An Edinburgh-bound train passenger says he had to stand for four-and-a-half hours during his journey to the Scottish capital on Monday.
The 11am train from London, he claimed, was so crowded that passengers could not reach their seat reservations or access the on-board toilets. He was particularly concerned for elderly and mobility impaired passengers.
"I'll be standing for 4.5 hours. I'm fairly young and fairly fit, but some people on here are not and the option they've been given is to get off the train and try another one. It's not good enough," the man said.
"There are people in the aisles who are of an age where they are going struggle to stand for this long." The man, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had not reserved a seat as part of his ticket, but he assumed that he booked the specific 11am train because other trains were showing as sold out online.
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On Twitter, LNER responded to customer concerns. According to the response, LNER only allows approximately 80 percent of seats to be reserved on services, but some people will travel with flexible tickets without seat reservations or suffer from cancelled trains. The company said passenger who specifically purchased a seat reservation that have had to stand during the journey can claim compensation online.
The company also said that customers without seat reservations were offered the opportunity to travel on the following service without any charge, and regular announcements were made during the journey advising where seats could be found onboard while staff walked through the train to assist passengers.
"There response is people shouldn't be boarding the train if it looks full but it's not really good enough to blame their customers. They have multiple first class carriages practically empty. I'd always intended to get this train, I was sold a ticket, it's not unreasonable to expect a habitable journey," the passenger said.
The passenger said he traveled to Edinburgh for the Festival Fringe. Edinburgh Live will monitor train and travel conditions before and during the festival throughout August.
A spokesperson for LNER, said: “To provide customers with confidence of enjoying a seat for the duration of their journey, we strongly recommend customers make a free of charge seat reservation if not already included with their booked ticket. LNER Seat Sure means that most seats will require a reservation.
"To protect the flexibility of the walk-up railway, there will be a number of unreserved seats in Coach C for Standard and a number of seats in Coach M in in First Class. Customers without a reservation will be able to travel in these unreserved areas of the train. Seat reservations can be made up to five minutes before departure from the LNER website, app or Travel Centres. If in any event a booked seat is not available, customers can claim compensation through the LNER Seat Guarantee scheme."
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