Re: Booked out Melb XPTs

[David Langley <del@ancc.com.au>]

WhaleOilBeefHooked wrote:

> David Langley wrote in message <37971993.D99D9373@ancc.com.au>...
>
> >Now try the above NZ example at Strathfield on a busy morning. Words to
> describe
> >the ensuing disaster fail me. I agree with Eddie that the NZ style of
> booking is
> >at best appalling, at worst ..............
> >
> >If you book late, you take your chances.
>
> But there may be 40 seats on a train that are not reserved. But none of them
> may be together. Under the coach way of seat allocations, a group of 2, 3,
> 4, etc. would be able to be accommodated. With the railways, they *may* not.
> If they insisted on being together, they would be turned away. Is this good
> business sense?

In fact the booking is organised before hand but you only find out the actual
seats when the train arrives and the computer diagram is consulted. This means
even though seating was pre-booked you can still only board one at a time
because of the lack of reserved seat tickets issued in advance. In NZ even
around Easter I did not notice many small groups not being together. The SRS
group were scattered a bit but it mattered not one wit because we moved around
the trains frequently.

David.