Lockers at train stations

[Nettled Shin]

I don't suppose any stations have these any more. Like they don't have bins. The upshot is that I'll have to carry a pile of cycling clothes and shoes around with me, whilst dressed up trying to look smart. As it is going to be pouring with rain tomorrow, it will be a steaming and dripping pile of gear. It is either that, or leave it on the bike and hope that it doesn't get nicked or fiddled with. What is it like on the continent? Are they equally as paranoid? I have long suspected that the lack of bins at train stations was a money saving exercise under the pretence of improving our security.

[AndyK]

The stations round here (SW Trains region) have bins. Well, transparent plastic bags suspended in hoops anyway. The mainline termini in London have left luggage facilities but I'm not sure they're lockers. Smaller stations don't but then I don't think they have done for decades.

I used the lockers at the Gare d'Austerlitz in Paris in August. You have to put your bags and yourself through airport-style scanners before you can get to the coin-operated lockers (and again when you return to pick up). So yes, pretty paranoid.

[Si]

Some of our stations are starting to get bike lockers so you can lock away your bike and your kit (assuming there is somewhere to get changed and as many of the toilets have now been permanently locked up/removed there isn't).

[gordy]

All the stations that I use have bins now - plastic bags on hoops, as mentioned above.

Cycle parking facilities for individual stations can be found through this website:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/

Are you going to London? There are secure bike parks - you have to register first though.

Lockers are in place in many stations but demand always outstrips supply. You seem extraordinarily paranoid about doing the type of train/bike journey that is undertaken by thousands of people every day. How far are you riding that needs change of clothes?

[thirdcrank]

Nettled Shin

If you really did want to know about secure cycle parking, rather than having a dig at railway station waste bins, we are off at a tangent. You don't say where you are travelling. I'm sorry this is too late for you, even if it's relevant, but 2100hrs on eve of departure is too late for me to offer much help.

The good news is that Leeds railway station has just what you seem to be looking for (although the bad news if you aren't coming to Leeds is that it claims to be the only one in the country.)

http://www.wymetro.com/NR/rdonlyres/47A ... opack1.pdf

I can't comment on it from a user's POV. I gave up on trains years ago when I realised they weren't interested in my custom as a cyclist.

[SJSBrompton]

I think you'll find our experience of the IRA in the 70s through 90s, and their use of bins as handy places to leave bombs, has something to do with why there aren't any bins on most public transport stations. I hear tourists asking it all the time at Victoria, which, along with Paddington on the same day, was targetted by the IRA in 1991.

[thirdcrank]

SJSBrompton

You are right, of course. However, the people who are alert to the the potential for Carradice bombs and the like seem to be relaxed about the possible dangers from car bombs at railway stations (although airports have been modified in this regard.)

[Nettled Shin]

I think you'll find our experience of the IRA in the 70s through 90s, and their use of bins as handy places to leave bombs, has something to do with why there aren't any bins on most public transport stations. I hear tourists asking it all the time at Victoria, which, along with Paddington on the same day, was targetted by the IRA in 1991.

Yeah, I remember.

[AndyK]

I think you'll find our experience of the IRA in the 70s through 90s, and their use of bins as handy places to leave bombs, has something to do with why there aren't any bins on most public transport stations. I hear tourists asking it all the time at Victoria, which, along with Paddington on the same day, was targetted by the IRA in 1991.

Yeah, I remember.

Hmm. The IRA set off a lot more car bombs than bin bombs around that time, but the authorities never closed all the railway station car parks.

[[XAP]Bob]

I think you'll find our experience of the IRA in the 70s through 90s, and their use of bins as handy places to leave bombs, has something to do with why there aren't any bins on most public transport stations. I hear tourists asking it all the time at Victoria, which, along with Paddington on the same day, was targetted by the IRA in 1991.

Yeah, I remember.

Hmm. The IRA set off a lot more car bombs than bin bombs around that time, but the authorities never closed all the railway station car parks.

Did more people die as a result of bin bombs because of their location?

I remember the threat, but it was always distant from my childhood...

[pete75]

I think you'll find our experience of the IRA in the 70s through 90s, and their use of bins as handy places to leave bombs, has something to do with why there aren't any bins on most public transport stations. I hear tourists asking it all the time at Victoria, which, along with Paddington on the same day, was targetted by the IRA in 1991.

I think that was just used as an excuse to save money by getting rid of bins - they were never taken away from crowded city centres.

[SJSBrompton]

Possibly. I guess I am more sensitive to it as I worked in the airline industry for many years - at LHR - and the chaos that one abandoned bag can cause (and the complete inability of some people to grasp their own idiocy if they come back to it and say they only left it for a minute), takes some beating.

I think with every change in security procedures, people who want to cause us harm will just move on to the next - i.e. cars were not checked, as pointed out. Bins were an easier thing to remove.

Anyway, Victoria does have a left luggage facility similar to the airport ones, where your luggage has to go through an x-ray machine.

My local station, Feltham (South West trains again) has just installed three large lockers for full size bikes, which you could stow the rest of your stuff in. I assume they work in the same way as the secure cycle parks (without lockers) that are popping up over the network (Kingston, Teddington for starters, and I think Surbiton and Norbiton will be). You have to have an access card, as they are designed for regular commuters. I haven't seen the full lockers anywhere else though, and was surprised to see them at my local station to be honest. It isn't the nicest area, but maybe that's why.

In terms of ad hoc parking, the one run by OnYourBike at London Bridge is good but doesn't have lockers.

Places like H2 BikeRun, whilst expensive, are proving popular for those who want to combine gym membership with a secure bike storage and showers etc. They have one in Soho and are due to be opening one in London Wall.

[pete75]

Possibly. I guess I am more sensitive to it as I worked in the airline industry for many years - at LHR - and the chaos that one abandoned bag can cause (and the complete inability of some people to grasp their own idiocy if they come back to it and say they only left it for a minute), takes some beating.

Some of us have difficulty understanding the bad mannered, arrogant and unpleasant manner used to enforce security. UK airport staff seem to go out of their way to make flying an unpleasant experience. Those in France or Italy, for example, manage to carry out the same procedures in a polite and friendly manner.

[thirdcrank]

... Some of us have difficulty understanding the bad mannered, arrogant and unpleasant manner used to enforce security. UK airport staff seem to go out of their way to make flying an unpleasant experience. ...

Yes - and I only ever get as far as doing the Grandad's taxi service. People who think it's funny to joke about having a bomb in their luggage may be a PITA, like all the other people who think we haven't heard it all before, but locking them up doesn't affect any real threat one iota. I'd suggest that a co-operative general public is one of the strongest counter-terrorism measures available, at no cost. What's the point of antagonising them when it's unnecessary?

[gordy]

Some of us have difficulty understanding the bad mannered, arrogant and unpleasant manner used to enforce security. UK airport staff seem to go out of their way to make flying an unpleasant experience. Those in France or Italy, for example, manage to carry out the same procedures in a polite and friendly manner.

Really? I have always found UK airport staff to be friendly and helpful.