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MrsPB and I recently did a 10 hour train journey from home in Southern Cataluña to Cordoba, the bikes had to be bagged with wheels off. As we were riding home from Cordoba, we used some thin plastic sheeting. The bikes travelled free but had to be pre-booked but when we boarded the train, there didn't seem to be any provision for them. The train manager told us to take them into the first class carriage where they were placed on the seats! I tried to blag seats with them but he wouldn't play ball and we had to return to cattle class. Not bad for the €25 each we paid for the 750km trip. The return took us 5 days riding on gravel trails and disused railway line, a grand adventure.
utter bollocks 🙄 Using that logic, all recreational car journeys should be banned. Recreation/holidaying is absolutely a need, and the idea that holidays contribute nothing to the economy is absolutely ridiculous - some areas survive purely on recreation spending.it’s a recreational need, not a “transport” need.
I’m talking about the other 99% of commuters on local-ish services into towns where bikes are often banned at peak times to make room for standing passengers.
Not true. There's a significant demand, and usage, of bikes in all of the train stations I use to travel at commuting times.
On the midlands main line the big problem is that a) EMR make you fill in a form, wait ages for it to be processed and then collect a ticket whereas e.g. cross country is a simple Facebook message with <2 minutes to sort it and b) the bike spaces are in the driver's escape route, so they strictly enforce the 2 bike limit if first class is at the back(putting the bikes at the front), but dgas if first class is at the front, putting the bike carriage at the back. It makes I super stressful not knowing if I'll get on My train home... however my record is being 1 of 9 bikes in the 2 bike space 😂
Anyway, for the OP I'd recommend just going into a station and booking it in person for a 1 off trip like that.
We can't even carry passengers effectively so it's a long way off hoping for good bike provision!
Travelling in winter, with a Brompton - you are OK, but I wouldn't try much more than that.
I'll play devils advocate. Why would the companies bother? Very little in it for them.
I'm an infrequent train passenger and still see several trains cancelled, these are not local ones but cross country ones where I have a seat reserved.
Trains are regularly late too.
It's all a bit sad really, how we can't make our railways function properly. There is definitely a market for using trains.
Same with the NHS, post office, etc.... 😢
How about removing all the seats from half a carriage and then adding a portion of fold down seats.
This would allow plenty more people (albeit standing) and bikes. This would actually allow more people on the trains!
How about removing all the seats from half a carriage and then adding a portion of fold down seats.
that's how it works here in Northern Ireland on Translink trains, a section at each end of the three-car unit (4000 series) is dedicated to bikes but with folding seats, unfortunately for us though bikes cannot be carried before 09.30hr, which limits cycle commuting.
This is a Translink trains bike-space:
I’ll play devils advocate. Why would the companies bother? Very little in it for them
Agreed, but the clue should be in the name e.g. PUBLIC transport, as in it should be a public service provided by the government, which ideally would be designed to facilitate people leaving the car at home etc. etc.
Edit: oh and of course at this rate they are potentially missing out on between £100 and £140 of my custom on non-peak time services which presumably they want