Stena Line/Greater Anglia & Holland & Trains Etc

[Squeezebox]

Further to the other thread on Greater (????) Anglia, I contacted Stena Line to see how the proposed Greater Anglia bike ban would affect people going via train from London to Harwich and thus on to and across Holland with their own bikes.

I have just recieved this back from Stena Line:

"Greater Anglia are not banning cycles on all of their trains, just proposing to stop them being taken on trains arriving and departing London Liverpool Street at certain times of the day. This affects some of the trains that connect with our services and coupled with Netherlands Railways imposing a significant charge to cycles being taken on their trains we have decided to withdraw cycles from our rail and sail product.

We are still in discussion with our rail partners to try and find a solution but until this is in place cycles will be withdrawn form the product form 1st November 2013".

So I am glad I managed to get to Holland this year on my bike, looks like it realy was the trip of a lifetime!!

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=80372#p710489

[Redvee]

How far away from Liverpool St is the previous stop you could alight from? One way round the problem.

[mike_dowler]

That wouldn't help Redvee - the restrictions apply to the service as a whole

[mjr]

"Greater Anglia are not banning cycles on all of their trains, just proposing to stop them being taken on trains arriving and departing London Liverpool Street at certain times of the day...".

That's not what the consultation document says, as far as I can see. Appendix B doesn't mention any restrictions on Harwich services at all, only services to/from London Liverpool Street to/from Southend Victoria, Colchester and Ipswich... although it is covered by the longer-term anti-cycling objectives.

[Rob Archer]

This seems a trifle premature on Stena's part. GA have no immediate plans to change anything - if they do make changes to cycle carriage it will be at least a year away. I've also had a look at the Dutch Railways website and can't find anything about an increase in cycle carriage charges. Most people who use rail/sail with bikes ride once they get to Holland anyway!

http://www.ns.nl/en/travellers/arrange- ... cards.html

I presume they're not planning to ban bikes on the ferry?

[Ron]

So I am glad I managed to get to Holland this year on my bike, looks like it realy was the trip of a lifetime!!

I think you are taking an unduly pessimisitc view there!
From my understanding of the letter,Stena say they are stopping sale of tickets which include a rail journey at each or either end of the ferry trip., eg rail London-Harwich, ferry Harwich to the Hook and rail Hook to say Rotterdam. There is no mention of banning bikes from the ferry.
The train co. has not said they would ban bikes from all services, only from trains at busy times.

[Squeezebox]

So I am glad I managed to get to Holland this year on my bike, looks like it realy was the trip of a lifetime!!

I think you are taking an unduly pessimisitc view there!
From my understanding of the letter,Stena say they are stopping sale of tickets which include a rail journey at each or either end of the ferry trip., eg rail London-Harwich, ferry Harwich to the Hook and rail Hook to say Rotterdam. There is no mention of banning bikes from the ferry.
The train co. has not said they would ban bikes from all services, only from trains at busy times.

Oh, that's OK then. I am glad it's not going to be a problem. Thanks Ron you have put my mind at ease!

PS - I was exagerating the point in a "jokey way" of course...I assume you didn't think I was serious ....as I can easily just inflate the tyres a bit more and pedal across the sea !

[JJF]

squeezebox gives us this quote from Stena:
"... we have decided to withdraw cycles from our rail and sail product. "
I have travelled Rail and Sail a number of times and was unaware that the ticket could include cycles. My recollection is that I arrived at the port with a R&S passenger ticket for the ferry and paid for my bike on the ferry at the vehicle check-in. I was issued with the bike ticket without hesitation.
On the ferry I went to enquiries or customer service and bought a bike day ticket for Dutch railways....for use on disembarking at Hook-of-H the following morning.
The Dutch bike ticket wasn't valid until 09.30, about an hour after the ferry landed. So I cycled along the cycle way towards Rotterdam for a time and joined the train at an intermediate station.

[Slowroad]

This is the reply I received (on 31 Oct - I didn't notice it for over a week) to my contact form asking about Rail and Sail and bikes:

"Dear *******,

Thanks for your email regarding the use of cycles with Rail and Sail tickets.

I am sorry to confirm that these are at present not available to customers who intend to cycle. This is because we have enforcing our band on cycles during peak times on our trains and therefore this restricts the amount of services that can make a connection with a ferry. With this in mind, as well as a increase in charge from a train company in the Netherlands for customers wanting to take cycles on board, Stena have decided to withdraw this offer. Please note that we have not banned cycles and it is only during our peak times when customers cannot carry them, this was a decision made by Stena.

I hope this information helps and I am very sorry for any disappointment caused.

Yours sincerely,

Steven Farrell
Customer Relations Advisor
Greater Anglia"

Nice letter, but it doesn't really answer many questions - we could still get to Harwich without going on peak time trains - there was a peak time ban anyway - unless they extended it ridiculously. So that's what I've asked them next.
If you book in advance a train ticket from London-Harwich is about £35 and Stena's service is good value compared with P&O's Hull-Rotterdam (I've just looked up the price for a return next May - £212 return including cabin) - and Hull is a pain to get to even from nearby cities! So it looks as if we'll just have to lump it and pay up... it's a worse situation of course if you were going to use the free train ticket in the Netherlands, of course.
Overall, with the change in attitude of Eurostar, it seems that touring cyclists have got to a number where we are being noticed, but the response isn't exactly what we'd hope for!

[Squeezebox]

Slowroad....or should that be *******

I am glad you did this too, I guess I am just amazed we actually had replies. I forwarded mine to CTC campaigns too and they were going to take it up...or at least that is what they said.

I do hope you are not sneaking off back to Holland before me though

[Malaconotus]

Stena's service is good value compared with P&O's Hull-Rotterdam (I've just looked up the price for a return next May - £212 return including cabin) - and Hull is a pain to get to even from nearby cities!

Is that per person? We paid that for two people return including cabin, evening meal and breakfast both ways, which I didn't think was bad value at all. After all, two night's half board not on a ferry would cost the better part of that. Advance rail tickets to Hull from Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, York etc are direct and cheap; we paid about £20 each return from Leeds. From Hull station it's a four mile pootle along the Humber from the station to the ferry, avoiding the horrible A63.

The problem we encountered, which we'll know about for next time, is that the ticket machines at Dutch stations, most of which are unstaffed, take only coins and not notes or credit cards. We didn't have any change at all, certainly not enough for the dagkartfiets which was about 7 euro a day for a bike in addition to any number of journeys, so we had to ride the two hours to Rotterdam Centraal station. It was only about three days into the holiday we secured rolls of euro coins which gave us flexibility to hop on a train as needed.

[Slowroad]

Slowroad wrote:
Stena's service is good value compared with P&O's Hull-Rotterdam (I've just looked up the price for a return next May - £212 return including cabin) - and Hull is a pain to get to even from nearby cities!


Is that per person? We paid that for two people return including cabin, evening meal and breakfast both ways, which I didn't think was bad value at all.

It was for one person for random dates next May. Your prices were excellent, maybe there are deals which I didn't see. It is about £20 return from Nottingham to Hull if you get an early advance ticket, which is fine, but you have to change twice on many journeys. I've done it with a bike a couple of times and it was a bit of a hassle, but it's still a lot quicker and cheaper than going to London and out again, so I'll obviously have to keep Hull-Rotterdam as an option!