A place to record cyclists using trains

[rower40]

Last Saturday, I took my belt-drive Trek for a jaunt:
0610 Derby to Birmingham on a Voyager. Seconds before departure, another cyclist arrives and leaps on. We chat on the arrival to New Street. I ride the short tunnel to Moor Street, and a minute or two later, the same cyclist arrives on the platform! Our ways part there, as I'm Haddenham&ThameParkway-bound, whereas he's going to Stratford.
0715 Chilterns 165 Moor Street to Haddenham&Thame Parkway. Two other cyclists also get on this train - they alight at Leamington Spa.
Cycle (icy lanes) to Oxford.
1605 First GW Turbo Oxford to Paddington; very full. (All lines north of Oxford shut for Engineering work) Passengers standing in vestibule assure me that my bike won't fall over, as they'll hold it up. Palpable relief when the train is signalled to Reading platform 5, as that means the door that my bike is blocking won't be used for the whole journey.
Sprint to St Pancras to find the Midland Main Line is in all sorts of disarray because of a derailed train at Market Harborough. Walk/Scoot bike back along Euston Road to Euston. On descending the ramp, the guard of my hoped-for Pendolino (1805 to Birmingham) asks if I have a reservation; I reply "no", and he directs me back to the travel centre to get one. A frustrating hop from one leg to the other while waiting in the travel centre queue, but I get the requisite paperwork in time to run along the platform, where the driver is holding the bike cupboard door open for me. He informs me that there's a long layover at Birmingham, so I don't need to rush to get the bike there.
Fast trip to Birmingham, then I use my carriage key to open the bike door from the inside, as the driver's still packing his bags.
1949 X-country Class 170 back to Derby. No other bikes on board.

Moral; if you use a Meridian or Pendolino with a bike, see if an engineering colleague can knock you up a BR-standard Carriage Key. Square section, hole-down-the-middle. Also a tapered square.

[Tigerbiten]

Did the FNRttC on my Trice Q yesterday.

Friday 21:26 Wellingborough - St Pancras. The BR staff at the station guessed the wrong end of the train of the bike storage so I traveled first class .....
Sat 10:00 Brighton - Victoria. Loads of room for bikes on that train.
London Underground Victoria - St Pancras. no staff questioned me about takeing the bagged Trice on it. Victoria line was shut due the enggineering works, so needed to catch to trains.
Sat 12:30 St Pancras - Wellingborough. Travelled in the carrage vestibule with the Trice so I could keep an eye on it. Plus I thought that if I'd had traveled in a regular seat the risk of me falling asleep was to great.

The only downside to doing this type of trip is the weight of the Trice, don't expect to carry it far.
Next time I'll probably get a taxi across London to travel between stations.

Luck ..........

[7_lives_left]

Tigerbitten,
How did FNRttC go? Did they stop a Gatwick airport and use the route with the stairs to get to coffee place?

[Tigerbiten]

Tigerbiten,
How did FNRttC go? Did they stop a Gatwick airport and use the route with the stairs to get to coffee place?

Great, fantastic, good fun.
It only rained for around 3 hour .......
We stopped at the Cabin Cafe for Tea and FOOD.

Luck ............

[Greg]

Feb 27th: 1725 XC Voyager from York to Oxford. Changed at Birmingham New St for another XC Voyager to Banbury, then to a bus replacement to Oxford. I'd intended to lock my bike at Banbury but the bike parking looked a bit rubbish, so thankfully the driver allowed me to put my bike in the luggage space on the bus.

Feb 28th: Oxford - Stockport. A bus replacement from Oxford - Banbury, I was again allowed to stow my bike so I didn't have to ride it to Banbury, then an XC Voyager to Stockport This was the train that arrived into Manchester Piccadilly at 15:40.

There were no other bikes stowed on any of the trains and I had no problems with any train staff. People do seem to have taken to sitting in the bike spaces, but they only ever used one side so I could always get a space without asking anyone to move.

I then took a FTP class 185 back to York but having sold my bike in Stockport, there's nothing to report.

