UK train with declassified first class coach due to overcrowding - any recourse for 1st class ticket holders?
Apparently it's half term this week, so the train I took into London today which is normally very full was absolutely heaving. (Why GWR decide to put a 5 coach train on for the first off-peak service of the day, rather than an 8, is a different question....). Due to quite how overcrowded it was, the train staff made an announcement after the second stop saying that the first class coach was being declassified, and standard class passengers currently standing could use it.
While that's good for most of the passengers on the train, I imagine some of the first class ticket holders might be a bit miffed, and any joining later on discovering no seats spare very miffed!
That leads me to wonder - when the first class section on a UK train is declassified by the train manager like that, are first class ticket holders entitled to any kind of compensation / partial refund? And does it depend if they now can't get a seat or not?
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Can I sit in first class if train is full?
If overcrowding becomes intense, first class can be \u201cdeclassified\u201d, i.e. opened up to all passengers, regardless of their tickets. But there is no automatic right to occupy first class. Ad hoc declassification typically happens after other trains have been cancelled or seriously delayed.Can you get fined for sitting in first class on a train?
You will still get thrown out of first class, and may even be fined, but at least you can bask in the moral superiority that comes with getting a photo taken of you holding your ticket and looking a bit disappointed.Can you sit in standard class with a first class ticket?
But it's a modern myth that train travellers are allowed to sit in first-class if all other seats are taken. The National Rail conditions of travel state: \u201cYou cannot travel in first-class accommodation (including standing in corridors or passageways) with a standard class ticket.Is Thameslink 1st Class declassified?
Types of First Class ticketThe first class compartment at the rear of Thameslink trains is always declassified.New Virgin Trains EC First Class Experience from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley June 2016.
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