Increasing restrictions on conveying cycles on trains

[tyreon]

I'm thinking taking bikes on trains is like more torturous that a stay in Gitmo. Problems,problems. Or no?

Thinking about holidaying in the Hebrides. To get a 'reasonable' return price on the train(s),I book the price online,right? But then can this be done easily when you want the separate(?)companies trains to take the two bikes? Without applying to Oxford for mathematics/computer studies,can booking this transport be readily(easily)done?

[Winders]

www.eastcoast.co.uk. Just add the number of bikes you want when you reach the seat reservation page. Works for any train operator.


I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly bog brush using hovercraft full of eels

[andymiller]

East Coast is mow Virgin. I don't know if they use the same ticketing system. I f not, there are other companies that use it: eg GWR and Chiltern.

Posted from my iPod defiantly WITHOUT Tapatalk.

[Wilder]

One thing is that design of trains has moved along from the introduction of the 125s. Both the 125s and the Class 91s/225s on the East Coast mainline are locomotive style trains with a dummy car at the other the other end of the train. On these design of trains passengers are not allowed to travel in the locomotive so effectively there is space for bikes at no cost to passenger space.

The new trains replacing the 125s and 225s have distributed traction with no locomotive. You can see in the pictures that seating goes much closer to the drivers compartment so good bye to the space that was used for bikes.

I consider it lucky that for all the trains I've taken on my bike on in the UK I've not been charged for taking my bike. The alternative could be that to get your bike on your charged the equivalent in the number of spaces taken up. If that was the case and I'd paid I'd expect to always get my bike on.

[bogmyrtle]

I'm thinking taking bikes on trains is like more torturous that a stay in Gitmo. Problems,problems. Or no?

Thinking about holidaying in the Hebrides. To get a 'reasonable' return price on the train(s),I book the price online,right? But then can this be done easily when you want the separate(?)companies trains to take the two bikes? Without applying to Oxford for mathematics/computer studies,can booking this transport be readily(easily)done?

If you are getting the night train from London That should have space for at least six bikes.

[jgurney]

I believe it'll be 10 hanging spaces on the 9-car trains, 4 hanging spaces on the 5-car trains, and they look like this: http://hitachirail-eu.mynewsdesk.com/im ... ace-323845

Oh no! I'd feared something like that appearing. Those hangers are hideous to use for the touring cyclist who has to unload panniers and other luggage, either on the platform and then carry each bag on plus load the bike, or in a confined space on board with the train swaying about, and then the reverse to get off again. They are presumably designed by someone who looked at their teenager's stripped-down mountain bike and thought all bicycles looked like that. Did it really not occur to them that cyclists taking their machines on long-distance services will generally have luggage with them, and that the luggage will come attached to the vehicle?

[Winders]

East Coast is mow Virgin. I don't know if they use the same ticketing system. I f not, there are other companies that use it: eg GWR and Chiltern.

It's the same ticketing system on the reprivatised version, I just can't remember its new URL and the old one still redirects. The east coast route is still a mix of HSTs and 91s - the former have hangers for vertical bikes only but the latter have huge great luggage vans that fit about six bikes with panniers etc with Sheffield style hoops to strap on to. Trailers are accepted too in our experience. Only HSTs go beyond Edinburgh so watch out on the through services to Aberdeen or Inverness.

[andymiller]

Did it really not occur to them that cyclists taking their machines on long-distance services will generally have luggage with them, and that the luggage will come attached to the vehicle?

It's really not that difficult to take your panniers off. I wouldn't even think of loading my bike onto the existing 125s with panniers on.

[ribblerouser]

Bring back the guards van. Ideal for cyclists and racing pigeons.


[emoji86][emoji85][emoji87]

[Sweep]

Generally thetrainline is more expensive - they charge a booking fee (£1 debit card, £4.50 credit card), whereas train companies themselves don't.

Have never understood why folk use trainline. Why would you. After all, for most journeys you are planning inter city there is only one train company you can use. So trainline is hardly sifting mega alternatives for you.

[Cunobelin]

It is a much wider problem than just bikes

The seating on the average train is now some 2" (5cms) narrower than the average UK posterior

Then there is the thought of taking luggage..........

There is on most trains, little or no luggage capacity whatsoever. If you have a briefcase then it can go overhead, but that is it. Try taking an actual suitcase on a train, and there is often nowhere for it to go, and if two passengers get onto a train with luggage, then there is a major obstruction s they have to sit in the corridor

THen there is disabled access. Last time we travelled by train there was a wonderful space for a wheelchair which we reserved.... and then had great difficulty accessing through a narrow corridor with a 90 degree corner tah was almost impossible for the wheelchair

It is about time that some action was taken about the way that the ATOCs are allowed to make life more and more inconvenient, uncomfortable and difficult for rail users

[ribblerouser]

The system for bikes and wheelchairs has only got worse over the years, my previous post re guards vans was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but to be fair in my dim dark past, I regularly took my touring bike on the train, and wheelchair users usually ended up in the guards van as well, so I'd pull up a mail-sack to sit on so we could chat, a bit third world I suppose but really has anything improved ?

[andymiller]

The system for bikes and wheelchairs has only got worse over the years, my previous post re guards vans was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but to be fair in my dim dark past, I regularly took my touring bike on the train, and wheelchair users usually ended up in the guards van as well, so I'd pull up a mail-sack to sit on so we could chat, a bit third world I suppose but really has anything improved ?

Yes clearly provision for people with reduced mobility has improved, although from what Cunobelin is saying maybe train designers should be forced to get in a wheelchair and negotiate a mock-up of their designs before they go into production.

[John Holiday]

Was reading a copy of 1923 CTC Gazette recently & letters page made interesting reading.
Problems of getting bikes on trains, dangerous driving & potholes in roads!
We have obviously not learned anything in nearly a hundred years!

[Abradable Chin]

I believe it'll be 10 hanging spaces on the 9-car trains, 4 hanging spaces on the 5-car trains, and they look like this: http://hitachirail-eu.mynewsdesk.com/im ... ace-323845

Is this for real, or a mock up? This bike storage in these new class 800 carriages appears wasteful of space. It will stoke resentment from non-cycling passengers when they see the space being stolen by cyclists. Where's the innovation?