On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:56:55 -0700 a message from
contained:

[problems with seat reservations]

Frankly, I think it is about
time one is able to nominate a seat. Many long-haul airline sites let
you chose your seat by clicking on the diagram of the airliner - and
unavailable seats are greyed out.
I understand Deutche Bahn allow you to nominate a seat on ICEs in some
circumstances, and they are certainly fine with different discounts
for different people.

But while TheTrainline.com has a de-facto monopoly (it seems all the
others license their system), nothing will happen. Particularly now
Trainline is owned by some venture capital firm or other - they have
absolutely no interest in spending money improving a product which has
the market by the balls, since they get little benefit out of
passenger satisfaction, while the TOCs get the bad publicity if
Trainline's crap web-app is unable to perform such basic tasks.

According to their website (http://www.youreastcoast.co.uk/?page_id=4)
National Express East Coast will 'during the lifetime of the
franchise' introduce a 'state-of-the-art website ... where specific
seats can be reserved'.

--
Chris Silke