Woman asked to move from pre-booked seat calls Gardai

RentDayBlues

TheQuietFella wrote: »

Just out of idle curiosity why would you want to reserve a seat on the train.

I can understand a large group or a family but travelling solo!

Surely if you got there early enough you could have your choice of seats!

Have you ever travelled on a commuter service like this one? Not booking a seat could mean standing all the way to Sligo from dublin!

TheQuietFella

RentDayBlues wrote: »

Have you ever travelled on a commuter service like this one? Not booking a seat could mean standing all the way to Sligo from Dublin!

I haven't! The last time I travelled on a train in Ireland would have been the late 1990's. I wasn't aware of the cost saving associated with booking a seat online but I can appreciate why people do it now!

end of the road

RentDayBlues wrote: »

Have you ever travelled on a commuter service like this one? Not booking a seat could mean standing all the way to Sligo from dublin!

i've witnessed the last minute before departure of that particular long distance regional service myself while traveling down to catch my train. reserving is the best option indeed.

Graham

end of the road wrote: »

i've witnessed the last minute before departure of that particular long distance regional service myself while traveling down to catch my train. reserving is the best option indeed.

Getting a seat isn't usually a problem after Maynooth/Kilcock.

Mrsmum

I still think to be told to move 2 hrs into a journey where there was no indication that this was going to happen ie no name over seat initially is really sickening. Yes I would move but I would be annoyed with IR. And it is also not easy to tell someone they are in your seat when they look deeply at home there.

Wang King

Mrsmum wrote: »

I still think to be told to move 2 hrs into a journey where there was no indication that this was going to happen ie no name over seat initially is really sickening. Yes I would move but I would be annoyed with IR. And it is also not easy to tell someone they are in your seat when they look deeply at home there.

What can annoy people is on a long haul journey, someone gets on at Killarney, travelling to Dublin and the prebooked sign only comes on at Mallow because that's where the Booker is getting on the train

foggy_lad

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

That's an example of people behaving reasonably. The "I want compensation" bleater is behaving unreasonably.

If I am asked to move from my seat which has no reservation attached to it I will refuse as it it the operators job to ensure that reserved seats are notified to all passengers.

ezra_pound wrote: »

If you want to ride on a train and not be obliged to move you have to pay for the privelage. End of.

You have the choice and if you don't get a reserved seat ticket then you have noone to blame but yourself if you get moved on. I always reserve for this reason.

Not at all! I am waiting on confirmation on this but am sure that once any passenger sits in an un-reserved(no reservation light or notice shown) seat they can not be asked to vacate that seat to accommodate Irish rail or another passenger who had reserved the seat.

Graham wrote: »

Here's how it should go avoiding embarrassment, unpleasantness or any kind of scene:

Normal Person 1) excuse me, I have a reservation for that seat.
Normal Person 2) no problem.

Person 1) excuse me, i have a reservation for that seat.
person 2) That is something you will have to take up with Irish Rail because this seat is not marked as reserved so is open to all to sit here.

TheQuietFella wrote: »

The last time I travelled on a train it was in the UK & there appeared to be no issues with reserving a seat. Maybe it's just an Irish thing?

In the UK they place a ticket above the seat to show it has been reserved.
Is this done here also?

The Irish Rail system has been plagued with problems for years. often the displays show reservations for the wrong journey and sometimes just dont display at all. mostly no attempt is made to place paper notices on seats except for Waterford who always do it but then the reserved notices are left in place in Dublin on the return journey.

Calina wrote: »

We have electronic displays above the seats which will display either the passenger's name or the ticket reservation number (I think - you have the option not to have your name displayed).

There are occasions where the system has not loaded the reservation names but it's not the most frequent event in my experience.

In my experience it happens quite frequently and a particular problem now is reservations from intermediate stations not being shown from the start of journey, or only appearing after the train departs the reservation station

TheQuietFella wrote: »

Why would the system not be loaded & would this have been the case with these passengers?

from the interactions on twitter shown earlier in this thread it appears likely that no reservations were showing above the seats on that particular train.

Wang King

foggy_lad wrote: »

If I am asked to move from my seat which has no reservation attached to it I will refuse as it it the operators job to ensure that reserved seats are notified to all passengers.

