London Banter - View Single Post - Kensington Olympia and Arriva Cross Country east of Reading Queries

Roland Perry · May 25th 08, 03:17 PM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london

In message
, at
07:40:46 on Sun, 25 May 2008, remarked:
On May 25, 1:52 pm, Roland Perry wrote:
When you get a ticket issued on credit-card sized coupons, it says quite
clearly how many coupons are involved. It also says that you must use
reservations, where they appear on one of those coupons (and obviously
not where they don't).

So all the conductor needs to do is examine your full set of coupons to
see if one of them has a compulsory reservation on the leg you are
currently undertaking. In turn, you should be prepared to show all the
coupons on demand.

It's not quite as simple as that.

For example, I have a ticket issued on credit card coupons for a date
in June. It's for a 1st Advance single from Durham to Leeds. The
ticket says "Vaild only with reservation(s)" but does not say how many
reservations.

Look at the top right hand side of the ticket, inside the orange stripe.

It will say "Issued as
N coupons"

Which are 1 ticket, and (N-1) mandatory Reservation Coupons.

If your trip has more than (N-1) legs, then the remaining ones clearly
cannot have compulsory reservations, and cannot therefore restrict your
choice of train.

The seat reservation from Durham to York says "Valid
only with travel ticket" and "Valid at 1608 hours".

So that's one of the coupons.

But neither indicates whether a seat has been reserved from Leeds to
York.

The indication would be an additional coupon like the one from Durham to
York.

The Collection Receipt, which states the number of coupons issued, is
no help because it was for a single booking for more than one ticket,
and in any case there is no requirement fo it to be carried on the
journey. The instruction is "Please retain for your records".

The collection receipt is as you describe, but what you need to be
looking at is the *ticket* for each person/journey.

In these circumstances, I'm not aware of anything in the rule that
states that I must use a non-reservable train(s) from York to Leeds.
Any thoughts?

It's not about whether the train is reservable or not, but *have they*
reserved you a seat?

[The tickets I have here are Advance for a three-leg trip, of which the
first and second have reservations, but the third leg is on a reservable
train and there's no reservation. I confidently predict that I could use
any train. Indeed, the only evidence of even a 'suggested' train for
that third leg is on my itinerary that the ticket sale site gave me.
--
Roland Perry