Rail travel - help!

[bednobs]

Hi, i am travelling by train for the first time in about 12 years this week to go to a work conference. I will be travelling from Reading to Bristol temple meads leaving Reading at 7.57 am. Since i last train travelled i have aqcuirred a long term condition that means my mobility is quite poor, so i have "reserved" a seat. What i would like to know is how likely will it be that someone else will already be in my seat? The train company say that even if you reserve they can't guaruntee it, and i am not great at confrontation (ie making someone get out of my seat if they are already in it!) is it usually relatively easy to turf someone out (just recalling an incident where someone was in my seat in the cinema and refused to move). Also, anyone that knows that train, is the station entrance relatively close to the platform at the bristol end, or will there be stairs in between.
As you can i am flapping a bit

[dzug]

Westbound at that time in the morning is unlikely to be crowded I would have thought - it may fill up approaching Bristol though

The platform you will arrive at is unpredicatable - however there are lifts to all platforms so you should be able to avoid stairs

People are usually willing to yield you your reserved seat if you ask them politely. 'sorry that's my seat' works better than 'get up you ****' I've never had a problem, that's not to say there are never problems

[bednobs]

Thank you very much for your answer

[bednobs]

thanks for your help - it all went fine, there were 3 of us and while i was fussing about stepping n the train, one of the girls went to check our seats were free - we had 3 seats round a 4 seater table. Anyway, there was a man in the other seat with his luggage on one of ours who at first refused to move it stating "there are plenty of other seats" but then moved it when he saw me with my crutches. My companion said to him "as there are plenty of other seats, would you care to move so you have a table to yourself" but he didn't so we punished him by talking about periods and waxing for the journey, except for when he was making mobile calls, when we all shut up and listened intently