As I travel to-and-fro on the railways I'm constantly amazed by people's attitude to seat reservations. In particular people seem to be unwilling to:
I seem to do these things all the time! Maybe it's personal taste or maybe I'm misunderstanding the reservation system. To be honest, the whole reservation system is a strange beast at the moment. I'd like to see a few improvements which I think would dramatically improve the railway experience:
Just my thoughts on the issue, it would be interesting to discuss how the reservation system/use of reservations could be improved.
- Sit in a seat that isn't reserved until later on (eg CDF->PAD but they are travelling CMN->CDF) - people seem to walk up and down the carriage looking for a seat with 'no ticket'
- Sit in their reserved seat if someone is placed next to them - just this morning a gentleman walked up to the table seats I was at and remarked to the girl opposite "This is my seat [pointing to the empty one next to her]. Never mind I'll find another one", and off he went checking every ticket in the carriage
- Move to a reserved seat after the station it is reserved from has passed (+ a few minutes if it's busy and people might be looking for their seats)
- Kick people out of their seat (if they have a good reason such as there are no seats around, they have long legs or they reserved a table seat/power).
- 'Upgrade' themselves where they have a reserved seat but a better one is empty (not-reserved) - in particular, I see people sitting next to a non-window airline seat with a table empty opposite.
I seem to do these things all the time! Maybe it's personal taste or maybe I'm misunderstanding the reservation system. To be honest, the whole reservation system is a strange beast at the moment. I'd like to see a few improvements which I think would dramatically improve the railway experience:
- Allowing reservations (online, from a TVM or even by text) right up to departure, for free on reservable trains. I'd even lean towards compulsory reservations for some trains a la TGV.
- Requiring TOCs to allow reservations on all (non-commuter) services - and require that they put out tickets/operate the electronic system. Possibly with a refund option for those who cannot use their reserved seat (even if they have another seat)
- Putting out/collecting in tickets above seats at every stop (as they do in the USA?) - I know that this would require staff to walk up and down the train after every stop (or every few) but I'm not sure that that would be such a bad thing in general!
- Announcments reminding passengers of the etiquette of reservations ("Please check to ensure that your seat is not reserved by someone else" etc)
- In the absence of requiring reservations, keeping one/serveral carriages (<1/3 of the train?) as totally unreserved so people know where to go and don't have to check tickets
- Allowing all table seats/additional value (extra leg room etc) seats to be reservable
Just my thoughts on the issue, it would be interesting to discuss how the reservation system/use of reservations could be improved.