XC Seat Reservation Displays

[1e10]

I took 1V51, the 1007 XC service from Manchester Piccadilly to Bristol Temple Meads, the 1225 off Cheltenham Spa. I travelled between Cheltenham Spa and Bristol Temple Meads and before boarding used TMR to reserve a seat. I shouldn't have bothered because the displays were off when I boarded.

At some point during the journey they were switched back on but with incorrect information, all seats were displaying as available. The displays at the end of the carriage were displaying 'This is coach J' despite being on a 4-car Voyager. They also started to scroll through station stops for the journey and listed all stations between Plymouth and Leeds despite being a journey between Manchester and Bristol.

I haven't seen this happen before, does this sort of thing happen often?

 

[Eagle]

Looks like someone punched in the wrong service code, and the train thought it was on a different service (i.e. an 8-car service between Plymouth and Leeds).

I've also been on a Voyager that started saying "Welcome aboard this service to Dest_Station calling at Int_Station. Expected arrival time at destination is Arr_Time." which to me looks like someone put in a nonexistent code, or didn't put one in at all.

 

[ValleyLines142]

Personally I think XC should just scrap the whole bloody thing. As sophisticated as it is, it causes nothing but problems so I think it would just be easier to use the paper tickets inserted into the tops of the seats.

Although I have to say, Virgin have a similar system on their Pendolinos and I've never seen any problems with them.

As for displaying Coach J and stations between Plymouth and Leeds, I believe this is due to the fact that this service then returns north as the front portion of 1S49 1125 Plymouth to Dundee, which is booked for a pair of 220s. The portion from Plymouth attaches to the rear of the train at Bristol and at 1330 they proceed northwards to Newcastle. Although I'm not sure why there were reservations from Plymouth being displayed; only the rear portion came from Plymouth.

This particular train does not form the 1400 back to Manchester as this is the 0940 from Penzance.

 

[IanD]

Although I have to say, Virgin have a similar system on their Pendolinos and I've never seen any problems with them.

You need to get out more! 4 of my last 5 VT journeys have had faulty/inoperative displays.

 

[158801]

I'll agree with that - about Virgin.

Boarded at Glasgow a few ago. We didn't have reservations and boarded in the rear coach - nearest the buffer stops.

No reservations were shown. We sat down only to asked to move as a couple had those seats reserved. We moved to another couple of sets - only to find they were booked as well.

After almost 10 minutes the Train Manager made an announcement saying that they were not working - but please sit in the seat you had booked.

As for Cross Country - it's hideous. I would rather drive!

 

[gordonthemoron]

Pendo reservations can take some time to (down)load

 

[cuccir]

I have very little experience of travelling with Virgin, but Cross Country reservations are not worth the paper that they're written on. Which is ironic, given that if they wrote on them on paper instead, they'd work,

 

[Zoe]

I have very little experience of travelling with Virgin, but Cross Country reservations are not worth the paper that they're written on. Which is ironic, given that if they wrote on them on paper instead, they'd work,

But they would't be able to offer 10 minute resevations if it was paper based unless they had a member of staff notified when a reservation was made and had them print out a reservation card and place it on the seat. This however would not be very practical.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I have a little query regarding Virgin reservation displays, how come whenever I use my reserved seats, the electronic display simply displays the word 'Reserved' but everyone else's says 'Reserved from........to.......'? Is it that I book them online or something?

 

[Tetchytyke]

But they would't be able to offer 10 minute resevations if it was paper based unless they had a member of staff notified when a reservation was made and had them print out a reservation card and place in on the seat. This however would not be very practical.

That's all they do with the TMR now, more often than not, even with the electronic display. "This seat may be reserved" isn't quite the same as actually reserving it. Yes, I know TMR is supposed to, but XC seem to be too cheap to keep downloading as IIRC it costs them.

Paper reservations are usually better. At least they can't magically turn up halfway through a journey.

 

[harz99]

I have a little query regarding Virgin reservation displays, how come whenever I use my reserved seats, the electronic display simply displays the word 'Reserved' but everyone else's says 'Reserved from........to.......'? Is it that I book them online or something?

I think that the reservation info will go from the reserved from/to display to just reserved as the train approaches your boarding station where your reservation is for the whole journey of that train, if you board at the starting point and are doing the whole journey of the train it will show just reserved.

 

[Zoe]

That's all they do with the TMR now, more often than not, even with the electronic display. "This seat may be reserved" isn't quite the same as actually reserving it. Yes, I know TMR is supposed to, but XC seem to be too cheap to keep downloading as IIRC it costs them.

