And after the scenes I saw last night, I'm the one making the accusation.

I'll give you one guess why - Seat reservations or the lack of them.
I've not had too many problems on the trains lately but last nights 21.00 to Newcastle changed all that. From a passengers perspective it can only be described as a farce to behold and it's all becasue GNER didn't put the seat reservations out.

Following a few beers after work, I arrived at KX about 20.35 a full 25 mins before the 21.00 was due to leave. I did my usual patrol up the platforms trying to second guess which of the 3 GNER sets in the sation would be the 21.00 which wasn't too hard. As I walked up the platform and the cleaners were just leaving and they announced the platform number and advised customers they could board. Being at the head of the throng it wasn't hard for a season traveller to notice there were no seat reservations and that this was very unusual for this service. A quick glance on the opposite platform where the next scheduled GNER departure stood waiting, it was clear the printer was working because nearly every seat already had the reservation tickets poking out the top of nearly every seat.

At this point I didn't think too much of it but I changed my mind not 15 mins later when I saw what ensued with customers arriving at their supposedly reserved seats only to find some poor unsuspecting soul like me, sat in it. I sat at a table seat along with another young lady. First a young couple arrived and asked the young lady and I to move which we did but only becasue there were plenty of other seats at that time. Next a middle aged gentleman asked me to move, which I did because there were still plenty of other seats. As we got closer to departure time, more people with reserved seats came along and almost all asked the people sitting in 'their' seats to move. By this time though, nearly every seat was taken so people, including myself started to refuse to move. Tounges started wagging, accusations started flying and names were thrown like there was no tomorrow.

Persoanlly I was very very polite to the fella that asked me to move for the 3rd time. I pointed out that no seats were reserved and that I would happily move had the reservation ticket been there. As it was, he was in the same boat as everyone else. He protested a little but I accepted none of it, offered my sympathys to his pridicament and suggested he was moaning at the wrong person and should take his issues up with on board staff or to write to GNER. This was going on throughout the coach only some people were not as polite or reasonable as me and the gentleman asking me to move. Until other passengers came and told him where to get off, one fella even tried to physically remove a young lady from her seat by tugging on her arm and movin g her luggage.

Throughout all this, where were the GNER staff? Not in sight that's for sure. There was the odd announcment about the lack of reservations but that's all. We didn't see staff until the revenue protection patrol where upon a large number of displaced passenegers asked where the seat reservations were. The poor guard didn't have a clue what had happened because they hadn't been told and could only appologise.

I dodn't think this kind of scenario would happen on a morning or evening becasue commuters and regular travellers know the score. To put passengers who don't understand that no reservation tickets on seats = no seat reservation in this situation is a differant matter altogether. I don't know what the solution is or even if there is one, but the point is, it's a wonder some people weren't assalted and had they been, it would have been GNER's fault.