[dave holladay]

Thanks for the numbers folks - and the notes on helpful COACH drivers (most long distance replacement services use coaches because they are more comfortable, have proper luggage space and can travel at 100Kph (62.5) instead of 90 Kph (56))

However to really make the point can you please try and indicate how full the train is. Cross Country for example would boost their flagging revenue if they made it easier to book a bike AND easier to fit a decent number of bikes on thier trains (as it used to be). Travelling back North on recent occasions I've counted between 30 and 50 passengers on the train North of Newcastle (with between 202 and 542 seats available to fill) just 3 bikes and 5-10% of the fare paying passengers will be cyclists. Some trains practically guarantee this in the summer (Ardrossan Boat train (14.15 ex GLC) regularly has 12-15 bikes and 120 or so passengers)

Rower 40 - rather than have a copy of the key and potentially bigger trouble if you upset the staff, you can use a small screwdriver wedged into the corner and pivoted around the pin, if no staff turn up but don't operate the door until the door release is active for the train as the doors are all interlocked with the braking system. Useful to have this in reserve though.

Tigerbiten - Why did you go back to Victoria - better travelling companions? How many did the ride (around 80 riders IIRC) get back on the trains (per train)? Some weekends FCC is running through Blackfriars from Brighton to St Pancras, with options to change there or Luton/Bedford. Otherwise you have a shorter ride from London Bridge across and up via Holborn Viaduct/Farringdon Road to St Pancras.

[Greg]

That's a point. Both my bus replacements were actually coaches. For both journeys there were about 2.5 coaches worth of people, so when I asked the staff at the station, they told me I would travel at the discretion of the driver but that they'd put me on the third coach so there would be plenty of room. This worked out fine on both occasions.

Banbury-Stockport the train was well over half full, I know because I couldn't find a double seat. The passengers had thinned out a bit by the time we got to Stockport. I don't have such a good memory for the trips south but the trains were both fairly busy, I think both were half full or more.

[Tigerbiten]

Tigerbiten - Why did you go back to Victoria - better travelling companions? How many did the ride (around 80 riders IIRC) get back on the trains (per train)? Some weekends FCC is running through Blackfriars from Brighton to St Pancras, with options to change there or Luton/Bedford. Otherwise you have a shorter ride from London Bridge across and up via Holborn Viaduct/Farringdon Road to St Pancras.

No cross London trains that weekend, otherwise I'd have got the direct train from Brighton to Bedford and changed there for Wellingborough.

As for the undergound.
It takes around 45 mins to pack the Trice in the bike bag and around 40 mins to reasemble it at the other end.
I didn't feel like putting it back together for a 5 mile ride, just to take it apart again in St Pancras.
Its one of the downside to having to pack/unpack the trike single handed.
Next time I'm getting a taxi .......

Luck ..........

[JKT]

I have travelled for the last 5 months (except 23rd Dec- 4th of Jan) Mon-Friday

8:00 to 9:30 Stansted Munfitched to Tottenham Hale

18:22-18:40 Tottenham Hale to Stansted Munfitched

On my Pacific Reach folding bike (not a big fold) I normally dont need to fold it.

I am surprised how good National Express East Anglia service handles bicycle, 10/10

[dave holladay]

Used the bike to great effect yesterday - Invite to attend SWT presentation and meet new MD (still not quite as relaxed in the job as his predecessor (laconic outside but focussed within) but we'll work on him).

Left house 04.12 arrived station 04.19 for 04.28 train - ran to time arriving Euston 09.04 and headed for Waterloo - slight frustration seemed to catch every key traffic light at red en route - arrived Waterloo 09.17 and caught 09.20 to Woking - leaving station 09.48 to get in to venue for 10.00 start.

Return from Guildford caught 18.34 arriving Waterloo 19.15, made 'progress' across Waterloo Bridge, rolled in to Euston 19.27 by their clocks and found Glasgow train 19.30 in time .... and then the let down the train waited for incoming crew until 20.05 and was heaving with extra passengers being specially carried to MK, Rugby and Crewe.

But most worthy of note was 18.34 Guildford-Waterloo. 2 bikes off at Guildford - at least 4 seen boarding (including one diverting via Woking because the Ascot train was cancelled. 5 bikes in one bay - unknown number in other bay to Woking - 2 bikes off 2 bikes on, but then the really curious thing - all the other cyclists got off at Clapham Junction...... Many bikes (standard and folding) were also coming out at Guildford at 18.27 (when I arrived for train) - perhaps 2-5% of the passengers coming through the subway?

