Seat Reservation Sign not working-what to do.

bobbyss

I was wondering what people do when the seat reservation system is not working and you have a seat reserved?

The issue is that there is no way of knowing which is carriage A,B ,C, D etc. This leads to a situation when someone gets on the train thinking that you are in carriage A when it could be carriage D and so on.

Has this happened to you and what happened?

icdg

It doesn’t really matter does it? I take a return long distance InterCity journey fairly regularly, involving two seat reservations in each direction, joining at non-terminal stations at either end and without fail someone is already sitting in my seat on at least one leg of each journey. Not much you can do when it happens either.

bazza1

If the seat reservation system is not on, due to wifi issues, it should not affect the carriage numbers. They will still be displayed on the exterior of the carriage!

bobbyss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120347595#Comment_120347595

No. Not true as far as I know.

I got on train at starting station recently to find the system was not working inside. There was no display outside either. I assumed A was next to driver then B, C etc. My reservation was B so I assumed that would be the second carriage from the driver. But as passengers got on some said it was carriage B and many others said it was in fact carriage C ie counting the other way. People were saying different things.

Later on I asked official at the terminal about this and he said there really is no fixed way of knowing. (I am not sure of the reason).

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120347591#Comment_120347591

I am not 100% sure of your point here?

Are you saying that when you board a train -and there is no reservation signage working- that someone is already sitting in your seat?

But how do you know which carriage is which?

lord lucan

If the PIS fails it won't show any information on the external or internal displays.

On a standalone 3pc carriage C is the one with the bike rack,4pc D has the bike rack and 5pc E has the bike rack.

In a 6pc formation it's difficult to know,on a 7pc set the top 4 will be A-D followed by E-G on the 3pc.

Completely useless information that may be of help to someone!😋

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120351417#Comment_120351417

No, I mean it happens even when the seat reservation system is fully operational - as it usually is - it’s not respected by customers and I don’t really have the heart to ask people to move particularly when the services I travel on are not usually 100% full. It’s really a different issue to the OP’s but happens on virtually every intercity journey I make.

Breezer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120351686#Comment_120351686

I recently brought my bike on the train and reserved a seat in carriage D, for this reason. I wanted to be able to keep an eye on my bike. The booking system told me carriage D was the one with the bike rack. I arrive at Heuston, go to board, and discover that carriage A is the one with the bike rack, and also that the reserved seating displays aren’t working. So I sit in a seat near the bike rack and hope someone doesn’t come along to move me out of their seat.

Somewhere around Maynooth, the displays spring to life. The seat I sat in was thankfully unallocated. No idea what happened to the one half way up the train, that presumably now had my name over it. The train was pretty full.

This shouldn’t be this difficult for Irish Rail to get right.

bobbyss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120352865#Comment_120352865

I agree with your last sentence.

If carriages are not displayed it is very simple to rectify that.

Let the Inspector just put up a premade printed sign at both ends of all carriages identifying which carriage it is. It would take two minutes to do that. From there, we can sit at our reserved seats.

kildarecommuter

So travelled from Mullingar to Dublin recently and had a seat reservation. System wasn’t working, I emailed Irish Rail with reservation number and they refunded the fare.

On 2 other occasions I simply told the person sitting in my seat that I’d reserved it and they moved.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120352865#Comment_120352865

I presume the display got enabled going through the magic tunnel to change to the Sligo line from Heuston :pac:

Irish Rail put a significant amount of effort in to finding and fixing wifi blackspots within stations to try improve the reliability of the seat reservation system in ~2017. And yet its still completely useless.

Breezer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120354236#Comment_120354236

*Connolly 😂 Well spotted

saabsaab

Would it not be better to get rid of the seat reservation system altogether. First come first served. It doesn't work anyway.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355178#Comment_120355178

No seat reservations makes trains less appealing than coaches (where you cannot buy a ticket and not get a seat)

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355267#Comment_120355267

Surely there is a fixed number of tickets per journey, one per seat nowadays?

Jorge Jorgesson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355284#Comment_120355284

You also have passengers on day tickets and return tickets that have not reserved seats.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355284#Comment_120355284

That has only ever been the case during various higher stage lockdown periods; and even then, they were not enforcing the requirement for period pass holders to get reservations; or doing other stupid stuff like selling one car of a four car train to a tour operator and locking it off, but selling based on having four cars open (happened to me going to Sligo in August 2021)

Standing is the norm on nearly all Intercity services at peak periods.

trellheim

They are perfectly free to put in a system like Spain where no seat reservation = off the train (can't even get ON the train in most cases ) , on the AVEs , never seen anyone standing on them in all my years, come back to IE and its chaos ,

Also perfectly possible to put in a portal for passengers to book their returns if they want an open outbound. I recognize that this would have a lot of people up in arms tho

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120357131#Comment_120357131

True have a fully reserved system with enforcement or don't bother at all.

bobbyss

I print out my ticket a few days in advance of travelling as | am a regular commuter I like to have all that done and dusted in advance.

I discovered you can not actually go back on line a confirm the exact location of your seat one you do this. For example I booked a seat with one seat beside me at end of carriage. If I wanted to confirm that you can't once the ticket is printed out.

Grolschevik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120360885#Comment_120360885

It would be in the email you got, if you booked online and provided them with one.