Seat reservations for assisted travel

[TUC]

On a couple of occasions recently my wife has experienced not being able to make seat reservations as part of assisted travel arrangements, not because it is a service where no seat reservations are ever available, but because the TOC for its own reasons has turn off seat reservation booking for a specific journey. (TPE seem to regularly do this.) This resulted recently in the station and on-train staff having to do their best very quickly to find somewhere for my wife and guide dog to sit on a rammed train.

Is there no system capacity to retain seat reservation availability for assisted travel even if general seat reservations are not available? If not ,how can such scenarios best be addressed?

 

[Hadders]

Reservations working or not, the priority seating area should be vacated by passengers to enable someone requiring assisted travel to get a seat.

 

[Haywain]

Reservations working or not, the priority seating area should be vacated by passengers to enable someone requiring assisted travel to get a seat.

That's not really true. The need for a priority seat is not dependant on requiring booked (or otherwise) assistance.

 

[Hadders]

That's not really true. The need for a priority seat is not dependant on requiring booked (or otherwise) assistance.

Agreed. If a priority seat is occupied by someone who doesn't need it then they should vacate it in favour of someone who does need it.

 

[Haywain]

Agreed. If a priority seat is occupied by someone who doesn't need it then they should vacate it in favour of someone who does need it.

They should but there is no compulsion to do so.

 

[Hadders]

They should but there is no compulsion to do so.

Really? So if I sit in a priority seat to benefit from the extra leg room and a vulnerable passenger or someone in need of a seat (infirm, pregnant etc) comes along and there are no other seats available, I shouldn’t feel the need to give it up to them?

 

[Haywain]

Really? So if I sit in a priority seat to benefit from the extra leg room and a vulnerable passenger or someone in need of a seat (infirm, pregnant etc) comes along and there are no other seats available, I shouldn’t feel the need to give it up to them?

Of course you should feel the need to move, but you cannot be penalised for failing to do so (other than by being on the receiving end of other people's disgust at your selfishness). But although they might judge they cannot know if you are also vulnerable as not all disabilities are visible.