hints fitting two thorn ravens on a lner bike cabin

[gbnz]

so there is no advance warning of cancellations. You just get a nasty surprise when you turn up at the station.

I've been affected many times. My advice is not to try and travel on LNER at weekends.

To be fair, York - Berwick ( & beyond ?), it's all due to substantial track/cabling, maintenance works. Presume it's due to the end of the financial year, coming shortly

But a particular nuisance the next few days, had an intention of having a few days on the road - it's bizarre, every bit I would use a train on, to simply skip a hundred miles down/across the country, has trains cancelled and with the wind predicted to blow from the SSE, then SE, then SW, then N, then NE, literally means I'd be heading into a head wind every day.

Though it'd be a bit psychotic, to presume the railway operators are arranging cancellations, with the wind, to discourage cyclists

[Cyclewala]

If you’re lucky, you’ll get a diesel train and stick your bike in the guards van.

If you get an electric train like mentioned above, you can ask train staff to open the second (folding) door to the bicycle room. The second door, will create a bit more room and allow the second bike to be wheeled in and hung up (although this is still a challenge).

It helps if you unload the bikes of luggage whilst on the platform and roll them in, back wheel one way, front wheel the other.

[PH]

Apparently (according to someone in the ticket office) drivers and/or crew have been refusing to work overtime shifts at weekends for several years now but this doesn't count as strike action (for some bizarre reason)

The reason isn't bizarre, it's because they're not contracted to do it, that's why it's called overtime, there is no compulsion, they're not refusing it, they're declining to accept. Working to your contract can be a form of industrial protest, but it isn't a strike.

[toontra]

Apparently (according to someone in the ticket office) drivers and/or crew have been refusing to work overtime shifts at weekends for several years now but this doesn't count as strike action (for some bizarre reason)

The reason isn't bizarre, it's because they're not contracted to do it, that's why it's called overtime, there is no compulsion, they're not refusing it, they're declining to accept. Working to your contract can be a form of industrial protest, but it isn't a strike.

Understood. The result is actually more annoying than strikes though. At least with industrial action you have advance notice and can plan accordingly. Turning up at Kings Cross with a bike plus baggage and finding that the journey you meticulously planned and booked tickets months in advance for is cancelled, and then trying somehow to get the bike on the next train (with all the bike spaces probably pre-booked) and having to make changes, even though your booked trip was a through service, is a nightmare.

This happens regularly and LNER must know it's a realistic possibility every weekend - it's been going on for years. And this is on top of the official strikes that paralysed the service for previous years. It's a chaotic service.

[jgurney]

If you’re lucky, you’ll get a diesel train and stick your bike in the guards van.

If you get an electric train like mentioned above ......

Sadly not any more. LNER no longer have any HST's. Their off-OHL (non-electrified line) services now use bi-mode trains that are internally almost identical to the purely electric ones, with just the same inadequate cycle storage.

Some LNER services between London and Leeds, and a very few between London and York, still use the older 225 trains with much better cycle storage. This enthusiast website identifies them: https://225group.org.uk/operations and click on 'View the diagrams".
but substitution by Azumas is always possible.

[AlanInBangor]

Those bike cabins are unfit for purpose. I realise this might not be exactly what you're looking for, but I'd hang one bike and keep the second upright protruding slightly from the cabin, just like the photo here: https://road.cc/content/news/268059-lne ... new-trains

Interesting link. “We have also been working with Hitachi Rail and the [UK] Department for Transport to identify where modifications can be made to cycle storage.” but clearly not working hard enough as this was over five years ago.

In the meantime, these cupboards have been spreading like a nasty virus, we now have them on the Euston to Chester and Holyhead route. We stored our bikes as in the photo, the train manager chuntered about "trip hazard" but scuttled off when I pointed out the inadequacy of the space.

[Cyclewala]

If you’re lucky, you’ll get a diesel train and stick your bike in the guards van.

If you get an electric train like mentioned above ......

Sadly not any more. LNER no longer have any HST's. Their off-OHL (non-electrified line) services now use bi-mode trains that are internally almost identical to the purely electric ones, with just the same inadequate cycle storage.

Some LNER services between London and Leeds, and a very few between London and York, still use the older 225 trains with much better cycle storage. This enthusiast website identifies them: https://225group.org.uk/operations and click on 'View the diagrams".
but substitution by Azumas is always possible.

My LNER trips with a bike are Leeds-London which explains the above variation in storage.

[PH]

If they're like the cupboards on GWR, then two bikes top to tail are possible, with some care and ideally protection against them banging together. I used one last year, two large touring bikes, one flat bar one drops, took a bit of jiggling but was OK. That's when two are travelling together, it'd be a nightmare with strangers getting on and off at different stops.

[pjclinch]

We recently got two fairly chunky bikes in an LNER cabin (one hardtail MTB, one off-road tourer with 50mm tyres and high, flared drop bars, both with rear racks) in.
It was a fight, but we did it, one hung by the front wheel and one by the back.

One thing to note is that the cabins have an L shaped door and if it's fully opened to give access at one end as well as one side everything gets easier (or at least, less impossible...). An LNER straffer opened the whole thing up when she saw we were having a bit of a battle.

Pete.