In mainland Europe, there is a website available that shows the order of the train cars for any route. It helps to know where to position yourself on the train platform. They only show the Eurostar route for Great Britain. Does GB have a similar site? FYI, here it is:
https://www.vagonweb.cz/
Posted by
Cornwall
378 posts
Realtimetrains is good for the UK although late configuration changes will throw it
Posted by
Lake District, England
8134 posts
Not really. In the UK there isn't train car numbering as on the continent.
Train cars have alphabetic lettering from Car A upwards.
First Class is almost always at the 'London' end of the train with the high letters, going down through the lettering into Standard Class.
So a train from Paddington to Bath, for instance, have Car L (1st class) at the rear of the train, closest to the ticket barriers going down to Coach A at the front end of the train. Coming back Car A is at the rear of the train, up to Car L at the front.
The same is true of Kings Cross to Edinburgh or York trains.
The exception is Avanti West Coast- some trains were lengthened from 9 cars to 11 cars some years ago so Car U (which is always an unreserved car) was inserted between G and F.
Many major stations have Zone letters painted on the platform. The station departure screens and audible announcements will tell you to stand in Zone 1 (or whatever) for Car such and such.
On Avanti stations the zones are numbered 1 to 10. So you will be told Zone 5 for Car E (or whatever) and so on for each zone/car.
Posted by
2599 posts
https://tiger.worldline.global/home will show you. Select a station and then CIS graphic view. Up will come a list of the trains plus the coach lettering order. Note that some trains don’t have reservations and people just board where there is space - so don’t stand near the herd or where you know that 1st class coaches will be if travelling second class. At some stations, short trains might stop at the head of the platform in the direction of travel - and regulars will know this so in such cases, it might be better to be near the herd.
Also note that on some of the longer trains, certain coaches will have reservations whilst other coaches will have no reserved seating - thus ideal for those who just show up.
As mentioned above, https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/ will also show the order of the coach lettering and this is likely to stay the same for the same train day to day. (Just click on a train and an image should appear above - in most cases).
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33992 posts
most stations have what are called "Stop Boards" which tell the driver where to stop the front of the train. These are needed because platforms vary in length and sighting issues. They are board with one or more numbers on it, between 12 and 1. There are also a few with special codes a bit harder to decipher - such as a class number or type and a number. Most trains will be shown on the departure boards and screens with the number of carriages, so if it shows an 8 car train for example if you go the "8" car stop board that will be close to where the driver will stop. Same with other numbers. There may only be a "S" stop board, which means that all trains stop there which don't have number boards elsewhere on the platform. And, unless the train is in reverse configuration, the London end of the train will have the First class carriages. This doesn't apply with short commuter trains, and even on long commuter trains the first class compartment is either gone or going - assume that the whole train is second unless there is a yellow line above the windows which would indicate First.