EMT unspecified seat reservations

[Old Yard Dog]

I went to my local Merseyrail station to buy my tickets for Saturday and reserve seats on trains from Liverpool to Alfreton and back. I was given reservations for my two trains but neither had an actual seat allocated. They just seemed to be some sort of permit to travel on those two workings. So assuming prospective turn-up-and-go passengers are not turned away, what is the point of "reserving"?

 

[swt_passenger]

I went to my local Merseyrail station to buy my tickets for Saturday and reserve seats on trains from Liverpool to Alfreton and back. I was given reservations for my two trains but neither had an actual seat allocated. They just seemed to be some sort of permit to travel on those two workings. So assuming prospective turn-up-and-go passengers are not turned away, what is the point of "reserving"?

It’s a counted place reservation - they really have been very common for quite a while. As you suggest it’s to limit you to that train.

 

[Skymonster]

It’s pointless, because on your way back if the train is rammed when it arrives at Alfreton (with passengers who have walk on tickets) it won’t make a jot of difference if you have a reservation.

 

[Haywain]

I went to my local Merseyrail station to buy my tickets for Saturday and reserve seats on trains from Liverpool to Alfreton and back. I was given reservations for my two trains but neither had an actual seat allocated. They just seemed to be some sort of permit to travel on those two workings. So assuming prospective turn-up-and-go passengers are not turned away, what is the point of "reserving"?

If you have bought Advance tickets, the reservations are to confirm which train you are booked on. If you bought a flexible ticket they are a meaningless waste of paper.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

I nearly always buy flexible tickets, splitting where advantageous. Travel on Advance tickets is far too stressful.

I can't see the staff on the barrier at Lime Street checking whether passengers have reservations for the Norwich train. There are too many trains leaving the barriered platforms 1-6 at any one time for this to be feasible. And I suspect they would be reluctant to try turn away large numbers of Tranmere supporters going to Mansfield with there currently being a two hour gap in services on Saturday mornings.

I believe that Alfreton is unstaffed apart from the man in the ticket office which will be closed by the time I set off back.

So perhaps these meaningless reservations are issued simply to collect data for their SeatFinder tool?

Seat Finder | EMR

Find less busy trains on your route To help you decide which train to catch, we’ve looked at how busy they are likely to be. Simply select two stations and a time to see a heatmap showing how crowded the trains are. It is not a live feed but provides a guide to predict the busier trains during...

www.eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk

 

[Hadders]

If Advance tickets are offered for sale on a particular train then seat reservations have to be available on the train so that the train company can tell you to travel on a specific service.

On trains that historically don't have specific seat reservations (often local or regional trains rather than traditional inter-city trains) they do this by giving you a counted place reservation, which doesn't actually give you a specific seat.

The problem is if a train has seat reservations available in the system then they will be offered to people purchasing flexible tickets but this is totally meaningless as you don't actually get a seat.

We currently have a farcical situation on Thameslink where counted place seat reservations are available on their trains but they don't sell any Advance tickets!