Pre-booking seat on train

littletiger

Has anyone ever pre-booked their seat on the train. How does it work? Is there a seat reserved when you get there? Is it worth doing?

TheZohanS

Moved to Commuting and Transport

syklops

littletiger wrote: »

Has anyone ever pre-booked their seat on the train. How does it work? Is there a seat reserved when you get there? Is it worth doing?

Done it : Yes.
Worth doing: Errr... If you know its going to be busy and the chances of you having to stand is high, then yes.

When I did it, I was given seats D54 and D55, and when the train arrived there were 2 C carriages and no D carriage. The result was utter chaos, and I ended up being moved 3 times by a train official. It made the whole experience more frustrating than it should have been.

cute_cow

littletiger wrote: »

Has anyone ever pre-booked their seat on the train. How does it work? Is there a seat reserved when you get there? Is it worth doing?

I travelled to Limerick and booked a return ticket and seats. Name was above seat when I got to it, handy for peak times. Not bothered any other time.

Even better, I had booked to travel on Friday evening and back on Sunday, but had to travel earlier so cancelled and re-booked.

Irish Rail gave my refund on my credit card, but forgot to charge me...turns out I got it free....was well worth doing it that time

fh041205

littletiger wrote: »

Has anyone ever pre-booked their seat on the train. How does it work? Is there a seat reserved when you get there? Is it worth doing?

Yes done that several times. Never any problems. My name was displayed on the electronic displays above the seat. Got there nice and early even though I didn't reallt have to, and had no trouble whatsoever. Worth doing to save you from standing. I've done it on fairly empty trains but was still happy not to have to worry about it, and to get everyone I was travelling with to sit together.

Absurdum

littletiger wrote: »

Has anyone ever pre-booked their seat on the train. How does it work? Is there a seat reserved when you get there? Is it worth doing?

Booked seats to Belfast, there was a little slip with my name on it. I boarded quite early though, when it began filling up, elderly people sat wherever they felt like and staff avoided doing anything so several arguments ensued.

corktina

mandatory booking as per the airlines and an end to standing should be the goal.... yes, we'd need more carriages and more trains and yes the cost would have to rise, but its clearly unsafe to be standing in a vestible at speed.

efb

I thought you had to be at your seat 20 min prior to departure for prebooked seats?

Mrs, if your name's not on the seat your not getting me out of it. (chances are only one part of the journey has reserved seating)

PeteEd

book book book

had a great seat travelling home to see the folks in Belfast last weekend,(d1 is closest the bar), for a tenner each way!
if the auld foggies won't move, your ticket and print-out above the seat will show your seat number.
Age doesn't always deserve respect, no blue" give up your seat" signs on the enterprise.
Unless its my granny, shes got a bad leg you know.......

gurramok

Always seem to get the D carriage no matter how far in advance I book online and yet there do be lots of free seats on the journey itself.

Its either lots of people forfeit their bookings or a serious mishap in the booking system.

Zoney

Absurdum wrote: »

Booked seats to Belfast, there was a little slip with my name on it. I boarded quite early though, when it began filling up, elderly people sat wherever they felt like and staff avoided doing anything so several arguments ensued.

Just to note also that you can only book a seat in standard class if you purchase the ticket down here. Translink have no facility to do this up there (even though when you board the train in Belfast you'll see reservation signs for people who bought their tickets in the Republic). Also the Translink website is so awkward that it makes Iarnród Éireann's look like it's by Deutsche Bahn.

Mrs OBumble

corktina wrote: »

mandatory booking as per the airlines and an end to standing should be the goal.... yes, we'd need more carriages and more trains and yes the cost would have to rise, but its clearly unsafe to be standing in a vestible at speed.

Only if seat-booking is free. At the moment, it's just another way to make more out of passengers.



Oh, and all this sitting down is just making people obese. Leave seats in long-distance trips (ie and hour or more). But for shorter ones, take out 2/3 of the seats (need to keep some for elderly/disabled people), and put in things for passengers to hold on to safely. More calories used, and more people per train to bring the fares down too.
(I'm only 1/2 joking ...)

Cuddlesworth

To Belfast its great. Internal its a different story with either your carriage/seat simply not being there or having to tell somebody to leave your seat.

milly4ever

Zoney wrote: »

Just to note also that you can only book a seat in standard class if you purchase the ticket down here. Translink have no facility to do this up there (even though when you board the train in Belfast you'll see reservation signs for people who bought their tickets in the Republic). Also the Translink website is so awkward that it makes Iarnród Éireann's look like it's by Deutsche Bahn.

thanks for clearing that up- though i didnt see many people going to an allocated seat. very strange translink customers can't book seats, although i'd rather pay their prices!:p