by chriskay
During Thanksgiving weekend my partner and I took #68 from Toronto to Montreal, and then returned on #65. For the first trip on #68 there was no assigned seating. Coach travel is always so stressful when you're travelling with more than one person (if I'm alone I don't care where I sit or who I sit next to), so we planned accordingly: we arrived at Union Station an hour ahead of time to line up. We were relatively close to the head of the line, however I realize this is hit-and-miss as you never know which car they will direct you to, or how full the car will be that they will send you - you could be at the end of the line and end up in a near-empty car.
So, as luck would have it, my partner and I were directed to a nearly-full car. There were only a few single seats left... perhaps 4 or 5, and there were other people like us, searching around for seats. The attendant zipped through, pointing out the empty seats, but I'll be damned if I can't sit with my travel companion when I paid for two tickets together.
I moved to the next car, which was practically empty, and we easily found available seats there. All was good until we arrived in Kingston, then everyone in the car - except for us - disembarked. An attendant came by, I explained the situation, and she helpfully suggested I run to find other seats, since for safety reasons they can't leave only us in there, and I should find other seats before embarking passengers from Kingston take them all.
I zipped down the cars, and eventually found a couple of seats together -- 5 cars ahead. I had to run back, grab my stuff, and then return to the seat.
My return trip on #65 was a breeze -- assigned seating in coach class meant that we could take our sweet time to board. No lining up, and no hassles trying to find seats together.
My question is - why can't assigned seating be used on all corridor trips? It should be just like commercial flights - you are assigned a seat and if the train/aircraft isn't full upon departure, then you can grab whatever you want. Anyone know why this is? IIRC, assigned seating even on this limited basis is a fairly new event.
Thanks,
-Chris
So, as luck would have it, my partner and I were directed to a nearly-full car. There were only a few single seats left... perhaps 4 or 5, and there were other people like us, searching around for seats. The attendant zipped through, pointing out the empty seats, but I'll be damned if I can't sit with my travel companion when I paid for two tickets together.
I moved to the next car, which was practically empty, and we easily found available seats there. All was good until we arrived in Kingston, then everyone in the car - except for us - disembarked. An attendant came by, I explained the situation, and she helpfully suggested I run to find other seats, since for safety reasons they can't leave only us in there, and I should find other seats before embarking passengers from Kingston take them all.
I zipped down the cars, and eventually found a couple of seats together -- 5 cars ahead. I had to run back, grab my stuff, and then return to the seat.
My return trip on #65 was a breeze -- assigned seating in coach class meant that we could take our sweet time to board. No lining up, and no hassles trying to find seats together.
My question is - why can't assigned seating be used on all corridor trips? It should be just like commercial flights - you are assigned a seat and if the train/aircraft isn't full upon departure, then you can grab whatever you want. Anyone know why this is? IIRC, assigned seating even on this limited basis is a fairly new event.
Thanks,
-Chris