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Doing the south Downs one way from Winchester, should i expect any problems with trains and bike after 10.30, using Southern and South West train companies to get back to Winchester ??
Not after 10 IMO. They get stuffy about bikes arriving/through Brighton between 7-10...
DrP
I assume the OP means PM and you mean AM, though...?
Southern are not usually a problem as long as no more than 3 bikes, although outside peak times I doubt there will be any problems.
South West Trains will be fine.
Good luck with the ride. Check times if last trains from Eastbourne though and Brighton.
No bikes on the trains at peak times, pretty sure it was only mon-fri
Cheers for the advise folks,should be no problems then, as it's going to be after 10.30am, following on from the snooze at the YHA, which i got for £10 😆
I commute on part of this route you will be using and would agree with all of the above. Southern are generally ok out of hours. Occasionally the conductors can be troublesome when they are bored or feeling powerless, I suspect. One recently told me that the policy was no bikes unless they were folding bikes. I told them that my commuter bike was a folding bike and so we had a conversation about what constituted a folding bike. My commuting bike is my wife's mountain bike with slicks on. Having removed front and rear wheels and turned handlebars around, I was told that my bike was now indeed a folding bike and I boarded the train. The next day it was a different conductor and a different policy and so on and so on...
Oh yeah
Did Southampton to Brighton and the trains did not have enough bike spaces. So we argued our way to Brighton on the slow local service rather than the fast one.
If you're doing this at the weekend, check on engineering works. It looks like there's no trains on sunday out of Eastbourne, starting at Polegate [url= http://www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/live-running-information/ ]southern live running[/url].
Southern conductors are normally ok IME. If the bike area is full they don't mind bikes across the doors, provided you're there to move it if the doors need to open. Whats others have said about bikes on rush hour trains. No bikes on trains into London or Brighton that arrive before 10am or leave 4pm - 7pm.
Watch out for the death chalk .
The mild damp weather has grown the algae on the chalk so its like ice.
Particulaly bad around Brighton , but can be 'interesting' on most sections.
Enjoy.
Watch out for the death chalk
Blimey will look out for that, cheers .....
are you planning on doing this soon? daylight would not be in your favour at the moment unless you are very fast
Jacksonwwirl - Not to bothered about the day light, it will be enjoyable in the dark as well 😛
Did it from Eastbourne to Winchester not long ago... Damn... it's a long long way lol.
Night time on the SDW was simply great 🙂
We started at 6.45pm
Do you still have to go into London/Clapham & back out again on the train?
It's spooky on Windover Hill at night, definitely at atmosphere, and chalky flint pretty much all the way. Have fun.