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Booking a Train to Castle Cary. 1St Class?


Windupradio
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Hi. 

I'll be driving to the festival with friends early Thursday morning,  but my wife needs to work and won't be able to get a train out of London until about 5pm on Thursday. 

There seem to be a few trains per hour from Paddington /Waterloo with the Paddington train being faster. 

1. If I book a ticket for a specific train,  with crowds is it likely that they will be able to get in that train,  if not,  can it be used on the next train with availabile space (ie are usual conditions of carriage for specified train bookings ignored due to the volume of people going to the festival?) 

 

2. First class is not significantly more for the trains she is thinking of taking.  Anyone got experience of a 1St ticket to Castle Cary for the festival? Will it be a reserved seat, thus guaranteeing her a place on the specified train,  or if big crowds will she be waving the train goodbye from the platform and squeezing in to standard in the next available train. Therefore the additional cost for 1St having been wasted.

 

Thanks 

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Departing from Waterloo would see her travelling with South Western Railway. It’ll be cheaper, but their reputation is poor and first class isn’t all that. 

Departing from Paddington would see her on a Great Western Railway train. The journey will be slightly shorter, trains more reliable and first class is actually a decent upgrade in terms of space and ambience (not food though). Tickets are slightly more expensive. 

Personally I’d take the second option and relish a bit of luxury before losing it until Monday! 

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You're best off checking with the train companies re their policies about tickets for specific trains, i'd have thought you'd be ok for 1st class though - unless they have a mass influx of 1st class ticket holders. When I last took the train from Paddington they didn't seem to be too bothered what train I got (I had a ticket with a specific time), I think they just wanted to get people there and not have big crowds forming at Paddington. The train I got wasn't particularly full either, but this was Wednesday morning not evening. I would assume that they put on special trains for the festival so have adequate capacity.

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I’d suggest:

1st Class and booked seat from Paddington.

If there is a holding pen at Padd for festival goers, DO NOT join the pen.

Instead go to the Booked train, and if challenged show ticket and seat reservation.

(the holding pen is for non published festival specials, I.e. not the train you’ve booked, and no seat reservations or 1st class choices are honoured. They just fill the train and send it off.)

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I took the train from Paddington in 2015 and with any pre booked ticket you got a reserved seat. They’ll be cheaper too so unless this had changed just do that and if the train is packed you can hoik anyone out of your reserved seat. 

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You can probably ignore my point about avoiding the pen at Paddington.

Seems like the days of unadvertised festival specials are a thing of the past. From what I can see, all the extra trains are fully bookable, accept seat reservations, have 1st class. So no need for them to run a pen feed any more.

(As a side note... returns on the Monday do indeed still include unadvertised specials... they’ll take anyone with a valid ticket... regardless of whether the ticket has a specified time)

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If you book an Advance ticket you have to take that train unless there are specific instructions from the operating company that tickets are valid on any train. If you book an advance first class ticket with seat reservation I cannot see any reason why you wouldn't get that seat unless the train is so busy that they have to de-regulate first class. So there is a slight risk but in general she should be ok. I would go to Paddington. The new HSTs from there are very good. 

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Also if you are going from Paddington and arrive in good time then make full use of the first class lounge. Free tea, coffee, cold drinks, fruit, cakes and biscuits.  Also have a shower there if you were coming back 1st class you would be able to use FOC on the day of your ticket back. 

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