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Hiya, first time eurail user here. 

I reserved two seats from Paris to Lyon. The tickets showed a cart number and a seat number. However when we got on the train (which was very rushed as it was late and there was no staff to help) there was no cart number which matched the ticket. We hopped on one of the carts and tried to at least walk through and find our seat number but our seat didn’t exist (we were seats 113 and 114 and the numbers on the train went straight from 112 to 115. 

We ended up just sitting on the floor of the stairs. Any idea how this happened?? As I was under the impression buying a seat reservation guaranteed you a seat on the train. 

Thanks!!

Emily 

Did you have a thorough look ? The numbering is always a bit weird. Your seats could have been on both sides of the hallway.

Or was it a bay of 4 (seats 112, 113, 114 and 115) ?

We looked through multiple carts but they definitely weren't there which we thought was strange! There were also no empty seats and quite a few people sitting on the floor, maybe we were in the wrong carts… We ended up in the right place at least!

Mmmmh weird… maybe a last-minute train swap

Yes ! Enjoy your stay in Lyon :)

Thank you ! :) 

Hi Emily

 

Now Im curious. can you provide us with more infos? (trainnumber or departure time as well as wagon number of your reservation)

Thanks.

 

Tip for the next time: if there is no staff, go to the restaurant and ask them to call the conductor there.

Going by the seat numbers, it was probably a TGV Duplex (double deck) train set. Seat61 shows 3 different TGV Duplex seating plans:

https://www.seat61.com/european-train-seating-plans.htm#France

Seats 113 and 114 should normally be next to each other, but in another row than 112 and 115. However, there are also carriages where 112 and 115 are in the last row of the carriage and there's no row with 113 and 114. That means I see a few possibilities, e.g.:

  1. You didn't see seats 113 and 114 in the next row.
  2. The TGV Duplex was switched with another one of a different subtype, with a different seating plan.
  3. You were looking in the wrong carriage.
  4. You were on the wrong train.

The fact that the carriage number didn't match already suggests that it was a different train or different rolling stock.

The fact that the carriage number didn't match already suggests that it was a different train or different rolling stock.

or it was formed of two sets. then you cant find the other carriages while walking through.

Thank you both! Yes I think maybe we were on the wrong cart. 

The train was TGV 66609. 

We had different seat numbers for our train out of Lyon (so there were no problems) and in the carriage we were in there was no seats 113 and 114. So must have been the wrong carriage as it was definitely the correct train!

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