Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

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Mick F
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by Mick F »

Cyril Haearn wrote:Maybe Brunel had it right .....
Yes, agree.

If we'd adopted the broad gauge for main lines and standard gauge for branch lines and minor routes, we would be far better off.
It would be possible to run SG and BG on the same routes as all you'd need would be a third rail.
All water under the bridge now .......... sadly.

If you follow Drake's Trail cycle route/pedestrian way Plymouth/Tavistock you'll see that the underbridges and tunnels are BG designed.
Further west, if you look at the viaducts, you'll see the BG piers alongside the newer SG viaducts.
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Two gauges? Better maybe broad (7') + narrow (2') only
Maybe standard gauge only is best in the end, many light railways were standard gauge, just built cheaper for lower speeds and loads

I still think Lartigue was a genius, mind :wink:
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by Littgull »

Scotrail announce cycle coaches on west coast lines
https://www.scotsman.com/news/trans...i ... -1-4755533

Now all we need is the remaining UK train operators to be COMPELLED to follow.

Come on Cycling UK, get your act together and put some pressure on the powers that be. Your approach is far to benign and lightweight!
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by horizon »

Littgull wrote:Scotrail announce cycle coaches on west coast lines
https://www.scotsman.com/news/trans...i ... -1-4755533



That's the good news (and it's really amazing!).

Now the bad news:
GWR train manager said: there will only be two bike spaces on the whole 10 coach train to Cornwall.


I think that the TOCs are tying themselves in knots - they can see which way it is going but cannot get their heads round it.
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

horizon wrote:
Littgull wrote:Scotrail announce cycle coaches on west coast lines
https://www.scotsman.com/news/trans...i ... -1-4755533



That's the good news (and it's really amazing!).

Now the bad news:
GWR train manager said: there will only be two bike spaces on the whole 10 coach train to Cornwall.


I think that the TOCs are tying themselves in knots - they can see which way it is going but cannot get their heads round it.

One at the front one at the back? Reminds me of the very fat man who was told he had to book two seats on cheapair
He was allocated one at the front one at the back :?

Often "good news" is cancelled later, they dont bother telling anyone
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by Littgull »

Cyril Haearn wrote:
horizon wrote:
Littgull wrote:Scotrail announce cycle coaches on west coast lines
https://www.scotsman.com/news/trans...i ... -1-4755533



That's the good news (and it's really amazing!).

Now the bad news:
GWR train manager said: there will only be two bike spaces on the whole 10 coach train to Cornwall.


I think that the TOCs are tying themselves in knots - they can see which way it is going but cannot get their heads round it.

One at the front one at the back? Reminds me of the very fat man who was told he had to book two seats on cheapair
He was allocated one at the front one at the back :?

Often "good news" is cancelled later, they dont bother telling anyone



Sadly, thats very true.

The disgraceful reality of all this train company discrimination against cyclists is that the UK government had it within their powers to spec out these train operator contracts to ensure that those companies bidding for franchises must provide sufficient space on all trains to accommodate at least 4+cycles. This totally incompetent Tory government claims to be in favour of getting people to exercise more and thereby reducing the pressure on the NHS and yet allows the privatised rail operators to make it as difficult as possible to reliably take a bike on a train!

We have the ridiculous scenario of, for example, The German state owned rail company owning large tranches of UK train operator franchisees i.e. Arriva, Northern and Cross Country. They operate unfriendly cycle policies, cream off large profits from overcharged exploited UK passengers and reinvest this in their own state of the art highly cycle friendly train service in Germany!!! What mugs we all are to allow this to happen. (N.b. nothing anti German in my view by the way. I actually really admire how committed and efficient they are in running their public services).
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

The DB Deutsche Bahn is still sort of nationalised and has a near-monopoly situation so it can bully other train operators :?

