I'm for removing all seat reservations, from trains and especially cinemas. There's 100 seats around you, pick one!
I never even knew they had seat reservations in cinemas!
I'm for removing all seat reservations, from trains and especially cinemas. There's 100 seats around you, pick one!
Cross Country seem to constantly defend their late reservation system as if never to admit defeat. It seems hopeless to me & causes passengers distress & traincrew headaches.
I never even knew they had seat reservations in cinemas!
One basic misunderstanding by many here is that the train the OP refers to is a 170 with paper reservations- hence the from A to B C to D etc.
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Clearly not a film lover then?
. . . the scrolling displays don't show at a glance where the seat is booked from and to - so you see a seat, start to wait then feel pressurised to move down the carriage by the dozens of other passengers looking for seats
Another thing on some modern stock is the very high seat backs. With original 70s Intercity seating you could tell at a glance where any spaces were in a Mk3 coach from the saloon end door. Now you have to walk right through the centre isle looking left and right to discover a free seat before you can even check the reservation status.
Half the battle I find is when boarding a XC train is that the scrolling displays don't show at a glance where the seat is booked from and to .
I'm for removing all seat reservations, from trains and especially cinemas. There's 100 seats around you, pick one!
I'm for removing all seat reservations, from trains and especially cinemas. There's 100 seats around you, pick one!
Another thing on some modern stock is the very high seat backs. With original 70s Intercity seating you could tell at a glance where any spaces were in a Mk3 coach from the saloon end door. Now you have to walk right through the centre isle looking left and right to discover a free seat before you can even check the reservation status.
CrossCountry turbostar services have labels its only the voyager and HSTs that have electronic displays
Don`t think the HST`s have electronic displays, surely it`s just the voyagers?
They do. Whether they are on and working is another question entirely.
Cannot disagree with you there
So when I travel with my 3 kids we should all sit separate should we rather than be able to sit together?
Why don't you try thinking of other peoples needs before posting!
What about people with mobility issues who may wish to reserve a seat which is easy to access?
I believe in a system where if you get on the train first you get to choose your seat. If you are part of a group then perhaps you could ask someone to kindly move so you can sit together? Especially if you have children, I doubt people are going to be asinine. And if they are asinine then they probably sat there regardless of whether you had a reservation or not.
Under the current system, people with mobility issues don't have to get seat reservations but are still entitled to take the priority seats. That's the same on all trains, regardless of whether there are seat reservations.
Under the current system, people with mobility issues don't have to get seat reservations but are still entitled to take the priority seats. That's the same on all trains, regardless of whether there are seat reservations.
Always happens. CC Cardiff-Nottingham. Seems most of the seats are reserved.
Then the trains about 5-10% full. Where did all these people go? These reservations seem pretty pointless to me.
And it gets my goat when I sit in seat, theres 4 other people in the carriage but no some old person feels the need to kick me out of their reserved seat !
Even Ryanair have moved away from unallocated seating even though on a plane everyone has a seat.
I believe in a system where if you get on the train first you get to choose your seat.
I think people these days are used to having allocated seats - on planes, cinemas, events etc. it is standard now and in many countries all train seats are allocated on high speed routes. I expect us to move more towards that than the other way around.
Having to stand from London to Preston recently because the seat reservation system had failed was enough to put me off travelling with Virgin Trains ever again.
Seems strange to blame VT for that when non-placed or non-functional reservations are a problem on all TOCs. But I see your point, and moving to unmarked reservations would solve that problem too.
It was their train that had the failed reservation. I turned up close to departure thinking I'd have a seat and, er, didn't.
I assume by umarked reservations you mean the system Eurostar use? That would work in one way, but would completely destroy the walk-on railway, so I'd probably not be in favour.
I assume by umarked reservations you mean the system Eurostar use? That would work in one way, but would completely destroy the walk-on railway, so I'd probably not be in favour.
The thing is though, the phrase 'mobility issues' covers a range of people. We tend to think of a visibly frail elderly person, or someone using crutches or heavily pregnant. But there are many people for whom everyday walking around is not an issue, but will need a guaranteed seat for anything more than a 30 minute/1 hour journey.
I'm thinking of people with mild arthirits, sciatica, hypermobility etc, or even a straight forward 'bad back', who may be pretty much fully mobile and look perfectly healthy, but do need a seat for a long journey. Often such people may not know how their condition will be - it might be fine on the day, but equally if booking in advance they don't know that their body won't be much worse.
The simple answer is that if reservations are not available, then a good chunk of these people (who form quite a large part of the population) simply wouldn't use the train without reservations. Never-mind, families, people who want to work, etc.! So it would make little business sense to remove this facility.
The Birmingham/Leicester/Stanstead 170's sets usually do a turn about, i.e. Birmingham-Leicester and then Birmingham-Stanstead.
Often the non-bookable Birmingham-Leicester carries seat reservations for it's next turn as the Stanstead train.
This really causes confusion. :-?
I think I need to start travelling with you, I've never seen a 5% full XC turbostar