How far beforehand do you need to book bikes on trains?

Greg · Post by **Greg** » 10 Apr 2007, 5:51pm

Today, I bought a single from Sheffield to York, and tried to book my bike on it. I couldn't book the bike, since the staff at the station said I couldn't make bookings on the same day. This sounded rather odd, since I'm sure I've booked bikes on Virgin* trains on the day of travel, both at Sheffield and at York, and the guy at York station the day before had said that Virgin and GNER both allowed same-day booking.

Of course, I still travelled and I still took the bike. But if it's true that you can book on Virgin trains the same day, I think I'll write to the station management, asking them to inform their staff. What's this like for other train companies? First Transpennine require you to book your bike by 6pm the day before, that much I know.
Greg

*This was travelling on Virgin's Newcastle - Bristol route.

Mike Sutton · Post by **Mike Sutton** » 10 Apr 2007, 6:13pm

Whenever I have booked it has been done at the same time as the travel ticket was bought. This does tend to be well before the travel date.

Sares · Post by **Sares** » 10 Apr 2007, 7:49pm

I recently ran into this with Virgin too, and when I questioned it, they told me that the booking service for the trains generally closed at 6pm the evening before, but that sometimes they weren't closed that early, and then you could book at any time up until it was closed. This is the same system that they use for seat bookings, they said, and it had changed quite recently.

If it's a Voyager (4 bike spaces, often diesel), you can generally get the bike on anyway, since the guard doesn't have to do anything to let you on, but if a Pendolino (2 bike spaces, electric), they usually ask for reservations.

Zanda · Post by **Zanda** » 10 Apr 2007, 8:06pm

On at least one First Great Western service (Guildford to Reading) they don't take reservations. It's first come first served.

horizon · Post by **horizon** » 10 Apr 2007, 9:31pm

We've just come back from a trip from Liskeard to Reading using the train part of the way there and which involved three boardings. In two cases, the bike compartment was empty and in the third only one other bike. Because we cannot buy tickets locally or book bikes on the internet I have given up with booking bikes at all. On other journeys there have often been four or five bikes on a train meant for just two. I get the impression that where getting a bike on may be difficult it is already banned. Frankly I think the idea of booking a bike is as ridiculous as someone having to book their luggage on. Nowadays I just bear in mind that there MIGHT be a problem but so far it hasn't happened.

simon l6 and a bit · Post by **simon l6 and a bit** » 13 Apr 2007, 2:20am

I've booked on to a Virgin train leaving Birmingham a bare five minutes later...

horizon · Post by **horizon** » 14 Apr 2007, 1:23pm

Last week's trip (3 solo bikes) Looe to Barnstaple:

Train 1: Normally only two bikes, we stacked ours in bike compartment close together. No comment from guard.

Train 2: Train totally full. Bike compartment full of luggage. Couldn't get on. One hour wait for next train.

Train 3: Train full but squeezed on. Normally only two bikes allowed.

Train 4: South West Trains - five car train completely empty (5 - 6 passengers and bike compartment empty). Guard refused us access as only two bikes allowed.

Train 5: HST, plenty of room. Room normally for 6 bikes.

Train 6: Another two car train, very full. Squeezed on with two other cyclists making five bikes in all although only two bikes normally allowed. Understanding guard!

Government wants more people off the roads and onto bikes. HA HA HA HA HA! You've got to laugh.

Ron · Post by **Ron** » 15 Apr 2007, 7:54pm

Scotrail , coming south from Thurso last week.
Booked by telephone two days before travel and received a Booking Ref Number and the instruction to pay for ticket at Thurso ticket office. Arrived at Ticket office, but the guy claimed to have no knowledge of the booking as "all that information goes to Wick". (Does booking info for London stations go to Dover?) " but if you are booked I suppose that will be OK". I remarked to the on train ticket checker, who had a record of my booking, that there seemed to be a glitch in the system as booking info was not being relayed to Thurso station. He smilingly replied "Ah yes, bicycles, we do have our moments". He told me another bike would be coming on at Lairg, but actually two came on, so we carried on happily with three bikes on a train supposedly limited to two bikes.
Bikes on trains? Inconsistency is the name of the game.

keepontriking · Post by **keepontriking** » 15 Apr 2007, 10:32pm

Ron wrote:Bikes on trains? Inconsistency is the name of the game.

Today I did two journeys with my bike on train replacement buses where "cycles cannot be carried".

Ron · Post by **Ron** » 15 Apr 2007, 11:52pm

keepontriking wrote:Today I did two journeys with my bike on train replacement buses where "cycles cannot be carried".

Hilarious

dave holladay · Post by **dave holladay** » 23 Apr 2007, 11:31am

Ah so it's still the same guy at Thurso then....

Do all get writing about these very incidents to your MP (as a response to Keep Cycling on Track) and Passenger Focus www.passengerfocus.org.uk

One tip - think a bit about the booking you are making. One person booking from Lockerbie to Penzance, was told no spaces by Virgin - but leter discovered that by booking the bikes to Plymouth, where they changed trains, spaces were indeed available, and since FGW do not have compulsory reservations a brief check revealed that a further set of tickets was (cycle reservations) optional but not essential.

Hopefully the GNER bike booking team - which you can make an online booking with should know these wrinkles and glorious details like "There are no train service to Wick" and the 37 hour 12 changes journey from Wick to Wilmslow, which was offered when 2 trains with 1 change in Inverness would deliver the party to Crewe, in around 12 hours, with the option of waiting for the first morning train to Wilmslow or riding home from Crewe at 05.30, such is the effect of using geographically illiterate, and horairially incompetent people with equally limited software.

Plenty of letters & e-mails folks trouble is I'll then need to sort them !

Will · Post by **Will** » 23 Apr 2007, 6:42pm

I have the opposite problem at the moment. I want to make a reservation for my bike for a trip to Oban in June, and currently only the outward journey is available for booking. The guy at Waverley Station told me that he couldn't tell me when the return journey would be available for booking since it requires the rail company (First Scotrail) to make it available, and they don't follow any consistent timetable for releasing them. I'll just have to keep trying until they've released it for booking.

Although I couldn't get my return journey booked, the guy was really helpful, and got me a bike reservation on the outward journey without selling me a ticket (I'll buy it when I get my return journey booked).

Will

montmorency · Post by **montmorency** » 1 Jun 2007, 4:20pm

On the old FGW HSTs, there was almost never a problem getting a bike on without a reservation, at least at relatively quiet times. The ample bike compartment could be opened without guard assistance and you just put it in. I was never challenged for a reservation.

However, the new Adelantes require you to get the guard to open it up.
I have not had reason to take a bike on an Adelante so far (and am slightly wary of doing so).

Has anyone had problems on them, with or without reservations?

Regards,
M.

Cycling UK Forum

How far beforehand do you need to book bikes on trains?

How far beforehand do you need to book bikes on trains?

FGW Adelantes?