Questions put to the board were as follows.

Question 01. David Worth, Newcomen Society, Royal Institution of Great Britain. Whilst holding a reserves seat ticket on both Virgin trains, Exeter to Bristol TM, on 14 April, I was unable to assess the seat due to it being occupied by other passengers, even the Train Manager was unable to help and the outbound Plymouth to Aberdeen a 4 car Voyager was very heavily loaded and standing room only throughout. The inbound service I had to travel in another coach to that in which my reservation was made due to occupants of the seat refusing to move, it must be noted that the travel ticket states "it is not valid unless you comply with the conditions - these include occupying the seat reserved!"

What is the legal position as to the reserved seat being taken by other passengers as the train staff are very unwilling to take any action as are the BTP?

Board's Response 01. We put this case to Virgin CrossCountry. Brian Johnson apologised and responded personally to us in the following terms:

Virgin Trains has apologised that you had such uncomfortable journeys in both directions between Exeter and Bristol on 14 April. All Anglo-Scottish services on this route are planned to be 5-car operated. On occasions, 4-cars have to substitute if there has been a unit failure, or service disruption. Clearly this played a significant role in the overcrowded conditions northbound.

During the summer, Voyager availability and reliability have risen to highest-ever levels and 4-car vice 5-car substitutions for this reason are now very low, but do still occur when sets have to be switched to minimise disruption after major delays.

That said, crowding is a significant issue arising from CrossCountry's success in growing its customer base. In 2006/7 we carried 24 million passengers, compared with 12 million in the last year of BR ownership. Around 24% of trains report standing passengers at some point in their journey. Thankfully, in awarding the new franchise, DfT has chosen to buy the option which provides additional capacity. Only time will tell whether the amount to be provided will be sufficient to keep pace with the continuing increase in demand.

To deal with the specific question, to benefit from the deep discounts available with advance purchase fares, passengers must travel on the train, and in the seat specified. However, if either is impossible for reasons within the control of the rail industry, (eg: late running connection causing train to be missed, or overcrowding causing booked seat to be occupied by someone else), Virgin Trains will honour the ticket.

We also commit, in our Passenger's Charter, to refund 5% of the value of the fare paid for any leg of a journey on which we are unable to honour a seat reservation. If the complainant will contact me, I will arrange to do this.

Question 02.

David Worth, Newcomen Society, Royal Institution of Great Britain.

First Great Western where a disabled friend had a similar situation and the Train Manager moved him to First Class on an ex Paddington train, here it seems that a number of the passengers are commuters to Reading and even when these got off the train was standing room only to Taunton. Are the commuters charged an excess fare as the notices state the service is not available to Reading from Paddington? Perhaps here is a case where FGW could obtain some additional revenue.

Board's Response 02.

Train Managers are expected to use their discretion in such circumstances. It is clear that this is what the Train Manager in this case was doing when inviting Mr Worth's friend to move in to First Class. In the absence of more detail about the time and date of the service concerned we are rather unclear about the circumstances in which Mr Worth's suggestion of a fare surcharge on passengers to Reading might apply. Other than in the case of the Night Sleeper service to and from Cornwall, Table 135 shows that First Great Western no longer operates any services to or from Taunton or the West of England that are scheduled to make an intermediate stop at Reading and where passengers may only be picked up (or only set down). Julian Crow of First Great Western has assured us that the company would not expect its Train Managers to charge an excess fare where a if they believe that a passenger has made a genuinely unintended mistake in boarding the wrong train.