Unreserved Seats - which carriage/s?

[AFitz]

Hi,

We will be travelling on the 10am Edinburgh to York train in a few days and haven't reserved seats because we were unsure at the time of booking which train we would be travelling on. Also, one of the children is under five so we didn't pay for them and obviously wouldn't have been able to reserve a seat for them. I was hoping that we may be able to find a vacant seat for this child in the unreserved areas. (Beside the two fare paying adults and other child of course!) I realise that we would need to give this seat up if a fare-paying person needed it.

Does anyone know which coach or coaches the unreserved seating is usually situated with Virgin East Coast?

I would really appreciate any advice you can offer.

Many thanks.

 

[yorkie]

Hi,

We will be travelling on the 10am Edinburgh to York train in a few days and haven't reserved seats because we were unsure at the time of booking which train we would be travelling on. Also, one of the children is under five so we didn't pay for them and obviously wouldn't have been able to reserve a seat for them. I was hoping that we may be able to find a vacant seat for this child in the unreserved areas. (Beside the two fare paying adults and other child of course!) I realise that we would need to give this seat up if a fare-paying person needed it.

Does anyone know which coach or coaches the unreserved seating is usually situated with Virgin East Coast?

I would really appreciate any advice you can offer.

Many thanks.

Do you have a Family Railcard? If so, a ticket for the under 5 is cheap so might be worth paying for in future. If not, get one as you will save money on one trip alone.

As for an unreserved coach, try Coach H (near the Food Bar).

You may want to fullu charge any electronic devices before boarding as there are no power sockets in this coach.

 

[AFitz]

Thanks for your reply Yorkie. That's helpful.

Yes we do have a family railcard (and I have a disabled railcard) and did get the discount for this journey. Great savings there. To be honest it never occurred to me to just buy two child places - I will bear that in mind for any future longer journeys!

Do you happen to know if it will only be that one carriage that has unreserved seating?


Thanks

 

[yorkie]

It depends on when you travel but if "a few days" means Friday then I doubt there will be many spare seats. Loadings on this route are usually quite high, even at off peak times. I have even seen reservations in Coach H on rare occasions. Board early and you should be OK. You may find a table that is only reserved from York.

How many of you are travelling in total?

Looking at tomorrow, Coach D has loads of spare seats at present and is the most lightly loaded coach in terms of reservations, but no free tables.

As for Friday, when looking for a seat I get "There are no seats available to reserve for your chosen ticket on the chosen service" so it will be wedged and seats will be required by fare paying passengers so the under 5 shouldn't really occupy a seat if you're travelling that day! If it's any other day, visit a station and you can get reservations for the fare-paying passengers.

 

[AFitz]

Oh dear, it's Friday we're travelling. There's a total of four people travelling - two adults and the two children.

I was lulled into a false sense of security when I looked at the Virgin website and it said that the 10am from Edinburgh to York on Fridays was "likely to have lots of seats", until it reaches reaches Newcastle where it is "likely to have some seats".

We will get there early and hope for the best I suppose. It won't matter if we can't get a table - if we can even get one double and a single somewhere then the children could share a seat. Here's hoping!

Dreading the journey now!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

If this is a Mk4 rake, the 20 seats right at the back of the train southbound ( ie next to the locomotive ) are left unreserved. Assuming the train starts at Edinburgh, which page 28 of the eNRT suggests it does ( here: Table 26 - ECML ) if you are at the station very early for your departure you should be able to get some seats in there.

 

[AFitz]

Thanks for this Peter. We will definitely get there early and hopefully will find something in that carriage. Perhaps the guard will be able to advise us if there are any anywhere.

Thanks again.

 

[yorkie]

I'm not sure the Quiet Coach is the best idea. Why not arrive early and head straight for Coach H?

 

[AFitz]

Oh I didn't realise that was the quiet coach. We will head for coach H instead.

The children don't "do" quiet unless they're sleeping. I don't think it would go down too well with the other passengers.

We will be there early - hopefully it doesn't arrive at the platform just before it's due to leave and then it's a mad dash to get on the train and find a seat. Or is that just services like Glasgow to Edinburgh that do this? Do longer services like this tend to be at the platform for a few minutes before they leave?

 

[Adam0984]

The 1000 from Edinburgh is the 0921 arrival from Doncaster so be there early let them do the reservations clean it etc but once they've done the reservations before boarding starts have a walk down the outside and find the best carriage and seats so you can dive straight on and claim them

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I though quiet coaches were being abolished? Or was that just the one TOC?

 

[yorkie]

Do longer services like this tend to be at the platform for a few minutes before they leave?

You should be able to board at least 15 minutes before departure, under normal circumstances.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I though quiet coaches were being abolished? Or was that just the one TOC?

