On Grand Central services, most of our seats will be reservable, however it's possible that all reservations may have been filled or that a service has had this ability removed, eg. on Bank Holidays. In these situations, you may be unable to board, which is why we recommend reserving your seat wherever possible.
If seat reservations are available, you will be given the option to choose any preferences you may have, such as table, power points and direction of travel. These preferences can be saved in your booking profile. Only when the booking is placed will confirmation be made that your seat reservation has been successful.
We maintain a small number of "unreserved" seats throughout the train, available on first-come, first-served basis.
Seats may be reserved for children, but for a child under 5 a reservation can only be made if a suitable child ticket has been purchased.
On board trains, seat reservations are either shown in an overhead display or as paper seat reservation in the back of the seat.
To reserve your seat, contact our Customer Relations team on 0345 603 4852 (option 3, then option 1), this facility is available up to 5 minutes before departure (subject to availability).
To find out which of our services are the quietest to travel on, please see our dedicated travel updates page here.