Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
How would anyone know you're not a PRM to ask you to move?
Because a reasonable person has a reasonable, honest conversation:
Person standing: "Excuse me, can I sit there please?"
Person sitting: "I'm afraid I need the seat as I can't stand for very long, I have a knee injury"
Person standing: "OK, sorry" <goes to next priority row>
Or
Person standing: "Excuse me, can I sit there please?"
Person sitting: "Sure, I just sit in these because I'm tall" <starts moving his stuff>
Person standing: "I have an injury and I can't stand for very long I'm afraid"
Person not sitting by now: "No worries" <moves elsewhere>
Problems in this sort of context on trains are caused by people being awkward, primarily, either in not wishing to declare that they have an invisible disability (no detail is needed, merely that there is one) or just getting angry.
FWIW, I was in one on XC at the weekend, someone boarded with crutches, I offered the seat to him but he declined it - it seems he (as so often seems to be the case) wanted a non-priority seat or table seat so he could use the seat back in front or the table to help sit down. They really are flawed in concept.
How would you know that I was if I was sat in one with my folding cane folded? It doesn't surprise me you don't get asked to move because there aren't often enough idiots to fillall the priority seats so usually one is available.
Declining to sit in a seat which has too tight a pitch for me to sit there without pain is not being an idiot, and I most strongly resent that. In stock where the regular seat pitch is acceptable (e.g. 80x and hopefully more specifically on-topic Mk5s, though I've not tried one yet) I don't sit in them. Being an idiot would be sitting in one (or arguably any seat) and not moving if someone needs it more.
However, if one is available, then sit in it, there is no need for any argument. It is only an issue if one is not available and no other seat is available/your disability renders one unsuitable.