The notable case was CrossCountry (XC) Voyager trains no longer convey quiet coaches, so only a small number of XC services now convey them. Not applicable in this case as it's a Virgin Trains (East Coast) service.

 

[AFitz]

Thank you all for your kind help.

Given the problems with reserving a seat for the outward journey I've now managed to reserve us seats for our return journey a week later. Even so, we don't have three seats together - but that's ok.

We will just have to loiter with intent on Friday morning!

Thanks again

 

[Tetchytyke]

If it is an electric train then there are three tables in coach H- which are usually unreserved- and there are two tables at the very northern end of coach B which are unreserved. If you get there in plenty of time you should be OK, as the train starts at Edinburgh.

If it is a HST train then there are no unreservable coaches.

 

[Southwest]

I'm not sure the Quiet Coach is the best idea. Why not arrive early and head straight for Coach H?

I can never understand why there appears to be so many families with young children trying to get seats in the quiet coach.

However, they are monk like compared to the knobs who sit and carry out long boring conversations with their office via mobile phone. If you are in a quiet coach, turn off your Ghostbusters ringtone and go to the corridors to make phone calls. Just my opinion.

 

[fishquinn]

More often than not, this service departs from platform 2 and arrives at 09:21. If you can be there in good time then it should be ok.

 

[30907]

Oh dear, it's Friday we're travelling. There's a total of four people travelling - two adults and the two children.

I was lulled into a false sense of security when I looked at the Virgin website and it said that the 10am from Edinburgh to York on Fridays was "likely to have lots of seats", until it reaches reaches Newcastle where it is "likely to have some seats".

We will get there early and hope for the best I suppose. It won't matter if we can't get a table - if we can even get one double and a single somewhere then the children could share a seat. Here's hoping!

Dreading the journey now!

Unfortunately the autumn school holidays in Edinburgh start this weekend.

Are you able to contact Telesales and reserve that way? I assume you already have tickets -would you be able to add an extra child to entitle them to a seat? Not sure of the practicalities but might be worth a try...

 

[fishquinn]

Are you on advance tickets on the 10:00? If not then maybe go for the 10:30 but take it from Haymarket as I guess it will fill up at Edinburgh.

Just a thought.

 

[AFitz]

Hi,

We have open returns. I called this morning earlier and it's not possible to reserve the 10, 10.30 or even the next train. I've also had a look at the 10.10 Cross Country train and it seems to be full too.

I feel like a complete eejit as I was aware about it being school holidays but didn't think of the train being busier than normal as the schools don't actually stop until the afternoon. I thought it would be busier on the Saturday and that we would be fine as we are going on Friday. Obviously others are doing the same as us.

I also didn't realise that I could add a reservation to the booking once our plans had firmed up, but will remember that for future.

At least we're only going as far as York. It could be worse, we could have been going all the way to Kings Cross.

Lesson learned!

 

[30907]

If it's really dire, you can bale out at Newcastle, get some fresh air, and go forward on a service starting there - XC or TPE

 

[AFitz]

Thanks to all for the useful information you've given me. I've solved our problem by buying new tickets from Edinburgh to York for the 7am train. I was able to reserve a table for us.

The £52 I paid was well worth it for the peace of mind to be honest.

So, we will now arrive in York at 9.30 am, have a wander around there for a few hours, have lunch etc. and then move on to our final destination ... and I won't spend the next couple of days worrying about the start of our holiday turning into a nightmare.

One more question, please? Where's the best place to leave luggage and do you have any idea of cost?

Oh and if anyone knows of any National Trust/English Heritage places near the station that would be good too


Thanks!

 

[yorkie]

Why did you buy new tickets? The difference between the Off Peak and Anytime fares is only £14.85 for the adults and £4.30 for children with the Family Railcard. If you visited a ticket office they should have advised you of this.

Left luggage: http://leftluggageyork.co.uk/ (prices not known to me)

Places to visit near the station (Map):

National Railway Museum (opens 10am. Free entry. Use the station exit on the west side, use the stairs rather than the lift unless you want to go the long way round avoiding steps).

Yorkshire Museum & gardens

York City Walls (not sure how suitable this would be with young children, I do see people bring young children on the walls though)

 

[AFitz]

Oh gosh this has been one saga after another.

I bought the new tickets because the person on the phone today told me that I couldn't just upgrade my existing tickets, I would have to cancel my booking, get a refund, and pay for a whole new set of tickets. (The Edinburgh/York part is only part of the whole journey if you see what I mean). It would have been a fair bit of money to wait to be reimbursed for just before our holiday.

I wish I had discovered this site before buying the original tickets!

Thanks for the link to the left luggage information - and the places visit!

 

[yorkie]

Oh gosh this has been one saga after another.

