Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 17:35 28 Mar 2024
- How do I renew my UK passport and what is the 10-year rule?
- Passengers pleaded with knifeman during attack
* Family anger at sentence on fatal crash driver, 19
- Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
28th Mar (1992)
MOD Kineton tour, branch line society (*)

Train RunningCancelled
16:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
17:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
17:57 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street
18:37 Westbury to Swindon
19:33 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill
20:13 Swindon to Westbury
20:56 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington
Short Run
14:49 Plymouth to Cardiff Central
15:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
15:15 Plymouth to London Paddington
15:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
15:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
15:42 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
16:19 Carmarthen to London Paddington
16:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
16:35 London Paddington to Plymouth
16:50 Plymouth to London Paddington
17:03 London Paddington to Penzance
17:30 London Paddington to Taunton
17:36 Swindon to Westbury
Delayed
12:15 Penzance to London Paddington
13:59 Cardiff Central to Penzance
14:15 Penzance to London Paddington
14:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
14:36 London Paddington to Paignton
15:03 London Paddington to Penzance
16:03 London Paddington to Penzance
Additional 17:17 Exeter St Davids to Penzance
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 28, 2024, 17:49:54 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[133] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[132] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[53] Return of the BRUTE?
[44] If not HS2 to Manchester, how will traffic be carried?
[41] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[32] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: Cycling by train  (Read 4450 times)
LiskeardRich
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 3457

richardwarwicker@hotmail.co.uk
View Profile
« on: January 01, 2018, 14:15:43 »

I’ve recently purchased myself a bike, this morning I cycled to Looe to burn off last night.
I’m not yet fit enough to cycle back so used the train, but it got me thinking how complex cycling by train can be. Irrelevant to the Looe branch but on the Cornish mainline I can turn up on go on some services and others I need to book in advance. I can work it out which services are 150/153 operates from the lack of 1st class marker on the timetable, but would a general passenger know this? I’m fortunate to know enough to plan around non hst/voyager services with my bike.
It’s rather a tight fit getting my bike into a 153 though, the doors being very narrow with a tight turn needed to access the bike rack but I got there
Logged

All posts are my own personal believes, opinions and understandings!
ChrisB
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 12334


View Profile Email
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2018, 14:50:01 »

I think the info is all out there if one isn't afraid to check, rather than simply assume trains carry bikes.
Logged
Richard Fairhurst
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1204


View Profile Email
« Reply #2 on: January 01, 2018, 15:05:22 »

In theory it should be indicated in the timetable. It isn't always. (Such as the time not too long ago when I tried to take my bike on the service which the timetable said would be a reservation-free Turbo, but a 180 turned up. The guard did eventually let me on, but not without a sternly-delivered lecture.)

Sadly taking full-size bikes on GWR (Great Western Railway) has become such a palaver these days that, nine times out of ten, I now take my folder. I'm lucky in that I have a folder capable of long-distance rides, but most folding bikes aren't really suitable for country leisure cycling - think Bromptons with their three-speed Sturmey-Archer gears.
Logged
LiskeardRich
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 3457

richardwarwicker@hotmail.co.uk
View Profile
« Reply #3 on: January 01, 2018, 15:36:11 »

On the online journey planner I can see no indication at all.
Logged

All posts are my own personal believes, opinions and understandings!
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #4 on: January 01, 2018, 15:37:49 »

I think the info is all out there if one isn't afraid to check, rather than simply assume trains carry bikes.

Hmmm ... for many people, it come from knowing how to check, which is not obvious!  [noting Rickwarwicker's follow up - not on the journey planner so you need to find the .pdf timetable online.    Simples??]

In theory it should be indicated in the timetable. It isn't always. (Such as the time not too long ago when I tried to take my bike on the service which the timetable said would be a reservation-free Turbo, but a 180 turned up. The guard did eventually let me on, but not without a sternly-delivered lecture.)

I'm noting that an HST (High Speed Train) is running one diagram of Taunton to Cardiff today (odd when there should be more 166s about?) and so I expect there will be similar issues there is the train manager is a "Jobsworth".

This issue of cycle reservations was brought home to me at Chippenham a in the autumn.    Passenger with cycle waiting to travel on the 17:53 to Trowbridge ... 17:53 cancelled and he had to rush over to the booking office to get a cycle reservation - although it was announced that tickets "via Melksham" would be honoured via Bath Spa, no such concession is offered for people with cycles who plan to travel on units that are cancelled and fall back to HSTs!
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
ChrisB
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 12334


View Profile Email
« Reply #5 on: January 01, 2018, 16:20:22 »

Surely the newbie cyclist taking their bike for the first time wiuld either ask at a ticket office and/or the National Rail/TOC (Train Operating Company) (if they knew which one) website. I certainly wouldn't expect the online planner to tell you directly. Trains generally carry people, not cycles per se
Logged
CyclingSid
Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1918


Hockley viaduct


View Profile
« Reply #6 on: January 01, 2018, 16:57:10 »

The bike situation appears to be deteriorating, less bike spaces marked on SWR» (South Western Railway - about) now.
Glad for a Brompton, and with the six gears (hub and derailleur) it gets me where I want, only weak pint is the ageing legs. Otherpeople must be thinking the same way, I am regularly questioned about the details of the Brompton and how to buy one.
Logged
Henry
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 369


View Profile
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2018, 07:59:24 »


 I've noticed an increase of cycle rack provision at some stations in Devon.
 
 So when we get our new 'express trains', I assume the provision for cycles will be the same as
 Cross-Country services, which is limited.
 Also I believe luggage and cycles have to 'fight it out' for limited space available.
 At Totnes a XC (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service at 0750 usually has more than it's fair share of cycles, but some of the
 Train Manager's, bar one, are quite accommodating.

 Hence I assume the new cycle racks are their for this reason .
Logged
CyclingSid
Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1918


Hockley viaduct


View Profile
« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2018, 09:07:01 »

Also on the XTC going to Southampton when there is a cruise ship due to leave you can expect all the bike spaces to stacked with luggage.
Logged
Bmblbzzz
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 4256


View Profile
« Reply #9 on: February 05, 2018, 10:12:46 »


 I've noticed an increase of cycle rack provision at some stations in Devon.
 
 So when we get our new 'express trains', I assume the provision for cycles will be the same as
 Cross-Country services, which is limited.
 Also I believe luggage and cycles have to 'fight it out' for limited space available.
 At Totnes a XC (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service at 0750 usually has more than it's fair share of cycles, but some of the
 Train Manager's, bar one, are quite accommodating.

 Hence I assume the new cycle racks are their for this reason .
They might be, but if they're intended to reduce demand for cycle spaces on trains, I don't know they'll work. The only way I can see that would work is by persuading people who commute at each end by bike and take their bike on the train, to leave a bike at each end instead; or to walk, bus or whatever at one end, leaving their bike at the station. I'm not sure how successful it would be in persuading people to do this, as it relies on people wanting to do so now but being put off by lack of bike parking at one or both ends. And it won't affect the demand from people who want to take their bike somewhere (on holiday or whatever).
Logged

Waiting at Pilning for the midnight sleeper to Prague.
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page