In as far as I am aware, there is no such thing as 'British Rail' anymore. Not since the Railway Infrastructure was privatised. I stand corrected.

As a frequent traveller on the national rail network who always obtains seat reservations prior to travel, I can say that they are only worth the paper they are printed on for about 25% of journeys. If you complain, you get nowhere because they always have a reason for it such as there was a last minute change of rolling stock due to vandalism, broken loos etc etc ad nauseum.

I live in Turkey and you would want to experience trains here.However that is another story. Given Shirley H experience what could a Visitor to our shores expect and what would they think ?

Ian

Hi Magster. Thanks for your reply. I didn't realize that this was a frequent occurence as I don't normally travel by train. Given that we did find seats, it wasn't that much of a problem but had the train been full we'd have been forced to stand for the 4 hour journey (totally unacceptable).

I thought the whole point of pre-booking your seat was to ensure that you were guaranteed seating. Oh well, we live and learn!

We pre-booked 14 seats to and from Bristol about 2 years ago (from Port Talbot). It was fine going but when we got on the train to come back there was a lady sitting in one of our seats (a block of 4) we politely told her that she was sitting in our seat, but she totally ignored us (she had headphones on) We asked a few times but she totally blanked us. We sat in the seats around her and managed to find another seat for the 14th person. She sat there poker faced the whole way. We told the ticket man but he just said "have you all got seats?" We did!

I could relate many stories of awful journeys where seat reservations had been ignored and there were none but one journey in particular is worth relating because I did actually manage to get the full price of my ticket refunded.

It was the middle of August last year, myself, hubby, children age 5 and 10 and Grandmother in law age 72 were travelling from Wolverhampton station to Llandudno Junction on a Saturday morning, lunch time. We got to Warrington no problem at all, seats reserved, everything fine. We had to change at Warrington and there the problems began. We arrived at 11.30am in order to connect with what I think was the 11.55 travelling all the way to Angelsey via Chester. Every train travelling to North Wales from there goes via Chester.

By the time the train came in there were about 60 of us, all with children and suitcases waiting to board. The train came in, packed to the gills and nobody got off. We could not physically get through the doors let alone ask people to move from the seats that were reserved for us. Nobody at Warring managed to get on that train.

The trains travelling via Chester were hourly, so we waited the hour. Again the train was packed and nobody could get one. By this time our crowd had swelled to about 100. The station staff at Warrington explained that they couldn't do anything for us because they were Virgin staff and the trains to Wales, were Arriva. They then barricaded themselves into their office and only came out when a train arrived.

It was the races in Chester that day and everyone in the North West was going. Hence the packed trains. I telephoned the National Rail Enquiry Line in India and asked them what they were going to do about our situation. They eventually gave me a number for the man who manned the security gate, I think, at Arriva's HQ. He took my mobile number and said he would attempt to contact someone in authority because the place was empty, it being the weekend.

In the meantime another train had gone through without any of us being able to board. We had been standing at Warrington for over two hours. About 20 minutes later I got a call from a senior person at Arriva who explained that they couldn't just bring rolling stock out because they had nobody to do that, they couldn't book any coaches because every coach in the North West was going to Chester races and there were too many of us at Warrington to order taxis to take us to Chester, where we would be able to board a train. He was sorry that there was nothing he could do and we would just have to wait there until a train arrived that we could get on!

At 3.55 we all finally managed to get on a train and we completed the journey that was timetabled for 2.5 hours including the change at Warrington, nearly eight hours after we had first started out.

The return journey home was without incident apart from the fact that the Virgin train we were travelling on, didn't do seat reservations because it was old rolling stock! We did however manage to secure seats.

I complained vociferously once back at home pointing out that a journey involving a taxi, a flight of 3.5 hours and a another taxi the other end to Corfu, didn't take 8 hours and to give Arriva their due, they refunded the costs of all five return tickets and gave us £50 in rail vouchers as compensation.

To be honest, there are so many people who need and want to travel by train that customer service is a joke because there are always more customers right behind you waiting to fill your place. The seat reservations are a joke too because you only need a packed train due to some local event or a party of school children travelling and you may as well have not bothered.

Hi. As an inexperienced rail traveller can you tell me if it's necessary to pre-book your ticket or can you actually pay on board as in the old days?To be honest pre booking is a joke.

You must have a valid ticket prior to boarding a train. If you do not, you will be liable for the most expensive fare that they can charge you plus a £10 surcharge and also possible prosecution if they suspect that you were deliberately trying to evade the fare.

If planning a long journey in advance it is better pre-book the tickets as you will find them cheaper. A lot of the time now, it is cheaper to book two singles rather than a return journey. You can consider all the options here:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

I am a regular rail user and i can relate to all the above coments.
If you are traveling a long way by railk then allways pre-book you canot buy a ticket on board on many trains anymore. You do need to buy before you board so its better and cheaper to book before. If you board a train without a ticket and get checked then you could be liable to a 20 quid fine plus the price of a full ticket (this could get really expensive!) or worse, recently i was on my morning train to london, some guy got cught with out a ticket, he said he couldnt buy one because the queue at the station was to big, they didnt care and he was escorted off the train at kingscross and arrested by the transport police, they dont mess around!

Thanks for those replies. What happens though if you pre book your tickets and then the train is full, which can happen? You either will lose your money as you won't be able to board the train or will have to stand for the entire journey. Surely there must be a better system.

Thanks for those replies. What happens though if you pre book your tickets and then the train is full, which can happen? You either will lose your money as you won't be able to board the train or will have to stand for the entire journey. Surely there must be a better system

There was. It used to be called British Rail

Hey there, that shouldnt happen as you wouldnt be able to buy a ticket if the train was full, as far as im aware that is the case with the intercity services (gner, virgin etc)
Hving said that if you go on a normal train service (first capital connect, one, arriva, etc the you dont need to pre-book but you arn't necceserly going to get a seat and might have to stand for your journey, this annoys me as i pay nearly 300 quid a month for my commute to london and think its wrong but there you go

The train we used to travel back from London was Great Western and as stated in my original post our tickets were pre-booked but weren't available when we boarded the train. Which just made a mockery of the system.

If it's any use GNER aren't any better!.

I booked tickets for a group of friends goint to London last weekend, one of the party has a disabled wife who is wheelchair bound, help boarding at Newcastle was poor but a lot better than the return trip.

Her husband had paid extra for 1st class to ensure extra room for her but she was completely unable to board the train as her chair wouldn't fit through the doors!. They had to wait and see if the next train had wider doors!.

Just thought i would jump in as i work for a national rail company....
You can buy tickets on board but not at reduced prices whilst the travel centre at your starting point is open.
Reservations are given free of charge but obviously rolling stock does sometimes have to be changed and therefore seats can not be guaranteed. I actualy work on board the train and have to say with my hand on my heart 99 % of the time reservations are fine. From our point of view when people THINK they are doubled booked etc etc its often that one of the people is on the wrong train or even on the wrong day !!!
Also having worked for the company i do for the past 5 yrs i have NEVER know a standard weelchair which wouldnt fit through the train doors, even the big elec mobility drive chairs fit through. I would suspect the chair in question was a large electric one and the train in question may have been an old HST. I know for the past few years our company has invested a huge fortune in making life easier for anyone with a disability and our staff have all been on awareness courses etc etc. Train travel in my oppinion is one of the best ways to travel and can be very reasonable x