Avanti seat reservation displays

[trainophile]

Travelled today on the 12:31 Euston train ex-Blackpool (we boarded at Wigan and were going to New Street). Only nine coaches and pretty busy. We had seat reservations but there was a young man sitting in one, with his backpack on the other. Luckily he was most amenable, and immediately and apologetically moved to allow us to take our seats.

However my point is that the over-seat display simply said "Reserved to Birmingham New Street", not where it was reserved from, so the occupant was perfectly within his rights to assume the reserver might have boarded at a previous station and sat elsewhere, or not boarded at all, or indeed might be boarding at a future station.

I'm sure they used to read "Reserved from Wigan NW to Birmingham NS" or suchlike, replaced with "Available if unoccupied" after departure from the 'reserved from' station. If this is a new change then it could lead to tricky situations or disputes. Perhaps it was a programming error or something, but I hope this isn't the format for the future.

 

[takno]

Travelled today on the 12:31 Euston train ex-Blackpool (we boarded at Wigan and were going to New Street). Only nine coaches and pretty busy. We had seat reservations but there was a young man sitting in one, with his backpack on the other. Luckily he was most amenable, and immediately and apologetically moved to allow us to take our seats.

However my point is that the over-seat display simply said "Reserved to Birmingham New Street", not where it was reserved from, so the occupant was perfectly within his rights to assume the reserver might have boarded at a previous station and sat elsewhere, or not boarded at all, or indeed might be boarding at a future station.

I'm sure they used to read "Reserved from Wigan NW to Birmingham NS" or suchlike, replaced with "Available if unoccupied" after departure from the 'reserved from' station. If this is a new change then it could lead to tricky situations or disputes. Perhaps it was a programming error or something, but I hope this isn't the format for the future.

IIRC They used to say "Reserved from x to y" until they arrived at x. As soon as they arrived they switched to just saying "Reserved to y". Sounds like that hasn't changed

 

[DMU180]

Depends on whether it is a Pendolino or a Super Voyager mainly.

A Pendolino will display ‘Reserved from X’ until it reaches the station where the reservation kicks in and it will then change to ‘Reserved to Y’ where the reservation ends.

If there are multiple reservations for the trains journey it could show these messages a few times, for example, a seat reserved from Milton Keynes to Warrington, and then Preston to Carlisle will display ‘Reserved from Milton Keynes Central’ until the train arrives at Milton Keynes. It will then change to ‘Reserved to Warrington Bank Quay’. Upon arrival at Warrington Bank Quay it will change to display ‘Reserved from Preston’ before changing to ‘Reserved to Carlisle’. Upon departure from Carlisle it will just show ‘Available’.

I believe if a seat is reserved for the entire journey the reservation system will simply display ‘Reserved’ before changing to ‘Available if unoccupied’ once the train has departed. This may have changed though post-refurb so others may be able to confirm.

I’m less familiar with Avanti Super Voyagers but if they’re anything like CrossCountry’s they tend to display ‘Reserved X to Y’ with the ability to scroll.

 

[exbrel]

a couple of years ago i was going to London from Stoke and i found a "AVAILABLE" seat as did 2 others, we stopped at i think Lichfield or Rugby. People got on and 1 of the others who had boarded at Stoke found that his seat was now reserved, he did vacate the seat but there was a "comunication" with the guard later...
Surely if the seat indicators are not set/working before the journey starts, they should be "available" till the end, to stop any potential trouble on any further stops...
This has happened since and the guards announced there had been a problem so sorry for any inconvenience, and all seats were available.

 

[Bletchleyite]

a couple of years ago i was going to London from Stoke and i found a "AVAILABLE" seat as did 2 others, we stopped at i think Lichfield or Rugby. People got on and 1 of the others who had boarded at Stoke found that his seat was now reserved, he did vacate the seat but there was a "comunication" with the guard later...
Surely if the seat indicators are not set/working before the journey starts, they should be "available" till the end, to stop any potential trouble on any further stops...
This has happened since and the guards announced there had been a problem so sorry for any inconvenience, and all seats were available.

Voyagers aren't reliably displaying reservations made since it started its journey either. It's all a right mess caused by the fake compulsory reservations nonsense.

 

[MrJeeves]

Surely if the seat indicators are not set/working before the journey starts, they should be "available" till the end, to stop any potential trouble on any further stops...

People can make reservations up to 5 minutes before departure, but the on-board reservations don't redownload at every stop, which could be what happened in this instance.

 

[rjames87]

People can make reservations up to 5 minutes before departure, but the on-board reservations don't redownload at every stop, which could be what happened in this instance.

Which is an incredibly poor customer experience!

 

[AndrewE]

People can make reservations up to 5 minutes before departure, but the on-board reservations don't redownload at every stop, which could be what happened in this instance.

From the origin of the train, or from any joining station? If so, that's terrible.

Which is an incredibly poor customer experience!

Does this really apply to Avanti? I was aware of XCs dreadful "dynamic reservations" and their assertion that you can find the guard and get him to allocate and reserve an "unreserved" seat - but had heard that their IT was so bad that guards coudn't do it, leaving a traveller without a reserved seat at the mercy of late reservers at all stops along the route.
My experience is the the downloading of Avanti reservations is so unreliable that you often leave the train's origin with no data, meaning there is the risk of an en-route genaral change-round when it suddenly appears.

We were on a Voyager from Chester (to Euston) recently where the guard announced that the system wasn't working (and hadn't for a week) and so all were void. I was glad of that, because some trips like that they say to try to claim your reservation - which is a nightmare for people without them, who potentially get displaced repeatedly.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Would be less of an issue if Avanti would do seat-selection reservations without buying a ticket as LNER do - then you could get on, find a seat and reserve it to yourself from the next stop. But unfortunately their absolute crock of a website/app doesn't.