Open return trains full on day i need to trave

[TheNanna]

Hi, I'm in Southampton for a break and want to travel home with my open return off peak tomorrow.

I've tried to look at journeys going back to Newcastle, as if I were going to book one, and it says they're fully booked all day, what can I do?

Ticket conditions state my journey cannot go through London, so will have to be via Birmingham New Street, I think.

Is it different when you have an open return - can we just turn up and wait for the next train?

 

[Sleepy]

You can just use any unreserved seat on any train tommorow (no time restrictions on Bank Holidays)

 

[Hadders]

There is no requirement to hold a seat reservation to travel. You can board and try and find an unreserved seat or stand.

 

[GoneSouth]

Heck an open return on Cross Country must have cost you an arm and a leg! Is it an off peak or fully open ticket?

Short answer is yes, you can just turn up with those ticket types and ride on any train, with the restriction that an off peak fare won’t be valid until after about 0930. The fact that it says they are fully booked shouldn’t be a problem as there are plenty of unreserved seats available, but I guess it might be very busy. What time are you intending to travel?

As you’re travelling via Birmingham, you’ll be on Cross Country so here’s how to work out which coaches of a Voyager are unreserved.

4 car - Unreserved carriage is F
5 car - Unreserved carriages are B and F
8 car - Unreserved carriages are F and L
9 car - Unreserved carriages are B, F and L OR F, H and L
10 car - Unreserved carriages are B, F, H and L

Sounds confusing, but real time trains will tell you the train formation and usually has correct direction of travel with front at the left.

Realtime Trains

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

HTH

Edit - oops forgot its a BH tomorrow so don’t think the peak restrictions apply

 

[Sleepy]

Heck an open return on Cross Country must have cost you an arm and a leg! Is it an off peak or fully open ticket?

Short answer is yes, you can just turn up with those ticket types and ride on any train, with the restriction that an off peak fare won’t be valid until after about 0930. The fact that it says they are fully booked shouldn’t be a problem as there are plenty of unreserved seats available, but I guess it might be very busy. What time are you intending to travel?

As you’re travelling via Birmingham, you’ll be on Cross Country so here’s how to work out which coaches of a Voyager are unreserved.

4 car - Unreserved carriage is F
5 car - Unreserved carriages are B and F
8 car - Unreserved carriages are F and L
9 car - Unreserved carriages are B, F and L OR F, H and L
10 car - Unreserved carriages are B, F, H and L

Sounds confusing, but real time trains will tell you the train formation and usually has correct direction of travel with front at the left.

Realtime Trains

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

HTH

Edit - oops forgot its a BH tomorrow so don’t think the peak restrictions apply

Note tomorrow is a bank holiday so off peak time restrictions don't apply.

 

[norbitonflyer]

"Fully booked" means that no advance tickets are available for that train, and that all of the reservable seats have been reserved. But, much as some TOCs would like to pretend otherwise, an open ticket (including any off peak ticket) can still be used on such a train. And there are always some seats that are not reservable in advance (and there may be some that are only reserved for part of the journey)

 

[Snow1964]

"Fully booked" means that no advance tickets are available for that train, and that all of the reservable seats have been reserved. But, much as some TOCs would like to pretend otherwise, an open ticket (including any off peak ticket) can still be used on such a train. And there are always some seats that are not reservable in advance (and there may be some that are only reserved for part of the journey)

Sometimes you can do bit of playing to find busy section, by dummy booking split sections, eg if you tried Southampton-Oxford and it offers advances then plenty of reservable seats for that section. It could be it is only sold out for few miles somewhere with whole route.

Southampton is near the start of the route so should be able to find seats in the unreservable coach, and just stay in them whole journey.

 

[dk1]

I never bother checking and never use seat reservations. Just turn up, find an unreserved seat or standing space and go. If it’s busy I’ll just change somewhere down the line and see if that train fairs any better.