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SWT seat reservations

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districtline

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I have discovered that SWT do not offer seat reservations with their advance tickets. This seems to be a bit unfair compared to what the other TOCs offer, why should people that don't have the common sense to plan ahead get priority for the seats?
 
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bnm

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Equally, why should those with Advance Purchase, who generally pay less for a ticket, pro rata, be guaranteed a seat?

SWT are primarily a commuter network and it is to that market they cater. Advance Purchase fares are, I believe, only available on Weymouth services beyond Southampton and West of England services beyond Salisbury. So like the rest of the commuters you have to be quick on your toes to bag a seat on departure from Waterloo. Or stand until one becomes available.
 

Tom

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Seat reservations on SWT were removed as they were not considered as necessary with the introduction of 2tph to Weymouth and an all day hourly service to Exeter thereby increasing the capacity along these lines of route.

Also, seat reservations were rarely even used. I frequently saw a coach full of reservations and about 10 seats taken at most.
 

wintonian

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Seat reservations on SWT were removed as they were not considered as necessary with the introduction of 2tph to Weymouth and an all day hourly service to Exeter thereby increasing the capacity along these lines of route.

Also, seat reservations were rarely even used. I frequently saw a coach full of reservations and about 10 seats taken at most.

Or you could reserve a seat for the evening peak from Waterloo like I have on occasion and certainly in the last year of seat reservations I never found any tickets put out.

The reason not many people used them at the end was because SWT seem to have got rid of its mechinisem for putting the labels out, which I allways thought was quite important for reservations.

Sent from my HTC Desire S

Sent from my HTC Desire S
 

burneside

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I have discovered that SWT do not offer seat reservations with their advance tickets. This seems to be a bit unfair compared to what the other TOCs offer, why should people that don't have the common sense to plan ahead get priority for the seats?

I'm surprised SWT can get away with this practice, no other train company I have travelled with operates like this. I've never had a problem at Waterloo so far (though do travel in the middle of the day), the return from Exeter can be a different story - a three car train rammed full till more coaches are attached at Salisbury.
 

Zoe

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a three car train rammed full till more coaches are attached at Salisbury.
Is it always three coaches only from Exeter to Salibsury these days? I used to remember six coach formations from Exeter.
 

LexyBoy

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I'm surprised SWT can get away with this practice, no other train company I have travelled with operates like this.

ATW, LM and Chiltern all do too.

For a primarily commuter operator, there isn't the need to assign seats (since the high-capacity units have plenty of spare seating at times when AP tickets are on sale, in theory) nor the infrastructure to do so (do LM/SWT Desiro seats even have a slot for reservation coupons?)
 

burneside

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Is it always three coaches only from Exeter to Salibsury these days? I used to remember six coach formations from Exeter.

I have travelled on a six coach train from Exeter within the last year, but the last few times during the summer it was always three.
 

Tom

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I'm surprised SWT can get away with this practice, no other train company I have travelled with operates like this. I've never had a problem at Waterloo so far (though do travel in the middle of the day), the return from Exeter can be a different story - a three car train rammed full till more coaches are attached at Salisbury.

As others have mentioned, many other TOCs use the same system of book your train and not your seat. I've received this, personally, on Arriva Trains Wales, Chiltern, London Midland, National Express East Anglia, ScotRail, SWT and Southern.

wintonian said:
The reason not many people used them at the end was because SWT seem to have got rid of its mechinisem for putting the labels out, which I allways thought was quite important for reservations.
I believe it to be the case that the printer at Waterloo was broken half the time/people were forgetting to put them out when it was working. At one point, they started rear loading them from Weymouth for the SWML services.
 

TEW

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I have travelled on a six coach train from Exeter within the last year, but the last few times during the summer it was always three.

There are plenty of six coach trains to Exeter still, but there are also plenty of three coach trains too.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
The reason not many people used them at the end was because SWT seem to have got rid of its mechinisem for putting the labels out, which I allways thought was quite important for reservations.

I believe they still have reservations printers at Portsmouth Harbour, unless things have changed recently reservations for FGW's Cardiff services are printed on them.
 

Zoe

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There are plenty of six coach trains to Exeter still, but there are also plenty of three coach trains too.
Is there any way of finding which trains are six coaches other than going to the station and observing?
 