2 other details from SWT of interest - 80% growth in use of Waterloo-Bristol / Exeter services since regular hourly service introduced but all trains now 3-coach class 158 with bike friendly space in 3 coach-end bays and the 09.20 was 9 coaches - 1 set to Salisbury, 1 set running on to Bristol and 1 set running to Exeter SD - bike capacity 18 bikes - and potentially more. Then they are perhaps the first TOC to offer a secure cycle parking compound - at Surbiton (more are planned)- and within a very short period there was a waiting list for places, and massive drop in cycle thefts.

[fimm]

Took one bicycle from Newcastle to Edinburgh on Sunday. No problems getting on a fairly busy Cross Country train. We (or rather my boyfriend, whose bike it was) did have issues booking it - normally we use the East Coast website which allows you to book a bike along with your tickets, but on this occasion the site kept crashing when we tried to book the bike. In the end he rang up and booked everything over the phone, but we were a little concerned that all we had was a booking number and no other evidence that we had booked a bike space. In the event there wasn't a problem.

Edited to add: dave holladay, I've sent you a PM about bikes on the Livingston North line.

[dave holladay]

Chris started this thread with the view that we should be reporting the positives and gains that can be delivered from cyclists using trains effectively (and show how the good operators are delivering a product that the users want and can use easily)

As a publicly visible forum it can be viewed by train operators and one individual has done a bit of analysis - the responses - discounting any from Chris or I, are 47% clear positive against just 18% negative or bad experiences, and the remainder being general commentary or our postings. Of the downside comments, the 2 prominent features are Virgin's compulsory policy and poor booking system, and some general inconsistencies with Scotrail.

Well done folks. Keep that feed of information flowing in the words of the song let ac-centuate the positive and e-liminate the negative.....

Dave

[pwward]

Newcastle - Darlington on the 0935 X country train. No reservation for the bike. No problems at all, 4 bike spaces available.
Hexham - Newcastle on the 1525 Scotrail train, no reservation, no probs, this train had a new bike rack with room for 8 bikes.
Now in 10 years of cycling in NE England I have often taken my bike with no reservation and only once been refused.

[dave holladay]

Pwward - Interesting that you seem to have found more spaces than the operatros officially quote - XC Voyager trains have (Coach D) 3 hooks (official) and a huge area under a big shelf (better and unofficial) the posters with wording on their bike policy have changed (thank you Richard G), and now reflect a reservations - then first come first served policy.

The Newcastle-Carlisle service is technically a Northern Rail one but operates with shared trains - so you might even find an SPT liveried Class 156 at Newcastle Central if the allocation gets jumbled up. Northern were operating an East Midlands Trains (Stagecoach) unit on Leeds-Nottingham recently - very confusing! These trains normally take 6 bikes on hooks (badly designed) but 8 or more will stack in the same space and there is space at the opposite end for more. The Scotrail units are easier to board because they've taken off the sliding door into the bike area - giving an extra 4 inches to get round the corner with.

Were the trains busy? At the Community Rail Active Travel conference in Morecambe I heard tales which ran to 13 bikes on the 70-seat single carriage Class 153 - I've seen 7 going on one at Carlisle for Whitehaven. These are about the worst train to get on with a bike as the access is narrow with a 90 degree turn. Double figures on basic 2-carriage trains are not uncommon and when there are often just 30-50 passengers on board you are a significant contribution to the revenue.

[pwward]

The Cross country train had a new looking setup, sort of open wardrobes either side of the gangway. You hang your bike on a hook. Good design, good use of space. The train was a third full between Newc and Darlington.

The Scotrail train (it had come from Scotland judging by the accents, maybe from Stranraer?) was easy to board. After stepping on the train and making the 90 degree turn you are in a wide mouthed vestibule with room for 4 cycles on each side to hang obliquely on hooks. Their were restraining straps to stop the bikes swinging out. A wonderful arrangement, excellent use of space. The train was half full.