Any guesses for what chaos awaits us on this train?
Edit to add: This is not the ticket, it was printed alongside the actual ticket, after asking for seating preferences.
It means you can sit anywhere you want and you’re not stuck in an assigned seat.
You get on the train early you can have any seat you want.
This seems like the exact opposite of infuriating.Any seat you want
Provided that someone doesn’t have a specific seat booked.
In my experience it should be called general seating or something along those lines if it isn’t for a specific reserved seat.
Fairly common in Germany. Trains can be so full often times that people are standing butt to belly in the aisles.
In the UK where this ticket is from, if you buy a ticket from the machine in the station it will spit it out in potentially multiple parts (because one isn’t enough space for all the information)
You can see this ticket says “Valid only with Travel Ticket”, which means this is the second of two parts. The “Travel Ticket” (not pictured) is the one that actually allows you to travel on the train, and the seat reservation part (pictured) is the one that gives you a seat.
Normally the machine only gives what you need, so if there is no seat reservation you’ll get the travel ticket only.
So the mystery isn’t that there is no reserved seat, but that because there is no seat, this ticket doesn’t even need to exist. The machine could have just not printed this ticket at all.
I suspect it’s an “Advance” reduced fare ticket, which is only ever valid with a seat reservation, but either the seat was over specified (ticking all three of facing forwards, table seat, near the entrance, for example), or the train company continued to issue “Advance” tickets even after all the reservable seats are gone, which you could count as a dick move, or you could interpret as allowing more people to buy tickets at the reduced fare.
It could be that that was one of the least overcrowded trains scheduled on a day that’s expected to be very overcrowded indeed, and they’re trying to spread the no standing room pain across as many trains as possible. It’s certainly cheaper than putting on additional services.
Thanks for the clarification!
So many people in the comments don’t get that having something called a seat reservation which doesn’t literally reserve a seat is mildly infuriating.
I think people answering these comments are from other countries that don’t understand that on a train from Reading to London in rush hour, there might be 60 seats and 80 passengers per carriage. 20 of these pax standing despite their ticket that said “Feel free to sit on any free seat you happen to find!”
I’m reading some of these replies thinking I’m getting gaslighted by railway operator employees. Unless they actually sell “absolutely no sitting” tickets and the conductors fine abusers, this ticket makes no sense.
It just says no “specific” seat reserved but you’ll have a seat reserved, you just don’t know which one. It’s good if you can get there early and get a window seat.
That’s a good example of not understanding, thanks!
Southwest Airlines does their ticketing a similar way. You get assigned a boarding number but not a seat. So if you check in early you get a better boarding spot and hence a get to pick your seat. Does this mean there are more tickets issues than the available seats? No. Sightseeing cruises don’t have seat numbers either, you get there early and grab a good spot. This might not be common to people and hence they are mildly infuriated. The other option is paying extra to get a reserved seat which I’m sure will be infuriating because the person next to you paid a cheaper price.
Soithwest has open seating which is accessible through a ticket. It does not have seat reservations or assigned seating, or at least it hasn’t in the past but will apparently will start having seat reservations in the near future.
I know phrasing has stupid nuances in different contexts but there are differences between a reserved seat, reserved seating, reserving a table, etc. and while table reservations often mean first available seat reservations generally include assigned seats in my and the OPs experience.
Okay, understandable. If we are just talking trains, Amtrak trains do the same and don’t issue seat numbers so in my experience the train is never crowded and every one gets a window seat which is preferred by many here rather than being seated next to a stranger.
+1. “oh you’ll surely be good if you are early, the train can’t possibly already be overcrowded when it arrives”
It can’t be overcrowded if the ticketing system works as it is supposed to. They can’t book 75 people for a train which can only seat 50.
They can’t book 75 people for a train which can only seat 50
The official statistics lists how frequently that occurs.
Okay. I’m not from the UK so my comment is irrelevant!
Now you have to find out who is sitting without a reservation!
Same thing as general admission at a concert, but on a train.
Everyone crams to the front to get there faster?
Certain tickets in German rail have similar reservations. There are numerous seats kept free in the train for those who have a reservation - simply find one of these seats and sit down there. Always worked fine for me.
Not really infuriating at all.
Think of it like an airline. You have a reserved seat, but it isn’t actually allocated until you check in .
Is that how airlines work where you are? It’d be wild for me to not pick my seat
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I’m guessing that they have limited seats and are trying to make sure no one has to stand on the train by limiting the number of reservations, even if which seat to sit in is not assigned. In Japan, bullet trains and some express services require extra payment with your ticket or pre-booking, for either non-reserved or reserved class.
This is the UK. The train will be heaving, and those without a specific seat number reserved will likely have to stand unless they’re getting on at the first station and are early on to the train.
Heavenly: If there are few people then you can sit anywhere.
Hell: If there are a lot of people then you might not be able to board the train.
My guess is that it printed this “null” reservation slip to let you know that the reservation had failed, because otherwise people would think that the printer wasn’t working? It prints the ticket(s), then the reservation(s), then the receipt listing how many things were printed.
