What’s the latest by which I can reserve a seat?

For most trains and most tickets, you will need to buy your tickets and make your reservations no later than the day before travel. Sometimes, tickets are available until 18.00 (6pm) the day before travel.

In you want to reserve a seat on particularly busy trains, we recommend buying your tickets as early as possible. For example, this is the case of trains leaving London on Friday evenings, or before or after bank holidays.

Some train operators allow purchase of the rather mystifyingly-named “Advance Purchase on the Day” . This means that you will get a reserved seat on the train, even though you bought on the day of travel.