A passenger has shared his frustrations over his experience on a train, which saw the seat he had booked be taken by a group who refused to move.
You may think by getting in there quickly and booking yourself a forward-facing table seat with a plug socket, you'll be able to breathe a sigh of relief when you step onto carriage F to travel all the way back from work... but oh, how wrong you are!
One traveller learned the hard way that just because you've pre-booked your seat on a train, it doesn't always mean you get to sit in it.
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Yep, it's true, and unfortunately the ticket inspector doesn't have any authority to help you out either.
There's nothing more awkward than when when you find someone in your pre-booked seat and have to perform the whole, 'Oh, I'm so sorry, I actually think this may be my seat', when you know full well that it definitely is yours.
However, one Reddit user explained that, when they came to sit at their table seat, they were met with a group of four men who 'refused to move' because the train was 'packed' and they wanted to remain sat together.
The passenger explained: "The ticket collected passed and I asked him to help.
"He asked the guy to move but he refused and somehow that was that.
"'So what now?' I asked. 'You can find another seat but I have no power to move him, only the police and move him and they will not turn up just to move someone out of a seat,' [the ticket collector said]." [sic]
The passenger then looked around the carriage and saw it was completely full. Faced with the possibility of having to stand up all the way to London, the traveller decided to hack the system too.
If you can't beat them, then join them, we suppose.
"I'm going to take a seat in first class," they told the ticket inspector.
In the post they noted how the idea of first class appealed because of the 'better surroundings, power sockets and free tea and coffee'.
The ticket inspector responded: "You can't sit there, you don't have a booking."
Alas, the inspector's words were rendered useless by the earlier incident.
"Well, you could call the police to move me but apparently they won't turn out to move someone out of a seat," the traveller told the member of staff.
They victoriously concluded: "I had a lovely trip with power for my laptop and a wide comfy seat."
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Harley Young