'Crop of confused passengers' as East Midlands Railway customers unable to access seat reservations

Picture: Ian Hodgkinson / Picture It
The new East Midlands Railway franchise EMR has started service today. From press release: The new East Midlands Railway franchise will start on 18th August and to mark the event
we are holding a Stakeholder Briefing, Press Conference and photocall at The
Roundhouse, Derby and at Derby station on the morning of Monday 19th August
preceded/followed by shorter events at Leicester, Sheffield, Nottingham and London St
Pancras stations to announce the start of the East Midlands Railway franchise and the
benefits it will bring.
-Credit:Nottingham Post / Ian Hodgkinson / Picture It


East Midlands Railway (EMR) passengers will be unable to access seat reservations for the next month due to “issues” with the company's seat reservation system. An EMR spokesman said its intercity services between Sheffield and London St Pancras, which call at Leicestershire stations, were impacted.

The company told LeicestershireLive this afternoon (Wednesday, January 8) that it was “working hard” to “identify the problem” and apologised to passengers for the "frustrating" issue. A spokesman said that passengers would not be able to book seats on the above services until Sunday, February 2.

One person travelling from London to Leicester today told LeicestershireLive that at each stop there was a "new crop of confused passengers". They said: "There was a series of announcements on a Tannoy to explain why the train was delayed, and, amongst that, it was mentioned that the train reservation system wasn't working and wouldn't be until February, which seems to be a very relaxed approach to fixing it.

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"Thankfully, the train guard repeated it, because every single person who got on tried to find their reserved seat. Given it's just after new year, loads of people had large suitcases, so it meant dozens of passengers were slowly moving in the aisles looking for their seats. The train was pretty full so at every stop there was a new crop of confused passengers."

The EMR spokesman said: “We would like to apologise to customers for the issues we are experiencing with the reservation system on our Intercity services between Sheffield, Nottingham, and London St Pancras. We understand how frustrating this is for customers, and we are working hard with our suppliers to identify the problem and implement a solution as quickly as possible.”

LeicestershireLive asked EMR for clarification on advice for passengers affected by the outage. It said: "Customers who have booked and choose not to travel can receive [a] refund. For customers who choose to travel, they can sit in any available seat. Customers who require a wheelchair seat can still reserve a seat under the usual process – this system is not affected."

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