LNER 5 minute reservation… how does it know?!

[Royston Vasey]

I just boarded 1D02 at Stevenage heading for Leeds, a 5 car 801. I have a reserved seat in coach A, which is currently showing about 80% “may be reserved later” and there are about four other passengers in the coach.

I preferred another seat and given that this is probably a popular commuter service through West Yorks, I thought I’d reserve the seat I’m actually sitting in, from Peterborough, to block it.

Imagine my surprise when the seat I was automatically allocated, without having specified any preferred type of seat or being on the WiFi is the EXACT seat I’m sitting in, out of maybe 150 open reservable seats.

Pure coincidence?! Or does the train have some kind of 4G repeater that has triangulated itself precisely to my phone in this seat? Would be interested to know if anyone else has experienced this!

 

[island]

Coincidence I expect.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Coincidence I expect.

The reservation display hasn’t updated from “May be reserved later” since I booked it, so it can’t be that clever

 

[800001]

I just boarded 1D02 at Stevenage heading for Leeds, a 5 car 801. I have a reserved seat in coach A, which is currently showing about 80% “may be reserved later” and there are about four other passengers in the coach.

I preferred another seat and given that this is probably a popular commuter service through West Yorks, I thought I’d reserve the seat I’m actually sitting in, from Peterborough, to block it.

Imagine my surprise when the seat I was automatically allocated, without having specified any preferred type of seat or being on the WiFi is the EXACT seat I’m sitting in, out of maybe 150 open reservable seats.

Pure coincidence?! Or does the train have some kind of 4G repeater that has triangulated itself precisely to my phone in this seat? Would be interested to know if anyone else has experienced this!

Totally random. And once reservations have been uploaded to train at Kings Cross, any reservations booked after that do not reflect on the digital reservation system.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Totally random. And once reservations have been uploaded to train at Kings Cross, any reservations booked after that do not reflect on the digital reservation system.

Also noticed that, but knew “the system” wouldn’t let it allocate to anyone else.

In the end there were never more than five other people in the coach and the city extremely quiet on arrival. I guess the Northern Powerhouse is working from home today!

 

[30907]

Also noticed that, but knew “the system” wouldn’t let it allocate to anyone else.

In the end there were never more than five other people in the coach and the city extremely quiet on arrival. I guess the Northern Powerhouse is working from home today!

Friday in half term week - not surprising.

 

[Royston Vasey]

I do think the 5 minute reservation system is poorly implemented. It's not live and excessively huge swathes of seats are marked in a deep orange light and it's "sit there at your own risk". Surely more than half of a quiet train doesn't need this level of FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt) introduced to the traveller. Perhaps its all part of the LNER agenda to reduce casual flexible travellers and try to enforce reservation only.

I can barely tell the difference between deep orange and bright red (actual reserved seats) and in a very lightly loaded coach, I saw a couple of people come and go and walk most of the length of the carriage to the first green light and sit there.

Interestingly, only the previously reserved (e.g. KGX-PBO) seats ever went green, once those reservations had expired. Most were orange throughout.

All seems rather unfriendly.

 

[YorksLad12]

Unfriendly, and a little bit weird. Who's to say that a seat that was booked from Kings Cross to Peterborough might not get booked Doncaster-Leeds? But the light will have turned green...

I caught the 1903 back the other week. Almost all of the single seats in coach L First were booked (red), almost all of the tables weren't (orange).

 

[800001]

Unfriendly, and a little bit weird. Who's to say that a seat that was booked from Kings Cross to Peterborough might not get booked Doncaster-Leeds? But the light will have turned green...

I caught the 1903 back the other week. Almost all of the single seats in coach L First were booked (red), almost all of the tables weren't (orange).

If the light turned green that 100% will not get reserved on route via the 5minute reservation system.

Once it turns green it will stay green.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

Reservations made after a train has started its journey, should be banned, period.

 

[route101]

Not a fan of the set up, I have been turfed out of seats on XC.

I took LNER from Edinburgh to Glasgow last night and noticed they a fair few are reserving Edinburgh to Motherwell/Glasgow.

 

[Bayum]

Totally random. And once reservations have been uploaded to train at Kings Cross, any reservations booked after that do not reflect on the digital reservation system.

That’s a bit awkward. Brand new train where no one thought about uploading seat reservations partway through the journey?

 

[Royston Vasey]

That’s a bit awkward. Brand new train where no one thought about uploading seat reservations partway through the journey?

