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LNER - compulsory reservations after July 19th

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Failed Unit

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I know they don’t overlap on many routes. But if they had kept the policy (and enforced it) you could have had the situation between Newark north gate and Lincoln that you have a full and standing East Midlands railway service following and empty 5 coach LNER service.
 

island

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They will not be mandatory as they will not be on all other TOCs.
The website had, on Tuesday, a divide between before and after 19 July stating face coverings would be “recommended” in England after 19 July, which distinction is now gone.
 

Failed Unit

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Yes - this is interesting, not clear. I suspect it will be updated next week. They are specific about Scotland next week but talk about following a legal requirement which is about to disappear.

  • Face coverings must be worn onboard our trains and in stations, unless exempt. It's important you follow this legal requirement, otherwise you could be fined. For exemptions in England click here
If you're travelling to and from Scotland it is still law to wear your face covering past the 19 July, unless you're exempt, or you may be fined. For exemptions in Scotland click here.
 

bengley

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The website had, on Tuesday, a divide between before and after 19 July stating face coverings would be “recommended” in England after 19 July, which distinction is now gone.
Perhaps so, but that doesn't change the RDG guidance which all TOCs so far seem to be following (in England)
 

DelayRepay

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Yes - this is interesting, not clear. I suspect it will be updated next week. They are specific about Scotland next week but talk about following a legal requirement which is about to disappear.
Currently they say

Face coverings in England

Until 19 July: Face coverings must be worn onboard our trains and in stations, unless exempt. It's important you follow this legal requirement, otherwise you could be fined. For exemptions in England click here.

Face coverings in England from 19 July

  • Please continue to wear a face covering on our trains and in our stations, unless exempt. Thank you for being considerate of other customers and our colleagues.
So it's worded (in my view) as a request rather than a rule. Rather like 'please let other passengers off the train before boarding'. Of course it will probably change (again) between now and Monday.
 

30907

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The mail just received from LNER says "please were a face covering..." and "there will be some unreserved seats."
 

Ianno87

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The mail just received from LNER says "please were a face covering..." and "there will be some unreserved seats."

Yeah and it mentions leaving space for flexible ticket holders.

Hurrah :)

It could just be officially acknowledging the space they've always secretly kept free in one coach... (and, I presume, making all other seats reservable rather than alternate ones as previously)
 

DanNCL

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SNP politicians are today kicking up a huge fuss over the ditching of compulsory reservations and social distancing on LNER services, despite the Scottish Government themselves agreeing to it! Couldn't make it up... :rolleyes:
 

Failed Unit

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SNP politicians are today kicking up a huge fuss over the ditching of compulsory reservations and social distancing on LNER services, despite the Scottish Government themselves agreeing to it! Couldn't make it up... :rolleyes:
I must admin it is hard to understand what people are wanting.

Lets say you are travelling from London - Edinburgh, you have a window seat, so now you could have someone sat next to you. If that person is say next to you from London - Newcastle why is this a problem? That journey is totally in England and they can't use the eurostar comparison some are making, as you can't get off between England and France. I have seen passengers say they will fly (which is interesting considering airlines have never bothered with social distancing.)

If you are travelling between Berwick-on-Tweed and Dundee, I can see why they may be upset if both seats are taken up, but LNER are only saying it is guidance and they haven't actually said if the are booking the more capacity north of Berwick anyway.

You can bet however that with todays disruption, that they would be the first to complain if people were stuck in London for hours waiting for an empty seat rather then getting a non-socially distanced seat on the next train north. What they are also quiet on is that social distancing isn't mandatory on Scotrail, travel from Motherwell - Glasgow just hop on the first train that turns up. Mask compliance in Scotrail is probably as bad as the rest of the UK reading their twitter feed.

Good chance for the Scottish government to sabre rattle, considering that their infection rate is about the same (if not slightly higher) then England's they can keep the focus away from that.
 

DanNCL

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I must admin it is hard to understand what people are wanting.

Lets say you are travelling from London - Edinburgh, you have a window seat, so now you could have someone sat next to you. If that person is say next to you from London - Newcastle why is this a problem? That journey is totally in England and they can't use the eurostar comparison some are making, as you can't get off between England and France. I have seen passengers say they will fly (which is interesting considering airlines have never bothered with social distancing.)