Not at all! I am waiting on confirmation on this but am sure that once any passenger sits in an un-reserved(no reservation light or notice shown) seat they can not be asked to vacate that seat to accommodate Irish rail or another passenger who had reserved the seat.

Person 1) excuse me, i have a reservation for that seat.
person 2) That is something you will have to take up with Irish Rail because this seat is not marked as reserved so is open to all to sit here.

The Irish Rail system has been plagued with problems for years. often the displays show reservations for the wrong journey and sometimes just dont display at all. mostly no attempt is made to place paper notices on seats except for Waterford who always do it but then the reserved notices are left in place in Dublin on the return journey.

In my experience it happens quite frequently and a particular problem now is reservations from intermediate stations not being shown from the start of journey, or only appearing after the train departs the reservation station

from the interactions on twitter shown earlier in this thread it appears likely that no reservations were showing above the seats on that particular train.

Reservation numbers are shown on the tickets, people can howl as much as they want, but they have to move

foggy_lad

Wang King wrote: »

What can annoy people is on a long haul journey, someone gets on at Killarney, travelling to Dublin and the prebooked sign only comes on at Mallow because that's where the Booker is getting on the train

this happens all the time in the last year or more. all reservations have to be shown from the start of the journey or they can't be considered valid reservations.

Graham

foggy_lad wrote: »

it it the operators job to ensure that reserved seats are notified to all

And yet you are still unable to back that up with anything other than an oft-repeated opinion.

Once again, where in the conditions of carriage or associated bye-laws does it state anything resembling your stance?

end of the road

Wang King wrote: »

Reservation numbers are shown on the tickets, people can howl as much as they want, but they have to move

but they don't have to move unless told to by an irish rail staff member with proof of the reservation

foggy_lad

Wang King wrote: »

Reservation numbers are shown on the tickets, people can howl as much as they want, but they have to move

showing it on the ticket is pointless! it is not a valid reservation until the board notifies all other passengers by using a notice or electronic signs that particular seats are reserved and thus unavailable from stations A, B, C etc

Graham

foggy_lad wrote: »

showing it on the ticket is pointless! it is not a valid reservation until the board notifies all other passengers by using a notice or electronic signs that particular seats are reserved and thus unavailable from stations A, B, C etc

Back that up, repeating it does not make it correct:

A passenger shall not occupy a seat reserved for or assigned by Iarnród Éireann to another passenger.

Mrsmum

Comparing trains to planes is pointless as nobody gets on a plane midflight so nobody has to move bag & baggage to accomodate them midflight either. On trains however you can have awkward situations which are the fault of neither party and therefore not fair to both parties.

foggy_lad

Graham wrote: »

Back that up, repeating it does not make it correct:

A passenger shall not occupy a seat reserved for or assigned by Iarnród Éireann to another passenger.

to reserve or assign the seat it must be set aside or set apart from the other seats on the train.

If you are assigned a task in your work what is stopping someone else doing the same task before you? nothing, but just maybe others are made aware that the task has been assigned to you.

passengers are doing nothing wrong sitting in seats not marked as reserved and are entitled to remain in those seats for their journey. that is my opinion and Irish Rail are currently unavailable to clarify the position so you will just have to wait.

Hilly Bill

foggy_lad wrote: »

If you went to a cinema and sat in a seat which was free but were told to get up and find yourself somewhere else to sit in a packed cinema 20 minutes into the film because the person had the seat number printed on their cinema ticket you would not feel the same.

It is up to Irish Rail to notify ALL passengers of which seats are reserved and from which stations before the journey begins and when a passenger sits in what is a free seat they should not be asked to move regardless of what is printed on some other passengers ticket or booking slip.

The passenger who has the reservation then has the opportunity to seek redress from Irish Rail for failing to reserve their seat, they have no gripe or case to take against an innocent passenger who has sat in a free seat!

Its a proof that common decency is missing with the traveling public. If someone asked me to move and showed me the seat number on their ticket then its only right that i move. This selfish attitude is doing my head in .

Hilly Bill

corktina wrote: »

it does seem the case to me that reservations for persons joining en route are not shown until that point in the journey. Please tell me I am wrong!

