Back in November 2017, I reserved my Wazoo a space on the Southampton to Warminster short train journey, to do a brief tour of The Mendips before meeting up with family back at Longleat Center Parcs.

I thought I did the free bike space reservation at the time of buying my tickets online, but maybe my memory is playing up again.

I’m planning to get from Southampton to Prestatyn next week, more than likely with a change at Newport (South Wales) and I quite fancy taking a bike with me (probably the road bike, to tackle “The Road To Hell” climb from Denbeigh https://www.strava.com/segments/6671093 among others, depending upon the weather, would be my first cat2 climb).

But reserving a space for a bike does not seem possible via https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ while booking my tickets, to me the whole reservation process looks rather vague, even though they suggest it’s kind of vital…

Can I safely book my tickets online and then simply reserve a space for my bike by popping down to Southampton Central by giving them the ticket details, or do I really need to buy the tickets and do the reservation in person at the same time?

Can’t help with the train (but am interested in the answer). However, if you’re in Prestatyn with a bike, try this one:

https://www.strava.com/segments/19678693

Yeah, spotted that tasty climb too, shame I’ll have a rucksack on my back as is almost perfect to tackle from the train station to my destination… Looks well worth doing if I take the bike, Strava reckons ~540 feet climb in under 0.8 mile, making it an evil cat3 climb! 😮 😈

Book your ticket at the station, they’ll sort it for you there. Or book your ticket online and take it to the station to add the bike.
Either way, I have much more luck sorting in the station than online when I’ve done it.

I use GWR for online train booking – easy to reserve seats and bike places up front – and check availability for the return. Collect the tickets at the station or get them sent out.

almost perfect to tackle from the train station to my destination

Ping me if you need anything.

I’m local

I use ScotRail as you can reserve bike spaces on their website, I didn’t know GWR had that also.

Can be a PITA otherwise, I’ve used trainsplitting (v cheap) and tried to call railcos after to add bikes to my reservation to have them refuse as I didn’t buy the ticket from them.

I’ve found sending the company for each section (assuming seperate companies) a Facebook message to book is the most reliable method. I gave up going around the phone systems and the online booking systems (although cross country is ok) as the Facebook chat to book just seems to work.

Cheers for the replies tonight, gives me some options to try tomorrow when I’ll hopefully feel more awake, I’ve left it stupidly late to buy tickets so it looks like it with cost me ~£104 return for an “Anytime” ticket.

Family moved there recently, first visit for me to that neck of the woods for decades.

While there’s some tasty road climbs near Prestatyn, the same train calls at Gobowen, thinking next summer I will jump off there to visit Bwlch Y Groes.

If you don’t reserve your bike when you buy, you risk not getting a space.

Try trainsplitting for train times/costs then booking on railco website with bike reservations, you can save a fortune.

The rail websites seemed to be in a worse state than me this morning, which is saying something (I went back to bed ~0700-0930 having randomly woke at ~0400), they seemed to be having real trouble with giving me info for my planned journey!

Got the tickets and bike reservation booked on Scot Rail, bit of a panick when I picked my trains and then had a think if they were the times I really wanted, only to lose the details when I signed up as a new customer because I think someone grabbed the final bike spot… But thankfully picked an earlier return that means I avoid the Southampton rush hour and got a bike spot!

Now I’ve just got to work on seeing if I’m fit enough curently to tackle the Prestatyn “Wall” and/or “The Road To Hell,” as well as replacing my snapped rear gear cable… The 22T sprocket was fine for getting up Old Winchester Hill, but that only kicks up very briefly to ~10%, those Welsh climbs have sizeable sections in the ~20% ballpark which my legs and heart would be very grateful of having the normal 25/28/32T sprocket options.

Reassurance desperately seeked…

Went to collect tickets on way home from work, from self service ticket machine at un-manned station, from the station I selected when paying online.

Except there’s a broken debit card stuck in the machine, so I can’t collect tickets!

Can I pop to another station instead without needing ScotRail to amend things?

Yep, you’ll be fine, I’ve collected tickets from different ones to the one I’d selected (and run by different companies)

Thanks for that, oliverracing, will pop out in a bit before this stress drives me madder!

And this is why people are loathe to give up their cars, as public transport can be a proper pain!

Too shattered to get tickets yesterday, so on my way home later.

Anyone know if Prestatyn and “The road to hell” climb out of Denbigh have stayed ice free recently?

Think fatbike 29ered will go up this time, choice is either 28mm 4 Seasons or the 38mm Gravdal ice spike tyres.

Anyone know if Prestatyn and “The road to hell” climb out of Denbigh have stayed ice free recently?

Nothing at the moment. Frost forecast overnight on Friday which might affect the roads up on the Denbigh moors first thing. Hell freezes over before Prestatyn 😉

Thanks tillydog, Met Office is predicting a “feels like” temp of approx -2C over the weekend mornings up near Hell summit.

Friday looks the best day, dry and a northerly tailwind to blow me up the inclines.

Hoping 4 Seasons will be fine, the extra drag of those ice tyres is brutal even on small inclines, nevermind ~7 mile ascents (with a small descent at ~2.5 miles after the nastiest slope of ~17% for ~0.5 miles)… Not to mention my ~83Kg, carrying ~10Kg more than two years ago!

Climbing for so long is going to be a new experience for me if I tackle Road To Hell, the biggest climb I’ve done is Warren Lane just north of Petersfield, ~580 feet over ~3.3 miles… Mummy!!!!11!1! 😀

Hope you got up there on Friday – it’s proper snowing here now! The moors will be deeply unpleasant.

What I learn’t whilst doing the C2C this year.
By tickets via the train operators app rather than trainline. Much easier the change times if needed.
Tweet train operator to check bike space availability. Normally very prompt replys and helpful.
Some train conductors can be very anti bikes! On the other hand some train drivers can be very helpful 🙂

Three mobile reception is positively awful in Prestatyn, like being back in days of awful 56k modems… Whoever supplies GiffGaff is much better!

Did the nuts Gwaenysgor climb on Thurs, the gradient on Hillside is crazy steep, had several minutes of walking as 24/17 gear was nowhere near good enough.

Set off trying to reach Denbigh to do Road To Hell on Fri lunch, but I was overdressed and underfuelled while my real time navigation went bonkers due to poor mobile reception. Got sent on a silly meander including some short brutal climbs around Dyserth/Cwm and after climbing the old A55 cat4 climb I headed back to Prestatyn via Hiraddog(?) Rd.

Chilly and sleet/snow this morning, so just a short ride up Allt Y Graig climb to Llanasa before heading back.

Walked Dyserth Way to Dyserth this afternoon and then came back via the Craig Fawr summit, seriously cold and gusty winds up there!

Might be driving to Llyn Brenig tomorrow, just past Road To Hell summit, but depends on how weather goes as it might well be icy up there after today and mum is worried about that ~17% incline a third of the way up. I’m not sure I’d fancy trying it on two wheels at temps so close to 0C either!

Weather could definitely have been nicer, but the steep climbs have given me an incentive to try and lose the developing spare tyre and return with the road bike in the spring/summer, away from the A roads there’s some great hilly cycling to be had in the area.

Hiraddug Rd it would have been. You should have called in for a cuppa 🙂

Kudos for Gwaenysgor hill! That kick up at the top is over 30%.

Snow forecast around Brenig tonight again. They usually clear the main road from Denbigh though.