The Metropolises have good services but many rural lines only run every two hours

Speedygonzales trains take priority, travelling from Luebeck to Berlin for example there used to be a direct connection (one change) by stopping train
Now one has to wait 40 minutes at Bad Kleinen :wink:
Just to clear the tracks for expresses to make long journeys more attractive so people go by train instead of car :?
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by RickH »

Littgull wrote:We have the ridiculous scenario of, for example, The German state owned rail company owning large tranches of UK train operator franchisees i.e. Arriva, Northern and Cross Country. They operate unfriendly cycle policies, cream off large profits from overcharged exploited UK passengers and reinvest this in their own state of the art highly cycle friendly train service in Germany!!! What mugs we all are to allow this to happen. (N.b. nothing anti German in my view by the way. I actually really admire how committed and efficient they are in running their public services).

To be fair I've used Northern & Arriva Wales frequently in the last few years (as well as Virgin & occasionally Merseyrail) almost always with a bike &, until last year the bike was usually a tandem. I've almost never had a problem getting the bike on board even on peak trains, although I have had to stand with the bike for short journeys in a non-designated space a few times. On a busy train there can be 5 or 6 bikes & none of the staff bat an eyelid.

I can't comment on Cross Country as I've hardly ever used their trains & probably not at all in the last 5 years, maybe longer.
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by Littgull »

RickH wrote:
Littgull wrote:We have the ridiculous scenario of, for example, The German state owned rail company owning large tranches of UK train operator franchisees i.e. Arriva, Northern and Cross Country. They operate unfriendly cycle policies, cream off large profits from overcharged exploited UK passengers and reinvest this in their own state of the art highly cycle friendly train service in Germany!!! What mugs we all are to allow this to happen. (N.b. nothing anti German in my view by the way. I actually really admire how committed and efficient they are in running their public services).

To be fair I've used Northern & Arriva Wales frequently in the last few years (as well as Virgin & occasionally Merseyrail) almost always with a bike &, until last year the bike was usually a tandem. I've almost never had a problem getting the bike on board even on peak trains, although I have had to stand with the bike for short journeys in a non-designated space a few times. On a busy train there can be 5 or 6 bikes & none of the staff bat an eyelid.

I can't comment on Cross Country as I've hardly ever used their trains & probably not at all in the last 5 years, maybe longer.


Oh, I've never had a problem with the train operator staff. They all deserve a medal for stoically doing their jobs so well when working for such an arrogant and inconsiderate company. It's true that cycle reservations are not required on Northern Rail trains (yet!!). But on the line I need to use regularly (Manchester to Leeds via Rochdale) their trains are horrendously overcrowded. Getting bikes on and off is often problematic/stressful due to sheer volumes of passengers and damage to bikes from luggage/people leaning up against them is a constant worry.
As for Arriva Trains Wales, reservations for bikes are required. Last August, I took my bike on a family holiday to Snowdonia.The successive Saturdays for the outward and return trips between Manchester Piccadilly and Llandudno were absolutely horrific! Only 2 carriages (despite the first Saturday clashing with Chester Races and hordes of racegoers), massively overcrowded to a very dangerous level. People and luggage piled up and strewn all over the floor and against my bike. The poor train guard having to literally hopscotch over bodies and luggage.
On return from holiday I completed Arriva's online complaint form. I received a 'cut and paste' impersonal template style reply last week - 9 months later!!!!! It told me nothing and included a £10 rail travel voucher. I wasn't after compensation (albeit derisory). I just wanted some reassurance that they had improved things. Obviously, they haven't!
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

I believe there are rules how many people maximum may get on train, seats + standing
Not sure how they might be enforced

At Colin Bay station a sign asks drivers:
"Are you stopping at Abergele?"
Anyone know why? :?
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by MikeF »

horizon wrote: I reckon that 2 spaces per carriage will cover 99% of needs outside rush hours. That makes campaigning somewhat dubious as things are almost OK, most of the time.

But trains in the South East do not have 2 spaces per carriage. Where there are spaces, it's 2 spaces per unit. For example if a train is 4X3 electrostar units (12 coaches) there will be 8 spaces, but if the train is 3x4units (12 coaches) there will be only six, and if the train 2X5 units (10 coaches) there will be only four (without straps which I've pointed out to Southern), yet six places with 9 coaches of 3X3.