Even the Mk 4s now have occupancy sensors, if they work.

A system that allocated all the actually empty seats first, and automatically amended the display when it did so, would surely not be too much to ask!

 

[Andy Pacer]

That’s a bit awkward. Brand new train where no one thought about uploading seat reservations partway through the journey?

I suppose it begs the question of how would it work, would it be reliant on someone uploading them periodically or should there be some form of automatic refresh?

 

[LickeyIncliner]

Not a fan of the set up, I have been turfed out of seats on XC.

I took LNER from Edinburgh to Glasgow last night and noticed they a fair few are reserving Edinburgh to Motherwell/Glasgow.

Probably because online ticket sales make you choose a train and then "give" you a reservation on train, even if you don't see any need to reserve and (with an open ticket) are not intending to travel on that particular train. It's not exactly the topic of this thread but not issuing unwanted and unlikely-to-be-used reservations would seem to be an improvement for all concerned.

 

[TUC]

I suppose it begs the question of how would it work, would it be reliant on someone uploading them periodically or should there be some form of automatic refresh?

I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that they are sent electronically to the train, and the change of status of the seat is amended automatically.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

At least you can reserve a seat separate from buying a ticket. Should be rolled out to all IC operators

 

[Andy Pacer]

I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that they are sent electronically to the train, and the change of status of the seat is amended automatically.

Post #4 suggests not in practice.

 

[GusB]

I've only reserved seats once in my life (and I didn't realise that I had done until I collected the tickets), but I'd be rather unhappy if I was sitting in what was clearly an unreserved seat at the beginning of my journey, only to find out that I was going to be turfed out of that seat later on in the journey because someone made a last-minute booking. Surely this is going to be a major point of conflict!

 

[Wallsendmag]

Totally random. And once reservations have been uploaded to train at Kings Cross, any reservations booked after that do not reflect on the digital reservation system.

Although this is set to change in a future TMS update where reservations will update before each station.

 

[800001]

Although this is set to change in a future TMS update where reservations will update before each station.

When is that happening? As they have been talking about this software update for well over a year if not longer.

 

[Wallsendmag]

When is that happening? As they have been talking about this software update for well over a year if not longer.

No idea I'm not close to the team at the moment

 

[OscarH]

I suppose it begs the question of how would it work, would it be reliant on someone uploading them periodically or should there be some form of automatic refresh?

It's 2024, anything but auto refresh would be embarrassing

 

[158747]

Having not travelled on LNER for a long time I didn’t realise that they operated this ridiculous system of allowing passengers to reserve seats after the train has started its journey. I thought it was only Cross Country that operated this system.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Having not travelled on LNER for a long time I didn’t realise that they operated this ridiculous system of allowing passengers to reserve seats after the train has started its journey. I thought it was only Cross Country that operated this system.

Avanti do as well (and have an on board camera system that allegedly* checks if the seat is occupied before offering it for reservation).

* It doesn't seem to work 100%, in particular one flaw is that if someone is sitting in a reserved seat it assumes they are the correct passenger and thus can reserve it after the reservation ends.

 

[Indigo Soup]

Reservations made after a train has started its journey, should be banned, period.

Advance Purchase fares that don't have to be purchased in advance - which of course come with a compulsory reservation - are also more than a little ludicrous.

 

[Adam Williams]

Avanti do as well (and have an on board camera system that allegedly* checks if the seat is occupied before offering it for reservation).

I very much doubt the camera actually does anything to prevent bookings. I've successfully booked my own seat I was sat in, in the past (on a Pendo).

 

[Starmill]

When is that happening? As they have been talking about this software update for well over a year if not longer.

Hard to believe the trains entered service without it in the first place really.

Advance Purchase fares that don't have to be purchased in advance - which of course come with a compulsory reservation - are also more than a little ludicrous.

I suppose they're "advance" in that they're not available to anyone paying onboard. Makes a bit of a joke of the name of course... And paying on board is frequently treated with criminal penalties.

 

[Indigo Soup]

I suppose they're "advance" in that they're not available to anyone paying on board.

A status which applies to all fares except an Anytime Single, if boarding at a station where ticket purchasing facilities are available. Which is all of them, if purchasing tickets online.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I very much doubt the camera actually does anything to prevent bookings. I've successfully booked my own seat I was sat in, in the past (on a Pendo).

It's supposed to do that. If it's not working then that is disappointing.