TEW

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6 cars are booked on the 0641, 0826, 1226, 1626, 1826(Fridays only, rear three carriages to Salisbury only.), 1926(Rear three carriages to Salisbury only.), 2026 (Read three carriages to Salisbury only.), 2123 (Fridays only.) and 2257(Fridays only.) departures from Exeter.
6 cars booked on the 0552 Axminster to Exeter, 0608 Salisbury to Exeter, 0820, 1220, 1420(Fridays only.), 1520, 1620, 1720(Fridays only.) and 1820(Fridays only.) Waterloo to Exeter.
 

Zoe

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6 cars are booked on the 0641, 0826, 1226, 1626, 1826(Fridays only, rear three carriages to Salisbury only.), 1926(Rear three carriages to Salisbury only.), 2026 (Read three carriages to Salisbury only.), 2123 (Fridays only.) and 2257(Fridays only.) departures from Exeter.
6 cars booked on the 0552 Axminster to Exeter, 0608 Salisbury to Exeter, 0820, 1220, 1420(Fridays only.), 1520, 1620, 1720(Fridays only.) and 1820(Fridays only.) Waterloo to Exeter.
Thanks are the 0926 and 1026 departures from Exeter St Davids likely to be full and standing then?
 

TEW

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Thanks are the 0926 and 1026 departures from Exeter St Davids likely to be full and standing then?

Should be fine. Off peak they don't tend to be that busy.
 

LondonJohn

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Its quite frustrating that they no longer offer seat reservations as I would quite happily pay for one on Summer saturday mornings (where it is a 5 coach train to Poole, Bournemouth and Weymouth and you get a ray of sunshine and half of London decide to travel down to the beach)

Also, London bound on a Sunday afternoon/evening can be a nightmare too.

It wouldnt be so bad if SWT made people put luggage in racks and not on seats/tables but the staff can't get through because of people and luggage in the aisles and corridors.
 

All Line Rover

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Really? Which booking engine are you using?

WebTIS. I bought a Whitchurch to Crewe ticket today (with a reservation on a Class 175) and collected it just a few hours ago. Whenever I travel on Class 175's during peak hours, almost every seat has a reservation label!
 

Capybara

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I have discovered that SWT do not offer seat reservations with their advance tickets. This seems to be a bit unfair compared to what the other TOCs offer, why should people that don't have the common sense to plan ahead get priority for the seats?

What bnm said. And what about people who don't want the train companies to organise their lives?
 

bnm

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WebTIS. I bought a Whitchurch to Crewe ticket today (with a reservation on a Class 175) and collected it just a few hours ago. Whenever I travel on Class 175's during peak hours, almost every seat has a reservation label!

Interesting. Book a walk-up ticket online and you are offered a seat reservation. Book an Advance Purchase ticket for the same journey and you are only offered 'booked train'.

So it appears we have a TOC offering seat reservations to those pax who pay more for their ticket. That'll please some folk!
 
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Tom

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So it appears we have a TOC offering seat reservations to those pax who pay more for their ticket. That'll please some folk!
People with Advance fares on ATW may obtain a proper seat reservation by going to a station ticket office.
 

All Line Rover

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Interesting. Book a walk-up ticket online and you are offered a seat reservation. Book an Advance Purchase ticket for the same journey and you are only offered 'booked train'.

So it appears we have a TOC offering seat reservations to those pax who pay more for their ticket. That'll please some folk!

Wow - what a weird way of doing things! :lol: As a person who regularly buys walk-up tickets (and never buys Advance tickets) on ATW, I'm actually quite pleased*, but at the same time I am very surprised. Almost every seat is reserved when I travel on 175's in the morning peak. It would genuinely surprise me if they had all been made by Off-Peak/Anytime/Season ticket holders.

*Scrap that. Having realized that Advance tickets are only available on extremely long journeys with ATW (longer than Virgin and similar operators) I am now quite annoyed! <(
 
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Welshman

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WebTIS. I bought a Whitchurch to Crewe ticket today (with a reservation on a Class 175) and collected it just a few hours ago. Whenever I travel on Class 175's during peak hours, almost every seat has a reservation label!

Interesting - on two occasions recently I've been able to book seats online for the 175-operated Manchester-Llandudno services, but the reservations were not even put out on the seats concerned.
 

All Line Rover

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Interesting - on two occasions recently I've been able to book seats online for the 175-operated Manchester-Llandudno services, but the reservations were not even put out on the seats concerned.

It appears that ATW have no firm policy with regard to seat reservations. That's a bit annoying!

May I ask whether you traveled on a quiet or busy train?
 
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