There are, of course, other units which have different or less (zero) bike carrying space.

This maybe "OK", but it's not good enough, especially when a "cycle policy" :evil: is added.
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by bigjim »

Cyril Haearn wrote:The DB Deutsche Bahn is still sort of nationalised and has a near-monopoly situation so it can bully other train operators :?

The Metropolises have good services but many rural lines only run every two hours

Speedygonzales trains take priority, travelling from Luebeck to Berlin for example there used to be a direct connection (one change) by stopping train
Now one has to wait 40 minutes at Bad Kleinen :wink:
Just to clear the tracks for expresses to make long journeys more attractive so people go by train instead of car :?

I've always been charged for my bike on German trains. I think it was €10 last time.
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by Vorpal »

bigjim wrote:I've always been charged for my bike on German trains. I think it was €10 last time.

It's normal to charge for bikes in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, as well. In Sweden and Norway, you cannot buy a bike ticket from the ticket machines, and I have found that if I buy one for myself, and take the bike on the train, they don't always charge me, because they can't be bothered to sort out the payment, print the bike ticket, etc., when I have already paid for one for myself. I always buy one for myself at the ticket machine because they charge 10% extra if you buy it on the train. They can't charge a premium rate for bikes because we can't buy the tickets from the machines. I would guess that I have to buy a ticket for my bike roughly 2/3rds of the time.
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by RickH »

Littgull wrote:As for Arriva Trains Wales, reservations for bikes are required. Last August, I took my bike on a family holiday to Snowdonia.The successive Saturdays for the outward and return trips between Manchester Piccadilly and Llandudno were absolutely horrific! Only 2 carriages (despite the first Saturday clashing with Chester Races and hordes of racegoers), massively overcrowded to a very dangerous level. People and luggage piled up and strewn all over the floor and against my bike. The poor train guard having to literally hopscotch over bodies and luggage.
On return from holiday I completed Arriva's online complaint form. I received a 'cut and paste' impersonal template style reply last week - 9 months later!!!!! It told me nothing and included a £10 rail travel voucher. I wasn't after compensation (albeit derisory). I just wanted some reassurance that they had improved things. Obviously, they haven't!

Sorry you had a bad experience on Arriva's service.

I've never deliberately booked my bike, or tandem, on the North Wales Service*. I usually do the run from either Warrington (using WCML to/from Wigan) or, more recently, from Newton-le-Willows to Chester, getting to Chester on a weekday for 9am, &, as I said, never had a problem. (going from Wigan is a shorter ride - 7.5 miles - & slightly quicker if the connection happens OK. N-l-W is a 15 mile ride but only 1 train all the way through - & seems less affected by weather & incidents). I've done N-l-W to Rhyl & back with bike & trailer too again with no problems. Maybe I just enjoy pushing the envelope. Now & again I've done Wigan to Chester, or vice versa, via Liverpool Lime St - again no problems (using Merseyrail & Northern). Even the tandem on the escalator at Lime Street I found to be easier than I anticipated (the tandem won't go in the lift either on its wheels or stood on the back wheel)! Apart from the last few weeks, I've probably been doing the trip to Chester & back by train & bike on average once a week for nearly 4 years now - some weeks I'll not do it at all but made up for the weeks when it has been 2 or sometimes 3 times in a week. I have, however, pretty much managed to avoid Chester Races as they aren't that frequent

(*I once accidentally got a reservation - I didn't know I could at the time - when I got one for a connecting Virgin train at Warrington & the guy behind the counter did me one for the Chester to Warrington section too. Mostly they just give me a reservation for the Virgin service.)
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Re: Why isn't there a cycles on trains campaigns from Cycling UK?

Post by Mick F »

horizon wrote:Now the bad news:
GWR train manager said: there will only be two bike spaces on the whole 10 coach train to Cornwall.
............. and I have one of them booked for Monday 25th leaving Taunton at 19:51 for Plymouth on the Paddington/Penzance train.

http://www.brtimes.com/#!train?uid=C401 ... 3d20180625
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