Help with Virgin Train from Euston to B'ham
 

Hi,

I had a query and wasn't sure where i could ask so i thought if anyone's going to know it would be proffesionals such as yourselves..!

Anyway i am going to be catching a Virgin train (not sure which train model it is) from Euston to Birmingham and i have a suitcase with me. I'd like to know which window seat would be best being closest to the luggage compartment so i can keep an eye out on my luggage, and also i don't know whether i'll be facing forwards or backwards on the carriage in order for me to be facing the luggage cabin as i have the option of choosing on trainline.com...

I'd like to know which seat number or roughly which area would be best for me...any sites with maps of the trains showing the seating arrangements and luggage areas labelled on them would be great, and videos of Euston and the specific train that i'll be on would be even better as i've never been to Euston and this is only the second or third time that i've ever travelled by train...

Hope i've come to the right place and u guys can help me out with these tedious questions!

Thanks

Sorry, I can't help with the answers to your query but I have to say that I have very rarely sat in my reserved seat in Pendolinos from Birmingham to Euston and vice versa. Of course, if you are on one of the peak hour trains you may have to but if you are off-peak (and of course it should be much cheaper then), there should be a number of unreserved seats available. I have never been challenged for not sitting in my booked seat and have usually moved because invariably my reserved seat has been adjacent to a pillar and I do like to look out of the window.

The other alternative of course is to use Chiltern Railways from Snow Hill or Moor St to Marylebone which is a bit slower but cheaper and choice of where you sit so you can keep one eye on your luggage and the other on the scenery.

I have to say, in some 45 years of travelling (a LOT) by train, I've only ever had TWO items stolen - both from wating rooms, once in Oostende (Belgium), where an ENGLISH bloke tried to steal my bag (passport, cameras etc) - an Australian chap alerted me, and I chased after the ba*ta*d and got it back; and once at St Lazare terminus (Paris) overnight, where my friend had some items stolen, and my passport was taken. I've never lost anything in the UK, except for being mugged by three friendly Scottish thugs while visiting Shawfield sidings at Polmadie TMD (Glasgow) in 1984. A good percentage of the customers on Virgin trains will have got their own luggage to contend with, and probably won't need to add to their burden. Good luck anyhow - you never know!

Hi Marbles,

From my previous experience I would recommend that you go for something in the front few coaches A and B, both have a lot of baggage spaces. Seats A 28 and B 1 are good choices close to luggage racks. Here is the pendolino seating plan:

http://www.v-flyer.com/pendolino.asp

Well my train leaves at 08.43am on Tuesday so i guess that would be considered peak-time. Will there be a lot of unreserved seats available at that time?

Also thank you David Hicks for the link, will see if i can book 28A on trainline.com. Do u guys know if i can do that on trainline.com or if there's other sites that i can book specific seats?

Thanks for your patience and help...

Any website that uses the National Rail database, including National Rail itself, Virgin's website, trainline.com etc. etc. will allow you to book tickets with seat reservations in the same manner, it's just a different face to the same system.