After a bit of advice . Looking at riding Long Preston to Kirkby Stephen , making it a leisurely bikepacking trip and was hoping to get train back to start . I’ve looked on Network Rail website and despite the blurb about supporting cycling as an environmental way of travelling northern rail only accepts 2 cycles per train !. My question is has anyone done this and is it enforced or flexible as there will be 3 of us .

Cheers

As the blurb says its discretionary, I’ve caught the train from my local stop to hebden bridge and mytholmroyd (northern rail) a few times recently, the guards have been pretty good, even friendly and asking me about the riding,
But not Having an issue with the muddy state of my bike

Bottom line is its discretionary over 2 bikes, if it’s a busy train then they may enforce the 2 bike rule, if this is the case with a busy platform split up, and look like you are seperate travellers. I’m not sure they would object to a couple and a single bike. Cross your fingers you don’t get an anal guard

some of the trains have specific bike racks storage other trains just have bigger spaces for storage, look for the green bike logos above the doors, as the conductors/guards will advice which doors /carriages to enter the train

From memory I saw a couple of kids with BMXs and then a child/parent carrying bikes and they all got on, smaller bikes mind

The Settle – Carlisle tends to be a little more relaxed in my experience, we’ve got on with no problem when there’s already been two or three bikes on the train. If we’ve been going up to Scotland, it’s the one section of the journey that booking office and train staff have all gone “just get on”. So long as the refreshments trolly can get by then it shouldn’t be a problem. The bike “racks” tend to be a space that you strap your bike in to, so long as you aren’t using panniers then you should be able to get three in to the space, can’t guarantee it mind.

At the moment, as you may have already found out, the line is shut to the north of Appleby due to landslip so it’s not as busy as usual – not that it was “busy” anyway. There are some “commuter” services in to Leeds but apart from those trains are pretty empty.

I’ve been on northern rail a few times with my bike without issue, travelling through Kirby Stephen on the Dales rail service. If your on a Sunday you could pick that up. Google Dales Rail.

Even on a busy service I’ve seen more the 2 bikes per train. Wouldn’t worry about it for local services.

The longer distance trains run by Virgin require you to book your bike onto the train before boarding

Whether or not it’s usually ok, “cross your fingers” is a crap policy for public transport!

No restrictions on folding bikes, we are going to have a go with our S&S tandem some time and see what happens (setting off from home and riding back in case it isn’t allowed).

They do tend to be more relaxed about trying to get you on, even if they’re ‘full’. Look for the bike symbol on a particular door of the train which shows you where the racks are. Kirkby Stephen is good because the train will most likely have fewer bikes on it because it hasn’t gone through the Dales yet. Also, there is a replacement bus to Appleby at the moment so people won’t be trying to get bikes down from Carlisle as much.

So, basically, go for it, you will almost certainly be fine. I’ve had one instance of not getting on a train with a bike in the last five years or so.

On many of these services there’s a variety of rolling stock in use which have different storage space so it’s impractical to say there’s room for a particular number. Try getting on a Sprinter with more than two bikes, if you are on the Newcastle to Carlisle service don’t even think about it once the train gets to the Metro Centre!

Why no more space on trains for bikes? Money! It would cost the train companies money to have carriages or part of carriages empty for much of the time, again you’d have to have such a facility on *every* train for it to be effective and reliable. To some extent it’s a Catch22 situation: without the space for bikes people won’t consider taking a bike but without people turning up with a bike the space won’t be provided.

@richardkennerly – The Dales Rail service *is* the Settle-Carlisle line. 😆

Yeah I know, but it’s a specific price for a return journey at certain times. I’ve been on a couple of times, it’s pretty good for me as there’s a station near me I can ride to then there’s plenty of options at the Dales end