Train reservations

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
PH
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Re: Train reservations

Post by PH »

john4703 wrote:Most of my travel is in Scotrail who allow bikes on all trains without reservations

That isn't correct, some of the Scotrail routes require booking, for example all trains to Oban, Mallaig and Wick/Thurso which are probably the three most popular cycle tourist trains.
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john4703
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Re: Train reservations

Post by john4703 »

PH wrote:
john4703 wrote:Most of my travel is in Scotrail who allow bikes on all trains without reservations

That isn't correct, some of the Scotrail routes require booking, for example all trains to Oban, Mallaig and Wick/Thurso which are probably the three most popular cycle tourist trains.

You are right, I was just thinking of local trains in Strathclyde where I simply stand with my bike for the journey.
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mjr
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Re: Train reservations

Post by mjr »

mjr wrote:Can book bikes: as far as I can tell, only the one now used by GWR and four others. See http://www.atob.org.uk/bike-rail/uk-bik ... vel-guide/ for a current list of which - do not use the "accessible" version link on GWR, else you end up back in Mixing Deck that can't book bikes.

Over on Cycle Ipswich's facebook, I've been told that this system is "webtis" and one of its authors was a cyclist so they made sure it could always book bikes where possible.

Another reason why we need to get as many people as possible cycling, I guess. You never know when cycling will need a friend in a key position.
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londoncommuter0000
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Re: Train reservations

Post by londoncommuter0000 »

geomannie wrote:https://www.scotrail.co.uk/ also allows bike booking and can be used for tickets anywhere in the uk


Ah, yeah. Scotrail.

One day, a friend and I are getting on at a Scotrail station with our bikes.

'You're in the wrong carriage,' said the guard.

'No worries,' we reply. 'Where can we put the bikes?'

'Up the end,' said the guard.

We get off the train, and start to push the bikes to the end of the carriage.

As we're doing so, the train doors close and the train pulls out. Guard smirking at us from one of the doors.
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Oldjohnw
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Re: Train reservations

Post by Oldjohnw »

As we're doing so, the train doors close and the train pulls out. Guard smirking at us from one of the doors.


I know the feeling. Last summer I was struggling on to a train in Edinburgh - narrow door, no proper bike place. The young guard watched this 69 year old with ebike and camping gear. He said, without any offer to help, "you have two minutes."
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londoncommuter0000
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Re: Train reservations

Post by londoncommuter0000 »

Oldjohnw wrote:
As we're doing so, the train doors close and the train pulls out. Guard smirking at us from one of the doors.


I know the feeling. Last summer I was struggling on to a train in Edinburgh - narrow door, no proper bike place. The young guard watched this 69 year old with ebike and camping gear. He said, without any offer to help, "you have two minutes."


I'm willing to bet a sum of money .. OK .... a fiver .. that if you'd gone up to the guard's compartment and checked in his bag, there would have been a copy of The Daily Mail.
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mjr
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Re: Train reservations

Post by mjr »

londoncommuter0000 wrote:As we're doing so, the train doors close and the train pulls out. Guard smirking at us from one of the doors.

I hope you complained about that formally! If it was recent, Scotrail is operated by Dutch Railways at the moment, so I hope they take a dim view of it. Later this year, it should be pretty obvious where to put the bikes, with the introduction of what's effectively a new Motor Luggage Van...
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rogerzilla
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Re: Train reservations

Post by rogerzilla »

Waste of time on GWR Class 800 trains. The "reserved" electronic signs are often switched off, and the bike space you reserved will be full of luggage, prams and surfboards anyway. They seem to be on a mission to make people buy estate cars.
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SimonCelsa
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Re: Train reservations

Post by SimonCelsa »

Anyone got any info regarding South East trains & bike carriage??

Looking to disembark the Newhaven ferry on an August mid afternoon (15.30 ish) & get upto London to catch the Caledonian Sleeper (21:00 ish)

Not enough time to cycle it so will have to use the train. I believe it goes via Brighton or Lewes with a couple of changes......is it a lot of hassle? Will have minimal luggage, a couple of small panniers, but the bike is not foldable.

Cheers
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RickH
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Re: Train reservations

Post by RickH »

SimonCelsa wrote:Anyone got any info regarding South East trains & bike carriage??

