When you book your advance tickets for intercity train travel in Britain, you are automatically given seat reservations without charge. Consequently, when Shirley and I boarded our London-bound train we headed straight to Coach C and successfully found our seats there.
The train was full and following some hold-ups and a cancellation, it became even more full by the time we reached Derby. The guard came over the tannoy, announcing that all reservations were now cancelled in order to accommodate the extra passengers. It was now standing room only.
Further down the track, we arrived in the city of Leicester where plenty more travellers were waiting on the platform. Our carriage was pretty quiet so all could hear the conversation between a young woman who had just boarded and an older woman who was sitting in the window seat across the aisle from me.
YOUNG WOMAN Excuse me. You are sitting in my seat.
OLDER WOMAN All seat reservations have been cancelled. The guard announced it at Derby.
YOUNG WOMAN But I have paid for that seat. Could you leave it now. It's mine.
OLDER WOMAN I'm not going anywhere. Someone was sitting in my reserved seat.
YOUNG WOMAN You are refusing to get out of my seat?
OLDER WOMAN Yes. That's right. I'm not going anywhere.
YOUNG WOMAN I can't believe it. I paid good money for that seat. You selfish bitch!
The young woman paused for a while, staring at the older woman but after a few moments she left our carriage no doubt looking for somewhere to stand on the last hour of our journey to London.
I continued to read my book but five minutes later the young woman, minus her baggage , returned to the situation. This time she was filming it all on her phone.
YOUNG WOMAN (voice raised) I am telling you again. That's my seat. Get out of it now!
OLDER WOMAN No way.
YOUNG WOMAN So you are still refusing to leave my seat! I can't believe it. How can you do this?
OLDER WOMAN (No reply)
YOUNG WOMAN I hope you're happy with this. Look at you smiling! It's not funny you ****ing cow! **** you! (And with that, the young woman exited stage right - no doubt returning to her baggage. We didn't see her again)
On the train home a somewhat similar situation occurred when a tall young man boarded the train at Peterborough. At the window seat across the aisle from us, another young man was sitting. He had, by the way, been talking to someone on his smartphone all the way from London.
Politely, the new passenger made his challenge, showing his seat reservation to the interloper. However, this time there was no big drama. The interloper offered to give up his seat but the new passenger said, "No, it's okay man there are one or two spare seats down there. You stay where you are." And with that the brief meeting between two strangers was over.
It was interesting to witness these incidents at close quarters and not that it makes a ha'p'orth of difference but I note that one of the four characters was Asian - of Indian heritage and another was Afro-Caribbean. The other two players in these scenes were white English. Happily, that heritage element played no obvious part in the dynamics of these two encounters.
Sounds like the train company needs to do better. I wouldn't want to have to deal with that angry young woman.
ReplyDeleteThe train company should have repeated the announcement about the suspension of reservations. The angry young woman had not heard it so I had some sympathy with her for that reason
DeleteSuch vicious encounters make it very stressful and uncomfortable for those in the area.
ReplyDeleteIt was certainly a weird encounter to witness.
DeleteThe way the young woman handled the situation was completely inappropriate, and she crossed more than one red line with her behaviour. If she didn't believe the woman who said that it had been announced that all reservations were cancelled (and nobody else confirmed it), she should have gone to find a member of staff and report the presumed wrongdoing of the older woman to them.
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I travel on long-distance trains almost every weekend. In Germany, you have to pay extra for a seat reservation, otherwise you are not entitled to sit. I always book a seat but more often than not, someone already sits there when I get on the train, in spite of the reservation "Stuttgart - Offenburg" (or vice versa) being clearly visible. So far, it has never been a problem to politely tell the person that I've booked this seat, and they immediately grab their belongings and leave.
But every now and then, the entire coach where my booked seat is supposed to be is not there, or it is there but we are not allowed to sit in it because the a/c doesn't work in there, or I miss my connection because of a delay, or something else happens that makes me unable to claim my booked seat. Every time, I claim a refund. It's nearly 6 euros, and I do not wish to pay that for nothing on top of my ticket price.
Some young people just can't adjust when circumstances are against them, such as reservations being cancelled, the older woman had her reserved seat taken by someone else but hadn't made a fuss, just found somewhere else to sit.
ReplyDeleteI think I would have been angry too but would not have made such a scene. Especially as the older woman was definitely never going to do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteI only pick battles I have some chance of winning.
