Reserved Seats

01 Nov, 2025

Over the last few weeks I have undertaken a higher than usual level of travelling and hotel stays, for work related activities. I tried to make use of trains as much as I could as the distances were several hours driving.

I love driving, but it's sometimes nice to kickback, relax, and let someone else get you there -- or part of the way, as the train station is never near where you need to be, and often there's a change of train required too.

Regardless, I enjoyed the change of routine and method of travel.

No Show

What struck me as odd were the number of no shows for reserved seats. When you book a ticket in advance, you can select a seat. This makes sense on busy inter-city trains.

However, on every occasion there were empty reserved seats dotted around the carriage. In fact, on one journey the five seats around me were all reserved and I was the only one occupying one.

The reservations are displayed on a little screen above each seat -- I could see which station the traveller was due to travel to/from.

Are there really that many people who pay for tickets and then just don't turn up? I don't know about the rest of the world, but here in the UK train travel is ridiculously expensive.

Some people are making too much money:

• the person who can afford to not turn up for a train.
• the train operator who is collecting money for no-shows.

#Life