Trains - The Info You Need To Know

Milkie

I expect this has been posted before... I've searched through the 7 pages of results for "trains" and couldn't find anything that I was looking for.

For the first time I'm taking the bike on the train to Southampton from Bristol. It's all booked and things...

The woman on the phone said there will be person at the station... In the 4 years I've been going, I've never seen a person working the station...

So my questions are:

How do I know which bit of the train to get on with the bike?

Is there any other info I should really know/read?

Even links would be helpful ;-)

antonylp

In my experience of taking a bike on a train, you look for the carriage with the picture of a bicycle on it. There then should be space for 1 or 2 bikes within that carriage.

Milkie

I was thinking it was probably something like that...

But its nice to be sure.

patchy

if it's south west trains, you should be fine - they generally have stacks of bike space. if i t's first great western though, i'd advise getting there early - their bike provision is pretty smeggy, and that's just on the trains that actually have room for bikes...

Milkie

if i t's first great western though, i'd advise getting there early - their bike provision is pretty smeggy, and that's just on the trains that actually have room for bikes...

Yup its Great Western!

I have booked a place for the bike though.

Do I need a lock for my bike, for the journey??

Milkie

Do I need a lock for my bike, for the journey??

I'll buy one just incase I do.....

whyamihere

You don't have to. However, it would be sensible to do so...

zaynan

I'm about to do the same for the very first time (take bike on train) I'll probably be using 3-4 different train companies Northern, Virgin and some other Welsh thingy). My question is - I intend to book the tickets online - I seem to recall that you can't book your bike online at the same time as booking ticket for travel. So what do I do, phone up once I have the ticket - what hapens if the 2 bike spaces are already booked - surely I'm stuffed as I will have bought my ticket! OR is it just best to go to my local station and do it all at once with a real person?

Milkie

3 - 4 Train companies!

I went for a direct route, with no stops... Thank god!!!

I would suggest phoning to see if you can reserve a place for the bike, then book your ticket.

I did it the other way around, but then it wasn't going to be the end of the world if I couldn't take my bike.

TheBoyBilly

Milkie, I seem to recall travelling from Cosham to Fareham on a Pompey to Cardiff Central train which is similar to the trains they use on the Soton- Bristol run. They do have a cycle rack but also have flip-up seats in the same place. Don't be surprised to find passengers without reservations or luggage to be where the bike rack is. These trains, little two-car efforts, are totally unsuitable for inter-city travel in my opinion.

rubbercolin

Just a warning to anyone using FGW with their bike

I have been taking my bike on the train for a year and have never been asked if I had a reservation - just on and off with no hassle

this morning the 'man' said in future we will not let you on without a reservation :evil:

I have a season ticket -- so getting a reservation involves e-mailing FGW for a ref number . They will block book - but this means I have to get a specific train rather than any one I like . pretty crap for £7k a year.

Anyway - e-mail sent so lets see how they deal with it .

On the phone they said that they were not aware of any policy change.

Ok - I said - does that mean the 'man' this morning was making it up?

Please hold....

5 mins later -

I have spoken to a supervisor - on our leaflet :shock: it says that reservations are essential for peak hour trains

Oh ? Essential is not the same as compulsory or mandatory ?

Err no .....

So the 'man' could use some discretion then?

Err yes.....

Could I have this in writing from you - I might need to produce it one day ?

Err no -- but you could download the leaflet........ :evil:


If you need to be somewhere on FGW without hassle call their customer services and make a res.

Seems that the 'man' on the platform will make a decision . Must be nice to be so powerful...

BTW not meaning to be sexist or offend here as all of the FGW 'women' I have met are brilliant - guess they don't see their career as a progression from a train set.

D

ris

rubbercolin, i heard something similar to this from a workmate who uses FGW from bristol to bath regularly. all of a sudden they were told that they needed to make a reservation to put a bike in the guards' van.

they were told that reservations could only be made after 12pm the day before, which meant for a season ticket holder they would have to go to the ticket office every day to book.

just about the only thing that marked fgw as better than the rest of the network was their bike policy (seeing as they were recently bottom of the intercity routes for reliability and punctuality). where other companies insisted on reservations they kept the sensible flexible policy of the guards' van. i don't think they realise quite what a good idea it is.

jeepie

FGW is generally great for bikes on trains. But I too have had a problem where all of a sudden after no hassle for ages some jobsworth FGW guy is getting really punchy about "DO YOU HAVE A RESERVATION SIR?" and raising his voice...And obviously to get a reservation at that point would mean I'd actually miss the train. But the jobsworth doesn't care....

In this case, the FGW jobsworth guy's colleague came along the platform and just ignored the jobsworth and loaded my bike on the train for me. The bike carriage was empty BTW. The jobsworth (DO YOU HAVE A RESERVATION SIR) and the nice guy then had a row, cos the jobsworth had been told "if they haven't got a reservation they don't travel!". Nice....

So really does depend if you happen to bump into some who wants to make your life difficult. Fingers crossed you don't. I now try to book over the phone and then my bike reservation gets printed out with it, but for quick trips on the day - or if I was commuting - I guess I'd just take my chances.....

Mr_Cellophane

guard's van

That's quite neat, do they stil have steam trains as well. :P

beverick

I think the problem you'll encounter is that the eventual decision is, as rubbercolin mentions above, is that the "'man' on the platform" will ultimately make the decision and it doesn't matter whether you are correct in how the policy is supposed to work. It's very much a case of "Rule A - I'm always correct, Rule B, in cases where you think I'm incorrect see rule A."

I overheard a conversation at Paddington in the summer where a guy with a fully laden touring bike was trying to get on a FGW(?) train to the west country. The conversation went along the lines of:

Guard "There's no more space for your bike."
Cyclist "But I have a reservation for this train."
"You may have but there's no more space."
"Do the owners of these bikes have reservations."
"I don't know but they're on the train. You should have got here earlier."
"But I have a reservation, I should just be able to turn up."
"It doesn't work like that."

I didn't hear the rest of the conversation or find out the outcome.

Bob

passout

I don't take my bike on the train but this sounds terrible. So much for sustianable transport. It's as I suspected, there's a lot of people paying mouth service to green issues but very little actually happening. The government can tax cars all it likes but just look at the alternatives! A tired old rant I know...but I can't help myself.

ChrisLS

...I tried to get my bike on the train at Liverpool Street...crime..."you can't take that on here" with a sneer and a curled lip...had to wait from 5.30 until 7.00 before I was allowed to take "that" on the train...

timestar

During peak time I regularly see cyclists turned away from Virgin Trains due to so many people crammed on. The new trains look nice but have far less seat space so people stand in the bike area more I think and seem to be given priority. Cross-Country Trains (used to be Central Trains) depends on whether it's the new or the old ones. Older trains have much more space for bikes, although they can be full of standing passengers. New trains seem to have almost no bike space at all. A lot of the time I think you just have to tough it out and ignore the hostile look from other commuters - assuming of course lovely "helpful" platform staff let you on!

passout

Yes, I've heard that the Vigin West Coast line is pants for cyclists too. Can't we go in the guards area anymore like we used to? Do they even have a guards carriage (I'm rusty on this train thing)? I remember been stuck in a guards carraige with the wheelchair users in the early 1990s - wooden floor, no seats...lovely. Still, I was actually on the train at least.