[article] Train seat reservations system 'a total disaster' - Page 2

Sealink · 30-03-2008, 00:29

Electronic seat reservation displays NEVER work.
Virgin here use them on their trains, and they are hit and miss at best, mainly miss.

I was trying to use the Irish Rail online booking system, and it's, flakey, to say the least. I think something like www.trainline.com (which. to be fair, has it's own issues) would be much more user friendly.

Colm R · 31-03-2008, 09:17

Reservation systems are not difficult to get right. In fact, give me a couple of hours, a little perl/php, would even go with a free database, mysql. We see working systems in different circumstances.

Hotel Room reservation

Airline Seat Reservation

Cinema Seat Reservation

Car Rental Reservation

Meeting Room Reservation

Restuaraunt Reservation - granted, its written into a diary. But this is a system that works, and software should be based on real world workings.

What about a single reservation for multiple functions. Go into a travel agent, book a holiday. In one booking, you get flights, transfers, hotels, tours.

Its not as if the logic would be difficult. There are X journeys made every week. Each journey has Y bookable seats. This stuff is easy!!!!

Mark Gleeson · 31-03-2008, 09:27

Well the complex bit of the reservations seems to work fine, you can pick the exact seat you want and so on

Its the simple bit where it goes wrong, ok you can understand the electronic displays being troublesome but you can't explain away why the manual cards are not used on the older trains

Oisin88 · 29-04-2008, 17:37

nice to know today that they don't turn on the seat reservations on the Dublin-Cork train, if it's "not too busy." Threw the wrong person out of my seat this morning and then had to run away (it was my seat for the way back)

Also, they haven't bothered to fix the problem on the website which means that when you try to book a seat facing forward in the train, you get one facing backwards.

Thomas Ralph · 29-04-2008, 17:42

For that one you just have to know which direction the site sets up the train as. As far as I remember the left side points towards Dublin.

Mark Gleeson · 29-04-2008, 17:46

With the exception of the Cork train when traveling in coach C there is a reasonable possibility the coach will be backwards happened to me once

Oisin88 · 29-04-2008, 18:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

With the exception of the Cork train when traveling in coach C there is a reasonable possibility the coach will be backwards happened to me once

Seat 1 was near coach D and Seat 68 at the Coach B end! When I booked last week it was the only seat taken.

31-03-2008, 09:27	#23
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	Well the complex bit of the reservations seems to work fine, you can pick the exact seat you want and so on Its the simple bit where it goes wrong, ok you can understand the electronic displays being troublesome but you can't explain away why the manual cards are not used on the older trains __________________ Unhappy with new timetable - let us know

29-04-2008, 17:37	#24
Oisin88 Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Dublin Posts: 608	nice to know today that they don't turn on the seat reservations on the Dublin-Cork train, if it's "not too busy." Threw the wrong person out of my seat this morning and then had to run away (it was my seat for the way back) Also, they haven't bothered to fix the problem on the website which means that when you try to book a seat facing forward in the train, you get one facing backwards. __________________ !

29-04-2008, 17:46	#26
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	With the exception of the Cork train when traveling in coach C there is a reasonable possibility the coach will be backwards happened to me once __________________ Unhappy with new timetable - let us know

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30-03-2008, 00:29	#21
Sealink Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 84	Electronic seat reservation displays NEVER work. Virgin here use them on their trains, and they are hit and miss at best, mainly miss. I was trying to use the Irish Rail online booking system, and it's, flakey, to say the least. I think something like www.trainline.com (which. to be fair, has it's own issues) would be much more user friendly.

31-03-2008, 09:17	#22
Colm R Regular Poster Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Dublin Posts: 106	Reservation systems are not difficult to get right. In fact, give me a couple of hours, a little perl/php, would even go with a free database, mysql. We see working systems in different circumstances. Hotel Room reservation Airline Seat Reservation Cinema Seat Reservation Car Rental Reservation Meeting Room Reservation Restuaraunt Reservation - granted, its written into a diary. But this is a system that works, and software should be based on real world workings. What about a single reservation for multiple functions. Go into a travel agent, book a holiday. In one booking, you get flights, transfers, hotels, tours. Its not as if the logic would be difficult. There are X journeys made every week. Each journey has Y bookable seats. This stuff is easy!!!!

29-04-2008, 17:42	#25
Thomas Ralph IT Officer Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Greenwich, London Posts: 1,860	For that one you just have to know which direction the site sets up the train as. As far as I remember the left side points towards Dublin.