I travel a lot by train and see this kind of thing all the time. Thankfully every time I have found someone sitting in my reserved seat they have given it up as there have been plenty of others to choose from. I do recall one instance when all reservations were cancelled and I just grabbed whatever seat I could. I would be too embarrassed to cause a scene.but
ReplyDeleteI've had reserved seats before only to find someone sitting in them refusing to move, the season ticket holders hate it, because they are not able to pre-book their seat.
ReplyDeleteMy Mother-in-Law was flying back from NY, and a woman claimed to have booked the seat she was sitting in. My Mother-in-Law had the same booking. An attendant was summoned and my Mother-in-Law was offered a 1st Class seat instead. The other woman then said that SHE wanted the 1st Class seat, and so it ensued. My M-in-L won, and travelled back in luxury.
ReplyDeleteI've experienced some people sitting in our reserved seats between Newcastle and York, but once we boarded the people quickly moved away. It was clear by the indicator that our seats were booked for the trip between Newcastle to York. Why didn't the people move before we boarded? While we would call them Asian, you would call them Chinese.
ReplyDeleteI simply do not understand how a conductor could say reservations are cancelled. You reserve a seat, how can it be cancelled?
I don't think either woman was wrong. It seems they were both entitled to the seat. What nonsense. Was it an LNER service? I remember a horrendous trip from London to Newcastle when the line was operated by Virgin. Given what rail travel costs in England, it should be a trouble free journey.
The ticket system is crazy in England. The world and his wife can buy a train ticket and get on at the next stop. There are never enough railway staff on the trains or at the stations to gain information and there are never enough carriages.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of the first time I entered a train and sat down for my journey. We entered a half deserted car and just picked two empty seats as did some other people. About 20 minutes later, some other people came into the car and had a discussion with the people who had sat in front of us about those being their seats and showing them their ticket stub in a slot on the luggage bay overhead that apparently reserved those seats for them. After the people in front of us left to find other seats, both my wife and I immediately leaned over to see if their was a stub above our seats. There wasn't. We had lucked out and learned a valuable lesson for our next journey.
ReplyDeleteP.S. In case you haven't stopped by, I wrote a post about an ancestor in your neck of the woods recently.
ReplyDeleteSince I love train travel, I read your story with much interest. Where I live, there about 10 or so trains a day mostly going north towards NYC and Boston, but some do go south to the Carolinas, and some as far as Florida. I have taken the train a lot of times, mostly just up to Washington DC, but a few times on to NYC to visit my kids, or to Boston to see my sister. I have never reserved a seat, just a "coach fare", so I have never experienced people not getting their reserved seats. I can understand why the younger woman was upset, but I don't think she handled it with grace. Perhaps it should have been announced multiple times about the loss of the reserved seat. When I was in Japan a couple of summers ago, I marveled at the efficiency of their bullet trains. If the schedule said the train was getting in at 10:17, it did. All seats were reserved and there were no standees.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a pretty sloppy situation to me. If they suspend reservations, why bother to get a reservation in the first place? I don't understand.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like English trains have not improved much in the past 5 years.
ReplyDeleteThey are not English trains David. They are British trains.
DeleteI would want a refund from the train company if I was the young woman but she didn't need to get so rude to the older woman.
ReplyDeleteNobody pays extra for their seat reservations.
DeleteI don't understand why it was necessary for them to cancel reservations. I'm sure there may be something in the fine print that lets them do what they want, but all they had to do was tell people who didn't have reservations that they were free to take the train (because, I gather, the railway company had already let them down) but they would need to yield their seat at the request of somebody with a reservation.
ReplyDeleteI shake my head at the younger woman who returned with her phone to record the confrontation with the older woman. No profanity used in the first meeting, but behind the power of the phone the drama ensued. Hope the comments she received on her social media platforms consoled her from this "injustice."
ReplyDeleteSome people are just so entitled and have no commonsense. Of course, it's irritating to lose a reserved seat. Complain to the guard, if you can find one.
ReplyDeleteStanding should not be allowed. Rail tickets cost so much that it's insulting to have to pay for the privilege of standing for the entire journey.
The young woman behaved badly, but I can see why she was angry if she paid for a seat and then was denied it. I've never heard of cancelling all seat reservations just because a train is crowded. Why not just let people sit until the proper seat-holder shows up to claim the seat, and then the first person moves on or stands? Cancelling all seat reservations seems like a dubious policy.
ReplyDeleteInteresting trip.
ReplyDelete