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Not the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had, but not the worst either. My bike’s still here too.
The bike racks and surrounding luggage.
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This is a stressful thread 😖
So I’m sat back at Euston station waiting for the last leg of my journey. Had a fabulous week of riding epic singletrack and a few bike park lines with Bike Alp in Briançon.
A few things I’d do differently:
- Keep more of an eye on the various European trains when they become available to book bike spaces. Because the Tour was in town last weekend the bike spaces went really early.
- Keep my bike assembled to transfer between Euston and St Pancras and Gare Du Nord and Austerlitz - far easier and cheaper to transfer than by using a taxi. I spent about £65 that I didn’t need to, as well as spending time hanging around Austerlitz with a bike bag when I could have been riding around Paris.
- There’s always somewhere reasonably quiet and safe to build up your bike without attracting too much attention in stations. Usually near the drop off points
- I’d only take a basic cable opportunistic combination lock for this journey - the train was full of families, trekkers and climbers. I didn’t feel it was worth taking a heavy duty chain.
- After consideration, and a full extra day’s riding yesterday, I’d do the sleeper train again. The guys flying home ended up delayed and getting home in the small hours of this morning anyway.
- I’d bring better ear plugs and eye mask than those supplied by SNCF
- I’d almost certainly bring an inflatable pillow and possibly a lightweight sleeping mat next time. Those Couchettes are firm and the supplied pillows are next to useless.
- I wouldn’t worry about snoring. Everyone accepts that you’re going to be cheek by jowel anyway and just gets on with it.
- If there were no bike spaces left, I wouldn’t worry about taking a bike in a bike bag and leaving it in with the bike spaces.
My Ground Control Tardis bike bag worked well and is small enough to go in my rucksack.
Total cost £343 there and back. Comparable to 2-up driving or flights, parking and transfers.
Here’s hoping that Eurostar is able to restart taking full assembled bikes London - Paris soon.
Big shout out to the Eurostar staff, especially travel services who’ve been super helpful.
Any questions, feel free to ask them and I’ll try my best to answer. ?
Nice to hear it all worked well. good for you for doing it. Trains are much nicer than planes IMO
I wouldn’t say I had a good night’s sleep last night, but I definitely had some sleep. And it definitely has been an adventure, I’ve had fun riding around Paris today.
Trains are much nicer than planes IMO
caveat: in Europe. Or Japan. Or probably most places other than the UK.
My experience of travelling on UK trains with a bike has mostly been good to be fair. YMMV of course.
This would be a good article...
Or probably most places other than the UK.
Our Swiss clients have commented favourably on UK railways when we meet them off the train. As do the Germans and Austrians.
Does anyone know any more about changes to the Eurostar bike policy? I think somewhere in this thread there's a suggestion that in 2025 there might be a change meaning you could take fully assessed bikes to Paris again.
Just had a look on the Eurostar site and doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.