Thats good it keeps my son in work
Was using that line a few times a couple of weeks ago. Pleased to see how well used it is with bikes it’s a great asset for cyclists living there. Number of bikes on board worked out OK but I think one trip it’s as well I was getting off at GoS as others waiting to board there.
The reorganisation provides a great opportunity for improvement... responsibility for ticketing will be centralised:
Personally I think the whole thing sounds shambolic and very hit and miss. If it's like that at the moment what's it going to be like in the summer? I would happily pay a reasonable fee to carry a bike in a guards van.
Had a cycle reservation booked last night coming back from doing part of the King Alfred's Way. Once every 2 hour train due at 1904. Message board showed as on time and the train progressing through the station's until 1902 when it was cancelled.Steve X wrote:We travelled on the train three times recently.
Preston to Lancaster - 2 spaces on a busy train, could not book, which we bagged. The guard, entered train and asked the people sitting on the flap down seats to move so we could position bikes. Good experience.
At Lancaster had to move to other platform over bridges with stairs which was difficult with loaded tourers. Large gentleman picked up my wife's bike one handed, job sorted.
Lancaster to Ravenglass - 2 Bike + 2 disabled spaces, which cannot be booked. We bagged spaces 2 and 3. If a disable person had arrived they had priority on disable spaces. Shortly after we arrived 4 more cyclists arrived and the entrance was cluttered, to the extent my wife thought it unsafe. Conductor got agitated and there was a bit of a stand off. All bikes stayed on, but IMHO the later cyclists were unhelpful, though they were stressed as they wanted to get to start of cycle trip.
Carlisle back to Preston. Arrived at Carlisle only be told that we MUST book bikes on train. I got in a flap, but the Aviva man in the ticket office was extremely helpful and apologetic we would have to wait for 90 minutes for first train with space for two bikes. Train was a Carlisle to London Mainline thing and bikes went in guard van type arrangement, with space for 4 bikes, which was not a lot for such a huge train. At next stop cyclist without bike booking got on, and was ejected at next station when two cyclists with bookings got on. He left with good grace.
All in all an excellent experience, which I doubt would be bettered by European trains. All train staff at all points where superb. All trains where clean and bright.
When traveling in future, if I wish to make an advance booking I think I will go to a train station and do this as the booking agents seem to be able to access the seats and bikes availability more easily than I can. We have a train station about 7 miles away.
Personally I think the system works pretty well. A guards van on every train that could take 10 or 15 bikes would be the dream, but I suspect that if that happened then bikes would no longer be free.
We have a Two Together Rail Card, which has already paid for itself.
No mention of ticket prices, but will be a game changer if it comes off."The Class 153 carriages have been especially designed to support active travel, by providing people with the space and storage needed to comfortably take their bikes, skis, or other sporting gear with them on their journey. Each carriage has a total of 20 individual bike racks as well as designated seating for 24 people....
Initially, they will run along the stunning West Highland Line from Glasgow to Oban. Then we hope to extend the service to Fort William and Mallaig, and in time, look at bringing the concept to all corners of Scotland. " (my bold)
https://www.scotrail.co.uk/class-153#
We regularly travel London-Edinburgh with bikes and always go to the station to book tickets. Usually the agent is able to hold the seat reservation then book the bikes onto the same train (and often then change the seat reservation so we are near the bikes
) and then we pay. Last time, they made us book and pay for the seats first, then checked the bikes and realised that the bike spaces were already taken (unusual), so they had to do it all again for the next train.That's pretty poor (to put it mildly). Do you know what the reason was, it is usually something drastic that causes a sudden cancellation mid run.st599_uk wrote: ↑14 Jun 2021, 5:22pmHad a cycle reservation booked last night coming back from doing part of the King Alfred's Way. Once every 2 hour train due at 1904. Message board showed as on time and the train progressing through the station's until 1902 when it was cancelled.Steve X wrote:We travelled on the train three times recently.
Preston to Lancaster - 2 spaces on a busy train, could not book, which we bagged. The guard, entered train and asked the people sitting on the flap down seats to move so we could position bikes. Good experience.
At Lancaster had to move to other platform over bridges with stairs which was difficult with loaded tourers. Large gentleman picked up my wife's bike one handed, job sorted.
Lancaster to Ravenglass - 2 Bike + 2 disabled spaces, which cannot be booked. We bagged spaces 2 and 3. If a disable person had arrived they had priority on disable spaces. Shortly after we arrived 4 more cyclists arrived and the entrance was cluttered, to the extent my wife thought it unsafe. Conductor got agitated and there was a bit of a stand off. All bikes stayed on, but IMHO the later cyclists were unhelpful, though they were stressed as they wanted to get to start of cycle trip.
Carlisle back to Preston. Arrived at Carlisle only be told that we MUST book bikes on train. I got in a flap, but the Aviva man in the ticket office was extremely helpful and apologetic we would have to wait for 90 minutes for first train with space for two bikes. Train was a Carlisle to London Mainline thing and bikes went in guard van type arrangement, with space for 4 bikes, which was not a lot for such a huge train. At next stop cyclist without bike booking got on, and was ejected at next station when two cyclists with bookings got on. He left with good grace.
All in all an excellent experience, which I doubt would be bettered by European trains. All train staff at all points where superb. All trains where clean and bright.
When traveling in future, if I wish to make an advance booking I think I will go to a train station and do this as the booking agents seem to be able to access the seats and bikes availability more easily than I can. We have a train station about 7 miles away.
Personally I think the system works pretty well. A guards van on every train that could take 10 or 15 bikes would be the dream, but I suspect that if that happened then bikes would no longer be free.
We have a Two Together Rail Card, which has already paid for itself.
No way to ring GWR, their number takes you to National Rail's call centre.
So after pointing out to the chap that no, we weren't prepared to wait 3.5 hours for a train that might run and would necessitate a 9 hour stopover on a bench ona platform, he promised to ring us back with alternative arrangements within 10 mins. Sill waiting nearly 24 hours later.
All the stranded passengers had to chip in for a minibus.
British trains are a joke, and completely unreliable, especially if you are unfortunate enough to only have weekends available for leisure travel.
Came across this on Twitter just nowPendodave wrote: ↑14 Jun 2021, 6:31pm I have tweeted scotrail a couple of times recently about the introduction of these services. They have completely ignored them...
I was on oban recently and took the opportunity of asking a driver what was going on. He confirmed that their introduction had been delayed, but was unable to confirm when it might actually happen.
If anyone's out and about on the west highland line and could provide further details it would be most welcome.
Lee Craigie wrote:I joined Ross from @SustransScot at Queen St Station today to help test out @ScotRail ‘s new adventure carriages. These are going to be a game changer for sustainable adventuring this summer!
I've never liked the idea of hanging my bike on a hook, particularly being shaken a bit by a moving train. But also never been in a situation where it's required. Is it a safe way to treat a bike? (we still have wheel bender racks in some supermarkets, etc.)