Looking to disembark the Newhaven ferry on an August mid afternoon (15.30 ish) & get upto London to catch the Caledonian Sleeper (21:00 ish)

Not enough time to cycle it so will have to use the train. I believe it goes via Brighton or Lewes with a couple of changes......is it a lot of hassle? Will have minimal luggage, a couple of small panniers, but the bike is not foldable.

Cheers

I didn't have any trouble getting the train from Brighton to London Victoria with a bike & trailer when I did it (but that is only a sample of 1 & was a few years ago).

My National Rail app suggests trains are half hourly & the journey is about 1.5 hours with a change (4 minutes & different platform) at Lewes. It's only 10 minutes that leg so, if it was me, I might be inclined to ride to Lewes (about 8 miles by road from Newhaven) or possibly Brighton (11 miles but the end of the line so you're not competing with bikes already aboard).

Those are my thoughts anyway.
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st599_uk
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Re: Train reservations

Post by st599_uk »

SimonCelsa wrote:Anyone got any info regarding South East trains & bike carriage??

Looking to disembark the Newhaven ferry on an August mid afternoon (15.30 ish) & get upto London to catch the Caledonian Sleeper (21:00 ish)

Not enough time to cycle it so will have to use the train. I believe it goes via Brighton or Lewes with a couple of changes......is it a lot of hassle? Will have minimal luggage, a couple of small panniers, but the bike is not foldable.

Cheers
Should be OK on a Sunday provided it's not a rail replacement bus day.
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MikeF
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Re: Train reservations

Post by MikeF »

SimonCelsa wrote:Anyone got any info regarding South East trains & bike carriage??

Looking to disembark the Newhaven ferry on an August mid afternoon (15.30 ish) & get upto London to catch the Caledonian Sleeper (21:00 ish)

Not enough time to cycle it so will have to use the train. I believe it goes via Brighton or Lewes with a couple of changes......is it a lot of hassle? Will have minimal luggage, a couple of small panniers, but the bike is not foldable.

Cheers
These are Southern trains not South Eastern and maybe Thameslink depending on which station you want in London. You don't say what day of the week you are travelling, but assuming it's a weekday it looks as though you will have problems with Thameslink at that time of the day.

Southern use Electrostar units from Lewes and have space for 2 cycles per unit in the disabled access part. The units are 3, 4 and 5 car units so depending on the configuration of the train there will be a minimum of 2 spaces, but disabled people have priority. However depending how busy the train is staff are usually relaxed about standing with cycles. I've never had a problem or seen other people have problems but that's not a guarantee there won't be.

However Thameslink don't allow cycles on trains leaving Brighton in the afternoon, but I don't know how they prevent people changing onto them at, say Haywards Heath.

If you look on the National Rail website and click on details of the journey you can check about cycles on a particular train service.

I note Southern allow cycles on trains in the afternoon on weekdays from Lewes to Victoria, but Thameslink do not permit cycles to St Pancras.
Essentially travel by Southern to London is OK, but not Thameslink. Weekends will be different but then there is often rail works.
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SimonCelsa
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Re: Train reservations

Post by SimonCelsa »

Thanks for the info, looks like it could entail some hassle so I'll probably get the ferry which arrives the next day 0400 and cycle it, should be a reasonable route from Newhaven to Euston if not in too much of a hurry, cheers.
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mjr
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Re: Train reservations

Post by mjr »

One of the lower hassle routes I think.

No restriction on afternoon trains from Brighton or to St Pancras mentioned on https://www.thameslinkrailway.com/trave ... ing-a-bike - is it still restricted? Thameslink's new Desiro trains have more bike spaces than before and Southern's Electrostars are pretty good with just enough space to put them across unused doors. Worst case with Thameslink, I think you'd be allowed to London Bridge or Blackfriars and be able to cycle across to Euston.
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The utility cyclist
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Re: Train reservations

Post by The utility cyclist »

Just done the bi monthly ritual of booking tickets on the East coast to visit fam, typical palaver.

At the station the bloke with his new ipad style screen and 'dabber' can't manage to sort out the reservation, best part of 10 minutes he's trying, as a low volume station just before lunch it was quiet but a queue is forming because there's only one window and people don't like using the ticket machines :roll: He asks for help and his colleague does it in less than a minute.
Why oh why oh why can they simply not just put the cycle booking back on to the website for goodness sakes, the price of the journey went up by 50% from December so it's now at the same cost as the fuel and the bridge toll but with far less hassle all round. Next time I'm going to use my sons car and drive with the bike in the boot, I'm done with the trains at the moment :x
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