Wish I had known this sooner. The railplanner app offers reservations for 6 euro’s and somewhere else I was advised to make reservations with acprail. It would have saved me 3 X 6 euro’s.

Thanks for sharing this. Hope other travellers benefit from your tip!

I honestly don't understand why Interrail has added ACP Rail as a suggestion in the app to book seats in GB while ignoring the GWR website. They have now added the LNER website but they only book LNER trains.

@Nanja Is there any specific reason why the GWR website has not been added to the reservations section in the app? They can book reservations for any GB day train free of charge, which means ACP is a rip-off.

My assumption would be that it were those companies themselves who reacted on a possible general request-and others ignored it-or perhaps even did not understand the why&wherefore.

Same as how many national railways did not update info-there ws noone therw  who realised or knew there was something to be done.

After a lifetime of working as a crisis manager the one constant I work with was “assumption is the mother of all cock-ups”.

I thought……..

And yes I was also guilty at times of making assumptions - some of which were wrong.

One of the most popular ones on this community is the assumption that phone display of reservations is universally acceptable when the T&Cs often exclude it.

The thing is that when they come across that one inspector who is diligent and obstinate it is no good saying XXXX on the community said it was acceptable.

ACP rail have suppliedUK reservations for many many years, well before any other online resource, although they have always been very expensive.

UK reservations haven’t always been free either, there were differences between some operators and tickets.

The GWR resource for making online reservations without a travel ticket is a relatively recent addition.

And once again I have to correct @Yorkie on the suggestion that trains in UK are mandatory reservation, THEY ARE NOT, stop making this comment.

Yes, it is a good idea to get reservations for some trains but on no normal train will passengers be refused travel, removed from the train or be accused of fare evasion due to no reservations as is the case with reservation mandatory trains in certain other countries.

I have already accepted that reservation on LNER is not fully reserved, however here is their latest information on their website:

Unreserved seating

There is a limited amount of seating available on a first come first served basis in coach C in Standard and coaches E or M in First Class. For those that do not get a seat there is space to stand. If you would like a seat we suggest you arrive in good time.

LNER include a reserved seat with most purchased tickets and offer an online service to those with tickets/passes that do not include a reservation right up to 5 mins before departure.

So on their busy trains they will expect to fill all the reservable seats and with only a single carriage available for unreserved passengers be prepared to stand for several hours, and they do. They also check that any standing second class passenger stays in second class.

Thanks for your question. I will get back to you on this.