Seat numbering on Arriva Trains Wales MkIII stock

[crehld]

So I travelled on Arriva Trains Wales's loco-hauled set along the North Wales Coast on Wednesday.

Over the course of the journey I noticed an oddity about how they numbered their seats. The bay of four opposite me had seats numbered "33F, 34F, 33B, 34B" (I can't remember the exact numbers, but you get the point). This situation applied to all bay seats in the carriage I was in. As it happened the 'F' seats were all backwards to the direction of travel (and the 'B' seats obviously vice versa).

Surely this defeats the whole point of the 'F'/'B' thing? I thought the point was that opposite seats both shared the number 34 (for example) and which one was 'F' or 'B' was determined by the direction of travel of the train?

Can anyone explain why these seats have been labelled so?

 

[30907]

Which set? If it was the Cardiff services aka Gerallt aka WAGExpress aka..., then as it reverses en route it's difficult to define F and B.
That's the only thing I can think of, and it's only a guess.

 

[crehld]

Which set? If it was the Cardiff services aka Gerallt aka WAGExpress aka..., then as it reverses en route it's difficult to define F and B.
That's the only thing I can think of, and it's only a guess.

It was the North Wales set, though I guess the carriages may get switched about as and when.

The reversal thing had crossed my mind, but if that were the case why not just number the seats sequentially and get rid of the F and B altogether?

 

[krus_aragon]

This is how seats are numbered in their other stock (e.g. 175s) but on those they have two seats numbered 33, and two numbered 34. Only on reservation slips would you see any reference to 'a', 'b', or 'f'. This of course led to much passenger confusion when ATW still gave seat reservations with all advance tickets.

 

[ValleyLines142]

It's a shame that many TOCs can't guarantee the direction of travel, but of course the reversing of units can't always be stopped. Virgin Trains have First Class at the London end of the train. Obviously this is subject to alteration but 99.9% of the time you know you'll face your desired direction.

 

[PHILIPE]

It's a shame that many TOCs can't guarantee the direction of travel, but of course the reversing of units can't always be stopped. Virgin Trains have First Class at the London end of the train. Obviously this is subject to alteration but 99.9% of the time you know you'll face your desired direction.

Not really possible if you're travelling from Birmingham to Aberystwyth with the reversal at Shrewsbury. Nor from Manchester to Milford Haven with reversals at Swansea and Carmarthen.

 

[ValleyLines142]

Not really possible if you're travelling from Birmingham to Aberystwyth with the reversal at Shrewsbury. Nor from Manchester to Milford Haven with reversals at Swansea and Carmarthen.

Exactly, hence my point about how the reversing of units can't always be helped.