How we decide an answer
Every answer comes from passenger reports and published service information. We show what it is based on, and we say when we do not know.
The five states
- Seats available
- A few seats
- Standing likely
- Packed
- Unable to board reported
A sixth state, “Not enough information”, is used whenever the evidence does not support any of the above.
What sits behind an answer
- Recent passenger reports count for more than older ones.
- A report checked against your location counts for more than one picked manually.
- A single unverified report is never treated as certain.
- Train length, delays and cancellations are used where that information exists.
Each train page lists the actual reasons used for that answer, in plain English.
Confidence
- High: several recent reports that agree.
- Medium: some recent evidence.
- Low: few or old reports, disagreement, or no reports at all.
Seat reservations
We keep three things separate and never infer one from another: whether the operator normally offers seat reservations, whether a reservation can currently be booked through a connected partner, and what passengers tell us about reservations being honoured. We show a percentage for the last of these only once at least three valid reports exist, always with the number of reports and the period they cover.