If you are travelling between Berwick-on-Tweed and Dundee, I can see why they may be upset if both seats are taken up, but LNER are only saying it is guidance and they haven't actually said if the are booking the more capacity north of Berwick anyway.

You can bet however that with todays disruption, that they would be the first to complain if people were stuck in London for hours waiting for an empty seat rather then getting a non-socially distanced seat on the next train north. What they are also quiet on is that social distancing isn't mandatory on Scotrail, travel from Motherwell - Glasgow just hop on the first train that turns up. Mask compliance in Scotrail is probably as bad as the rest of the UK reading their twitter feed.

Good chance for the Scottish government to sabre rattle, considering that their infection rate is about the same (if not slightly higher) then England's they can keep the focus away from that.
If people don't like what LNER are doing they can choose not to use them, as every possible journey in Scotland with LNER can be done with another operator. Two weeks ago though the public were generally avoiding LNER and compulsory reservations in Scotland and instead cramming themselves onto ScotRail services without any form of social distancing. In this case LNER are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

As for the SNP, seeing as they agreed to this in the first place they have no right to complain about it.
 

TheAlbanach_

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I don’t get the outrage. They don’t seem to have a problem with planes being fully occupied. Also ScotRail has made no effort to enforce any form of social distancing at all.
 

35B

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I don’t get the outrage. They don’t seem to have a problem with planes being fully occupied. Also ScotRail has made no effort to enforce any form of social distancing at all.
The outrage is wholly synthetic, and all about creating a political wedge that the SNP can take advantage of. If Scotland had eased off first, and LNER taken English rules, they'd have been ranting just the same, but the focus would have been the loss of capacity on internal routes due to excessive distancing.
 

johntea

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At station departure screens for LNER services the wording has now changed from ‘You MUST have a seat reservation’ to ‘You are highly recommended to reserve a seat’
 

Tomp94

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Slightly off topic....

But I wish LNER would put refreshments back in the 1st class lounges!
 

Halish Railway

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At station departure screens for LNER services the wording has now changed from ‘You MUST have a seat reservation’ to ‘You are highly recommended to reserve a seat’
I was at Northallerton (a TPE operated station) on Tuesday and the announcements there hadn’t been updated, they were still saying that you must have a reservation to travel on LNER services. Hopefully this has been corrected now.
 

class47

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Bought a ticket today for a LNER service and couldn't purchase without making a reservation and the ticket said on it Mandatory Reservation

So can anyone tell what's going on with LNER?
 

class47

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IMG_0928.jpg
Also can someone please tell LNER that their reservation system is useless. For a few weeks when I reserve a seat (because I can't buy a ticket without doing so) My seat isn't reserved. In fact as the picture shows it is 'Available'. The @LNER, TM and customer services guys don't care - all I get told is to sit in another seat if that one is taken, but that's not the point. If I am being forced to have to reserve a seat, then I expect that the seat will be reserved for me.
Tickets are purchased using the LNER website, so they can't blame anyone else, although they probably will!

An advance ticket will always come with a mandatory reservation.
its a cheap day return
 

bengley

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View attachment 100576
Also can someone please tell LNER that their reservation system is useless. For a few weeks when I reserve a seat (because I can't buy a ticket without doing so) My seat isn't reserved. In fact as the picture shows it is 'Available'. The @LNER, TM and customer services guys don't care - all I get told is to sit in another seat if that one is taken, but that's not the point. If I am being forced to have to reserve a seat, then I expect that the seat will be reserved for me.
Tickets are purchased using the LNER website, so they can't blame anyone else, although they probably will!


its a cheap day return
May I suggest buying your ticket from the booking office in future - you will be helping to keep the people in there in a job at this difficult time for booking offices. You saved no money buying online and were forced to reserve a seat which you probably wouldn't have had to do at the booking office.
 

Ianno87

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Looks like all trains are still marked as compulsory reservation (even though they're not in practice)

Ideally TVMs/online booking systems need to be able to sell the ticket, but make it clear that all reservable seats are sold (where this is this case)
 

317 forever

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I have just had a holiday based in Bradford. My first ride out of Bradford yesterday was the 8.43 LNER train from Forster Square to Leeds. I bought a Bus & Train Daysaver but was not asked whether I intended to use that LNER train. In my carriage few if any seats had reservations anyway.
 
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