It will show as Reserved from ........ above seat on departure and the name of the person from their boarding point. I heard one chap give out that he had to move even though a name was clearly shown above seat, his argument was it didnt say the word reserved .

Graham

foggy_lad wrote: »

to reserve or assign the seat it must be set aside or set apart from the other seats on the train.

If you are assigned a task in your work what is stopping someone else doing the same task before you? nothing, but just maybe others are made aware that the task has been assigned to you.

passengers are doing nothing wrong sitting in seats not marked as reserved and are entitled to remain in those seats for their journey. that is my opinion and Irish Rail are currently unavailable to clarify the position so you will just have to wait.

excellent, clarification would remove any uncertainty.

Your opinion may turn out to be correct but either way it would be better to know the facts.

Mrsmum

Hilly Bill wrote: »

It will show as Reserved from ........ above seat on departure and the name of the person from their boarding point. I heard one chap give out that he had to move even though a name was clearly shown above seat, his argument was it didnt say the word reserved .

Indeed it does not. Very often the name will pop over your head when the person with the booked ticket gets on mid journey leaving the person in situ seatless at that stage.

Graham

Hilly Bill wrote: »

Its a proof that common decency is missing with the traveling public. If someone asked me to move and showed me the seat number on their ticket then its only right that i move. This selfish attitude is doing my head in .

In my experience, most of the travelling public do demonstrate such decency.

Hilly Bill

Calina wrote: »

I think it's on the assumption that the full reservation records were loaded successfully to the train. Which is not always a case. Typically, if they are loaded, you can assume a seat is unreserved if there's no name for it. If they're not, I'd usually assume some sort of system problem.

Bad Wi-fi is usually to blame.

Hilly Bill

foggy_lad wrote: »

Not demanding anything from any other passenger but if IR have sold a person the seat I am sitting in and have failed to mark the seat as sold or reserved then they will have to buy it from me if they want to give it to the other person.
This type of system would be fantastic and would sort out all the overcrowding on intercity trains but many people will be left on the platforms and Can you ever see IR managing to do this without daily Hourly screw-ups?

Typical free travel attitude.

Hilly Bill

end of the road wrote: »

or, irish rail ensures that the seat reservation is clearly marked either by using their electronic displays which are set up to do it, or via a written piece of paper with the details.

They still get ignored by the selfish few.

Guy:Incognito

Mrsmum wrote: »

Indeed it does not. Very often the name will pop over your head when the person with the booked ticket gets on mid journey leaving the person in situ seatless at that stage.

They could always book a seat then it'll be their name. Plus they might save themselves money on the ticket.

end of the road

Hilly Bill wrote: »

They still get ignored by the selfish few.

if its clearly marked that the seat is reserved either with the electronic displays or a piece of paper with the details then the occupier can be forcibly removed if need be. i'm talking about the situations where there is nothing to say the seat is reserved yet someone simply shows up to someone with a ticket.

Hilly Bill

foggy_lad wrote: »

this happens all the time in the last year or more. all reservations have to be shown from the start of the journey or they can't be considered valid reservations.

where do you get that from?

ezra_pound

end of the road wrote: »

if its clearly marked that the seat is reserved either with the electronic displays or a piece of paper with the details then the occupier can be forcibly removed if need be. i'm talking about the situations where there is nothing to say the seat is reserved yet someone simply shows up to someone with a ticket.

... With a ticket proving that they have the seat in question reserved?

What do you expect them to have, a letter from the CEO of IE certifying the situation?

Hilly Bill

Graham wrote: »

In my experience, most of the travelling public do demonstrate such decency.

Good to hear.

Hilly Bill

end of the road wrote: »

if its clearly marked that the seat is reserved either with the electronic displays or a piece of paper with the details then the occupier can be forcibly removed if need be. i'm talking about the situations where there is nothing to say the seat is reserved yet someone simply shows up to someone with a ticket.

You can sit there until the seat is claimed by someone who has proof that they have it booked , be it name above seat or on their ticket. Arguing against it is just looking for an excuse not to move and a bit petty.

Picamix

No one would take it if you reserved it under Gary glitter