Why can't I book a place on a GWR service?

[phil1960]

Not sure if this is class 800 related or not. Looking at Sunday 20 June, 08:51 Paddington-Penzance going as far as Plymouth. Really need to be there as early as possible. On National Rail, search trains come up with no fares, later ones have Advance tickets. On GWR's site, you can select a Super Off Peak, but won't let you book a seat so online transaction can't be completed. Same scenario for 6 and 13 June but somehow OK for next Sunday, 30 May.

GWR's Twitter say train on the 20 June is full. Is it or has the train not been released yet for sale as not confirmed if running due to class 800 shortages?

Phil

 

[YorkshireBear]

Not sure if this is class 800 related or not. Looking at Sunday 20 June, 08:51 Paddington-Penzance going as far as Plymouth. Really need to be there as early as possible. On National Rail, search trains come up with no fares, later ones have Advance tickets. On GWR's site, you can select a Super Off Peak, but won't let you book a seat so online transaction can't be completed. Same scenario for 6 and 13 June but somehow OK for next Sunday, 30 May.

GWR's Twitter say train on the 20 June is full. Is it or has the train not been released yet for sale as not confirmed if running due to class 800 shortages?

Phil

This is likely to be due to train having no reservable seats left as I have recently discovered on GWR and it is a right pain actually letting you get that far then saying actually no seats left sorry. Very un-user friendly way of doing it in my opinion! But then again I don't like compulsory reservations at all.

 

[phil1960]

This is likely to be due to train having no reservable seats left as I have recently discovered on GWR and it is a right pain actually letting you get that far then saying actually no seats left sorry. Very un-user friendly way of doing it in my opinion! But then again I don't like compulsory reservations at all

Thanks. I'll book a seat on the 10:03 but looking at GWR's replies to tweets they are saying if the train is fully reserved, just buy a walk-up ticket on the day but social distancing may not be possible. Impossible to police boarding after Paddington, so I wonder if GWR are happy to just let you on unreserved?

 

[GoneSouth]

This is likely to be due to train having no reservable seats left as I have recently discovered on GWR and it is a right pain actually letting you get that far then saying actually no seats left sorry. Very un-user friendly way of doing it in my opinion! But then again I don't like compulsory reservations at all.

They’ve even started doing this on the local services too, had the same issue booking a ticket for what used to be the Cheltenham/Gloucester to Weymouth/Westbury. As far as I know you’ve never had to or been able to book a seat on those trains. App said reservation essential but none available so have to buy ticket at the station. Bags of room on the train when it arrived. Come in GWR please let us book online easily again.

Anybody know why they have done this if they are also telling people to just buy walk up tickets? They don’t actually seem that bothered about how many people are getting on the train. As said above its a right pain!

 

[JonathanH]

Anybody know why they have done this if they are also telling people to just buy walk up tickets? They don’t actually seem that bothered about how many people are getting on the train. As said above its a right pain!

The suggestion is that doing this (which they have also done on the North Downs line) is that it will discourage people from travelling / spread loads onto available trains if people look on line and find they can't book a train where the quota is exhausted.

(The other thing it enables is to charge more for through advance tickets to secondary routes.)

 

[nanstallon]

The 'Is Your Journey Really Necessary?' mentality. Of course, there is no incentive to encourage customers under the present system.

 

[cactustwirly]

Thanks. I'll book a seat on the 10:03 but looking at GWR's replies to tweets they are saying if the train is fully reserved, just buy a walk-up ticket on the day but social distancing may not be possible. Impossible to police boarding after Paddington, so I wonder if GWR are happy to just let you on unreserved?

GWR aren't enforcing social distancing, which is different to LNER

 

[GoneSouth]

Hmm, I wish I could drive! Future of our railways is looking more and more inconvenient and expensive

 

[Kite159]

A bit like this afternoon when I randomly looked up Banbury - Basingstoke on NRE (mainly to see if XC had any cheap on-the-day advance fares left which undercut the off-peak singles), to be met with a screen full of "No Fares Available". A normal person looking at that result would decide to drive rather than taking the train.

As for GWR I've come across it a couple times when travelling towards Romsey/Southampton, try selecting a service returns a "no reservations left" error so you just have to buy the ticket without selecting any services.

(The train I caught had half a dozen passengers in the coach I was in)

 

[YorkshireBear]

Thanks. I'll book a seat on the 10:03 but looking at GWR's replies to tweets they are saying if the train is fully reserved, just buy a walk-up ticket on the day but social distancing may not be possible. Impossible to police boarding after Paddington, so I wonder if GWR are happy to just let you on unreserved?

Hmm maybe they are. I am going to start a separate thread in the relevant sub forum.

 

[Reliablebeam]

One of my PhD students missed a hospital appointment in London last year as she looked at the GWR site which had no availability - this was heading in from Bristol way. She didn't mention this to me until a few weeks after the event but I told her in future just get a walk up ticket and pile on! There is no enforcement onboard and in my experience a lot of people don't seem to use their 'booked' train anyway judging by loads.

I wonder how many people have been put off under similar conditions? Generally I've been impressed by GWR through this but their diagramming if that's the word doesn't seem to match demand well coming out of lockdown 3.

 

[phil1960]

There is no enforcement onboard and in my experience a lot of people don't seem to use their 'booked' train anyway judging by loads.

Thanks to everyone for their replies. Not travelled much on GWR during the last 12-15 months. I got a seat booked for the 10:03 but will head for the "fully reserved" 08:51 at Paddington. I'll be on a walk-up, unrestricted ticket.

 

[james60059]

CrossCountry are the same, I tried at TMR for the 19:22 Birmingham New Street - Nuneaton yesterday and got told no reservations available, I have heard on odd occasions that there has been enforcement by XC not allowing non-reserved ticket holders on. In the end I went via Coventry instead.

 

[GoneSouth]

CrossCountry are the same, I tried at TMR for the 19:22 Birmingham New Street - Nuneaton yesterday and got told no reservations available, I have heard on odd occasions that there has been enforcement by XC not allowing non-reserved ticket holders on. In the end I went via Coventry instead.

Oh dear that’s bad news! Unless you want to go to Cardiff, GWR and XC are your only options in Gloucestershire...

Welcome to Gloucestershire, you can check out anytime but you can never leave!

 

[boiledbeans2]

On GWR's site, you can select a Super Off Peak, but won't let you book a seat so online transaction can't be completed.

I had the same problems 2 weeks ago. But it seemed to be fixed last week and is still working today. I have a question related to GWR seat reservations. Not sure if it's good idea to start a new thread for a minor question.

I was going to book a journey, a Super off-peak ticket on a weekend. But as usual, the GWR websites asks me to select a train time and make a seat reservation. Let's say I make a seat reservation for the 0800 train. But my plans change at the last minute and I want to take the 0900 train instead.

As my Super off-peak ticket is valid anytime on the weekend, can I take the 0900 train without a seat reservation? I don't think the train time is printed anywhere on a Super off-peak ticket anyway, so no one will know, right?

Otherwise, the alternative is I walk up and buy from the ticket machine on the day of travel, which I know for sure is valid on any train.