I bought the new tickets because the person on the phone today told me that I couldn't just upgrade my existing tickets, I would have to cancel my booking, get a refund, and pay for a whole new set of tickets. (The Edinburgh/York part is only part of the whole journey if you see what I mean). It would have been a fair bit of money to wait to be reimbursed for just before our holiday.

I wish I had discovered this site before buying the original tickets!

Thanks for the link to the left luggage information.

You held Off Peak Returns and they told you that? Which company was it?

I suggest you write to them requesting both a refund of the unnecessary extra you paid along with compensation for the inconvenience.

Sadly incorrect information appears to be rife in the rail industry and there are inadequate measures to combat this.

What type of tickets were you sold? If they were Advance, you've been sold a vastly inferior product at an inflated price.

I'm glad we've been able to help. I recommend in future posting here checking what you plan to buy is a good deal before going ahead with it. You can't rely on all rail retail outlets to provide accurate information, sadly.

 

[fishquinn]

I have just looked. The 07:00 is a Cross Country service. If you tickets are not advance then I highly recommend you take the 07:30 which is Virgin East Coast.

 

[AFitz]

Hi,

The original tickets are the normal off peak open returns. I bought them from The Train Line I'm embarrassed to say.

The new tickets for the Edinburgh-York section of our journey are Advance tickets. They were £52 for the 7am train, but to go on the 7.30am train it would have been £128. I bought these from Scotrail. (Scotrail and Virgin East Coast were showing identical prices for this journey.)

I'm almost afraid to ask, but Why wouldn't you advise going with Cross Country?

I think that's who we went with a couple of years ago, albeit just to Berwick and they seemed ok?

 

[Iskra]

Hi,

The original tickets are the normal off peak open returns. I bought them from The Train Line I'm embarrassed to say.

The new tickets for the Edinburgh-York section of our journey are Advance tickets. They were £52 for the 7am train, but to go on the 7.30am train it would have been £128. I bought these from Scotrail. (Scotrail and Virgin East Coast were showing identical prices for this journey.)

I'm almost afraid to ask, but Why wouldn't you advise going with Cross Country?

I think that's who we went with a couple of years ago, albeit just to Berwick and they seemed ok?

To keep it simple- most rail enthusiasts detest (and subsequently avoid) XC's fleet of trains as dirty, cramped, noisy, smelly, slow, expensive and over crowded.

A rail enthusiast would almost always go for a VTEC service as the trains are seen as more comfortable.

If it is just for a few hours an XC train is usually perfectly adequate as a means of transportation for a non-enthusiast, so I wouldn't worry yourself. If travelling long distance in the future, it may be best checking alternatives to XC as they are often cheaper and more comfortable.

 

[yorkie]

Hi,

The original tickets are the normal off peak open returns. I bought them from The Train Line I'm embarrassed to say.

The new tickets for the Edinburgh-York section of our journey are Advance tickets. They were £52 for the 7am train, but to go on the 7.30am train it would have been £128. I bought these from Scotrail. (Scotrail and Virgin East Coast were showing identical prices for this journey.)

Scotrail need to issue you a full refund and I'd also ask for at least a £10 admin fee for the inconvenience (which is the same amount they would ask if you inconvenienced them).

They were wrong to say the original tickets could not be excessed to allow travel at any time, and they sold you an inferior product costing more than the excess. Don't put up with it.

I'm almost afraid to ask, but Why wouldn't you advise going with Cross Country?

I think that's who we went with a couple of years ago, albeit just to Berwick and they seemed ok?

Most (though not all) CrossCountry trains are around half the length of East Coast trains (so can get overcrowded, especially if you get a 4-car rather than a 5-car), have rattling diesel engines under the floors, minimal catering provision (more of a problem in 1st class than Standard, to be fair), poor ride quality, no quiet coach (not an issue for you) and are in a tatty state as they are in desperate need of refurbishment.

 

[AFitz]

Ahh ok thanks.

I think we will tolerate it for the fairly short journey. I commute on the main Glasgow-Edinburgh line daily, so the cramped, noisy, dirty, smelly, expensive and often delayed aspect doesn't worry me too much.

However, in future I will definitely submit my plans to this forum for advice before handing over the three digit code on the back of my debit card!

I'm a danger to myself!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Oh just to clarify, in all fairness it was The Train Line that gave me the misinformation when I phoned them earlier today.

I booked the new tickets myself through the Scotrail website.

 

[yorkie]

Get Scotrail to refund you and issue the correct - and cheaper - excess, and you can take any train. Turning up early gives you first pickings of any unreserved seats.

If Thetrainline told you to buy new tickets, and you then bought them through Scotrail, your argument is with Thetrainline. However getting anything out of them will be hard work, so if they do not co-operate, complain to Transport Focus.