horizon wrote:Rob Archer wrote: Rather than harking back the 'good old days'
The good old days in this case was two years ago - you could put your bike on if there was space without booking. Now you cannot do that even if there is space.
What cyclists fail to realise is that the idea that bike and train form the perfect complementary system of transport is for some people (the TOCs) difficult to grasp.
What I find difficult to grasp (for example) is that the power cars on the HSTs cannot be used for bikes having been told for a period of a few months some years ago that they must be used. The staff I speak to are similarly baffled.
There have been huge changes on the railways in the last 10 - 20 years (passenger numbers have doubled for a start). In many ways things are looking up. My suspicion is that the TOCs would prefer to see bike spaces disappear altogether - it's hard not to feel aggrieved about that in the light of what is obvious to everyone else - that cycling has a part to play in an integrated transport system.
In the GODs, guards' vans meant there was space for tons of bikes.....
They want people to travel by rail to airports. Now suppose you are ski-ing. You can't get skis on modern trains, the luggage rules say (IIRC) nothing with any one dimension much over 1m. That also means I can't take largeish paintings on when delivering work, as I used to do. So I have to drive - into London, for example to deliver. It's mad.