed to 'reserved to King's Cross'.
Just how are passengers meant to know which seats are available? This isn't like Cross Country's 10 minute reservations issue. LNER know at the start of the journey which seats are reserved but passengers on the train do not know which these are.
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