So if you are sitting in a seat that says "May be reserved en route" (which almost all of them seem to say) and someone reserves it then a member of staff will actually walk up to the seat, place a reservation card on it and tell you to move rather than updating the electronic reservation system after the reservation had been made? I've never seen any cards placed on seats on Voyagers.

 

[bb21]

Four times I have tried TMR, not one single occasion on which it worked.

A useless piece of junk if you ask me.

 

[Tetchytyke]

TMR is supposed to change the display from "may be reserved" to "reserved from x to y". I'm yet to see it actually work.

Where paper reservations are done, they are sometimes left on the seats where TMR may apply. Sometimes they're not. But then the paper tickets depends on how much warning the guard had about the electronic display failure; more often than not the "paper reservations" are just blank Advantix tickets stuck in the headrest with no mention of where the reservation applies between.

I've used TMR a few times when they first launched it, but haven't been able to get the damn thing to work for at least six months. It always returns a text saying no seats are available.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I think that the reservation info will go from the reserved from/to display to just reserved as the train approaches your boarding station where your reservation is for the whole journey of that train, if you board at the starting point and are doing the whole journey of the train it will show just reserved.

But even if I reserve from just Chester to Crewe or Warrington to Preston it will just display reserved. Another case is when I reserved from Euston to Crewe a few months back, I boarded at Milton Keynes instead, expecting the seats to be taken but they were empty simply saying 'Reserved'. It was on a Super Voyager heading to Holyhead and Wrexham general IIRC. It only happens on Super-Voyagers as well, Pendo's have always displayed where a seat is reserved from and to.

 

[Zoe]

TMR is supposed to change the display from "may be reserved" to "reserved from x to y". I'm yet to see it actually work.

The XC services I hae recently been on have said "May be reserved en route available x to y." This is a slight improvement on just saying "May be reserved" without giving any clue as to exactly which parts of the journey are reserved although not if x and y are the trains origin and destination. I had read that under the system you described above, it would only change to "reserved from x to y" when the train arrived at x so if you didn't have a reservation you'd have no idea how long you could sit in the seat before you have to move. Since almost every seat said this, are most of the seats now reservable with a ten minute reservation?

 

[Tetchytyke]

The layouts are now different between XC's Voyagers and Virgin's.

 

[Oswyntail]

The XC services I hae recently been on have said "May be reserved en route available x to y." This is a slight improvement on just saying "May be reserved" without giving any clue as to exactly which parts of the journey are reserved although not if x and y are the trains origin and destination. I had read that under the system you described above, it would only change to "reserved from x to y" when the train arrived at x so if you didn't have a reservation you'd have no idea how long you could sit in the seat before you have to move. Since almost every seat said this, are most of the seats now reservable with a ten minute reservation?

I thought that "May be reserved en route" means "It is unreserved at present, though it is possible that someone (maybe even yourself) will reserve it while en route" . "Available x to y" means that it has already been reserved before X and after Y (or those are the ends of the route).

 

[Zoe]

I thought that "May be reserved en route" means "It is unreserved at present, though it is possible that someone (maybe even yourself) will reserve it while en route" . "Available x to y" means that it has already been reserved before X and after Y (or those are the ends of the route).

The example I was referring to said both that it may be reserved en route and that it was available from x to y. I would have hoped that the x and y would change as and when reservations are made although this wouldn't be that helpful for someone who has already sat in the seat and would have no idea of the new reservation until they are asked to move. It wouldn't be so bad if there was some way of reserving an unreserved seat for your journey when you sit in it but I expect such a system would be prohibitively expensive.

 

[harz99]

But even if I reserve from just Chester to Crewe or Warrington to Preston it will just display reserved. Another case is when I reserved from Euston to Crewe a few months back, I boarded at Milton Keynes instead, expecting the seats to be taken but they were empty simply saying 'Reserved'. It was on a Super Voyager heading to Holyhead and Wrexham general IIRC. It only happens on Super-Voyagers as well, Pendo's have always displayed where a seat is reserved from and to.

The seat is reserved for another passenger after you get off?

 

[leedstraindude]

I took 1V51, the 1007 XC service from Manchester Piccadilly to Bristol Temple Meads, the 1225 off Cheltenham Spa. I travelled between Cheltenham Spa and Bristol Temple Meads and before boarding used TMR to reserve a seat. I shouldn't have bothered because the displays were off when I boarded.

