In my defence, I don't think I was being unreasonable in suggesting the guy should sit in the next seat in an almost empty car about 2 minutes before departure, especially when he would be able to get 6 euro as a refund for his trouble. Why should I be put out in having to stop my work and pack up when there was no indication that the seat was reserved? If the roles were reversed, I would be happy to just sit somewhere else and claim the refund.
If the train was packed and the seat was marked, it would be a different thing entirely, but I still don't think it is terribly reasonable to expect somebody who turned up early for a train to stand just because he was unlucky enough to sit in an unmarked reserved seat. Regular users can avoid the issue by not sitting in car A, but again it isn't reasonable.
Irish Rail should not be offering reservations if there is no way of ensuring that the reservation can be fulfilled. What they are doing is probably illegal as they are charging money for a service that they are not providing. Your seat is reserved so long as there is nobody sitting in it when you get there.
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