Britrail Pass question

[Toots]

Question for our kind British friends: We bought Britrail Standard Flexipasses since we'll be there for ten days. From your past experience, do we still need seat reservations? The agent told us if you take a seat and someone comes along with that seat reserved, you have to get up. What if there are no seats left - do you have to stand for hours?

Also, do you know if there is storage for luggage at Paddington Station for several days, and about how much it is? Can't find that on their website.

Thanks,
Brigitte

[Globaliser]

The answer to the first question depends on what routes you're travelling, and when.

First, here's how it works. If you have a seat reservation, a little ticket gets put onto the seat itself to show that, and you're not supposed to sit in it unless it's your reservation. This should match whatever receipt you have for that reservation. You can supposedly get fined for sitting in a reserved seat, but you're more likely just to get thrown out if the person whose reservation it is comes along.

Seats aren't always reserved for the entire trip that the train makes. A train that goes from London to Edinburgh might have a seat that's reserved only for Peterborough to Grantham, so anyone can use that seat for the other parts of the trip.

Also, in my experience many people don't show up in their reserved seats (although I travel mostly for business so it may just be the vagaries of business meetings that cause this to happen). If by the time the train moves off on a London to Edinburgh trip, nobody's sitting in a seat reserved for the entire London to Edinburgh journey, you can usually be fairly confident that nobody is going to claim that seat for any part of the journey.

So even if there are many reserved seats, you may not have to stand for the entire trip if you haven't got a reservation. (Also, if there's a restaurant car on the train, you can often get in there and sit down in comfort while you slooooowly nibble your way through a meal - and it's also a good way of getting a first class seat on a standard class ticket.) Nevertheless, it does happen, and there are many nightmare stories of people having to stand (or, more likely, sit on their bags) all the way to Scotland.

The bottom line is that if you're planning to travel at busy times of the day, the week or the year, then getting reservations is very advisable. But off peak, you'd probably be fine without.

[Nickwolf]

[url="http://www.networkrailstations.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=stations.liststation&stationId=5203"]Here[/url] is Paddington's homepage. There is information about left luggage.

Globaliser is spot on with the information about standing etc. If you are anything but the busiest of routes you will be fine.

Nick

NCL Star March 2004

[Toots]

Thanks to you both, you're very helpful. I looked up both Paddington and Victoria, and at least have an idea where things are located.

I told my DH if we can't find a seat, I'll look for the nearest "hunk" and just sit on his lap.

[Nickwolf]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by toots:
I told my DH if we can't find a seat, I'll look for the nearest "hunk" and just sit on his lap.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

Just name the train and I will be there [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

I don't think many would describe me as a hunk though [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

NCL Star March 2004