At some point during the journey they were switched back on but with incorrect information, all seats were displaying as available. The displays at the end of the carriage were displaying 'This is coach J' despite being on a 4-car Voyager. They also started to scroll through station stops for the journey and listed all stations between Plymouth and Leeds despite being a journey between Manchester and Bristol.

I haven't seen this happen before, does this sort of thing happen often?

I dont know why they weren't on when you boarded, but that service attaches to the Plymouth - Dundee in Temple Meads at 1330 and runs as a double set North. The TM normally loads that trip in prior to arrival at Temple Meads as people quite often start boarding as soon at it arrives.

 

[snail]

Pendo's have always displayed where a seat is reserved from and to.

I travel on them several times a week and have never seen that! There is 'Reserved from...' for a future station or 'Reserved' from an unnamed station but never 'Reserved to...'

It would be helpful to know where a seat was reserved from then you have a better idea of whether someone is going to come and sit in it.

 

[howittpie]

Once had a strange experience with xc reservations. I boarded a Manchester to Bristol trainand it told me this seat was available until Southampton Central and the seat next to me was reserved from Stoke to Reading passengers were very confused.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I travel on them several times a week and have never seen that! There is 'Reserved from...' for a future station or 'Reserved' from an unnamed station but never 'Reserved to...'

It would be helpful to know where a seat was reserved from then you have a better idea of whether someone is going to come and sit in it.

What I mean is it will tell me where it's reserved from and where it's reserved to. For example the last one I went on read; 'Reserved from Runcorn to Stafford'.

 

[mailbyrail]

Had the unpleasant experience on XC last week taking an empty seat at York with the usual 'may be reserved en route' marking and then being ejected at Doncaster as by then it was reserved. Fortunately I was only going to Sheffield, but if that's their idea of customer service, then I'll go by car rather than pay XC prices to play musical chairs.

 

[1e10]

Had the unpleasant experience on XC last week taking an empty seat at York with the usual 'may be reserved en route' marking and then being ejected at Doncaster as by then it was reserved. Fortunately I was only going to Sheffield, but if that's their idea of customer service, then I'll go by car rather than pay XC prices to play musical chairs.

Would you rather have them display the seat as reserved for the entire route in case someone reserves it en route?

 

[CC 72100]

Would you rather have them display the seat as reserved for the entire route in case someone reserves it en route?

Probably not, but you could just have it display the actual stations where it is reserved, and then you can see if during your part of the journey it is free.

Oh wait, i've just described paper reservations

 

[1e10]

Probably not, but you could just have it display the actual stations where it is reserved, and then you can see if during your part of the journey it is free.

Oh wait, i've just described paper reservations

With TMR seats can be reserved as little as 10 minutes before the train pulls into the station. If this is the case then the seat wouldn't have been reserved when you sat in it but was reserved by someone using TMR en route.

You are warned that the seat may be reserved en route

 

[ainsworth74]

Would you rather have them display the seat as reserved for the entire route in case someone reserves it en route?

I would rather they ditched the stupid system entirely but maybe that's just me...

Probably not, but you could just have it display the actual stations where it is reserved, and then you can see if during your part of the journey it is free.

That functionality does exist on the electronic displays but they're just so poorly implemented that it's next to useless.

I have more hope for the next generation of displays that will be fitted to IEP which will tell you where the seat is reserved from/to and will also have indicator lights so you can see when you enter the carriage which seats have no reservations, which are reserved later and which are reserved now. Also IEP is going to have seat back holders for reservations so if it all goes wrong they can still stick bits of paper in (unlike on Voyagers and Pendolinos where they have to try and stuff them between the cushion and the seat frame).

 

[Zoe]

I have more hope for the next generation of displays that will be fitted to IEP which will tell you where the seat is reserved from/to and will also have indicator lights so you can see when you enter the carriage which seats have no reservations, which are reserved later and which are reserved now. Also IEP is going to have seat back holders for reservations so if it all goes wrong they can still stick bits of paper in (unlike on Voyagers and Pendolinos where they have to try and stuff them between the cushion and the seat frame).

If XC style en-route reservations were to be adopted though, there would still be the possibility that a seat would be free when you sit in it but become reserved later in the journey which would require you to leave the seat.
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Probably not, but you could just have it display the actual stations where it is reserved, and then you can see if during your part of the journey it is free.

The last XC train I went on did actually say where the seat was availabe from and to in addition to saying that it may be reserved en route.