Help with booking trains...

Gotte

I'm looking to see whether it's easier to take my bike on the train from Manchester to Dover, rather than drive. I've been trying to find a website where I can find out the cost, but I can;t seem to find any that give me the option of booking my bike on with me. Anyone either got a website, or has anyone done the trip, and is it worth it?

AidanR

http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/

When you go have chosen your trains, you are taken through to a section where you can reserve your seat and here there's the option to book a bike space too.

Hope that helps!

ColinJ

AidanR wrote:

http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/

When you go have chosen your trains, you are taken through to a section where you can reserve your seat and here there's the option to book a bike space too.

Hope that helps!

The East Coast line is good for Edinburgh, but Manchester is on the West Coast line! It would be a bit of a waste of time getting the train from Manchester to Leeds before heading south...

Some helpful info on this thread.

PS I went down to my local station to book my bike on the train. I don't think that you can book a bike online at either http://www.thetrainline.com or http://www.virgintrains.co.uk .

If you are going to do it, make sure that you book as much in advance as possible for the cheapest ticket prices and to reserve a place for your bike. There are only spaces for two bikes per train, so don't leave booking until the last minute.

AidanR

You can book tickets to anywhere from anywhere (in the UK!). Don't be fooled by the name...

sicrow

I've done the same but couldn't be bothered faffing about on the web so went to my local station and the lass there sorted it all out - from then on thats what I always do

At half term when the wife and kids were in North Wales, I got a train with my bike to Bangor (no pun intended) for £10 couldn't have driven there for twice the price

ColinJ

AidanR wrote:

You can book tickets to anywhere from anywhere (in the UK!). Don't be fooled by the name...

So you can book a Virgin train on the National Express website - that's handy! Also the fact that you can book the bike online.

One thing for the OP though - you'd probably have to change stations in London and I doubt that you could take your bike on the underground. If you are carrying heavy luggage, you'd have to get a taxi between stations.

nwallace

All train booking sites use the same back end software and all use the same booking system. Certain travel agents also have access to the system in a different format.
For fares info there is an occasional leak of the software used the the travel agents. (Whihc I have now forgotten the name of)

redvee

Some operators don't charge, might be all. The last time I paid for my bike was £3. When I took my bike to stay overnight at Paddington I didn't pay, just had to reserve the space on the train, 5 on FWG, however different operators have different restrictions such as numbers and times you can take your bike. London will be arrive at the mainline terminus and ride across town to Charring Cross? Not as bad as it might seem.

andymiller

ColinJ wrote:

One thing for the OP though - you'd probably have to change stations in London and I doubt that you could take your bike on the underground. If you are carrying heavy luggage, you'd have to get a taxi between stations.

Just ride it? Kings Cross to Charing cross is probably easiest though London Bridge also straightforward(ish).

Otherwise Kings X on the Circle Line to Embankmnet then walk to Charing Cross.

Or Kings X to Monument (Circle line again) or Hammersmith and City to Aldgate.

Avoid rush hours if you're planning on taking a bike on the Underground.

ColinJ

andymiller wrote:

ColinJ wrote:

One thing for the OP though - you'd probably have to change stations in London and I doubt that you could take your bike on the underground. If you are carrying heavy luggage, you'd have to get a taxi between stations.

Just ride it?

I couldn't carry a big suitcase on my bike !

meagain

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/

includes the "cycle policy" of the operator of each service.

megilleland

Check out SouthEasternrailway cycle policy as they restrict travel between certain hours. Also Virgin Trains.

Gotte

Thanks for that. Much appreciated.

Tourist Tony

andymiller wrote:

ColinJ wrote:

One thing for the OP though - you'd probably have to change stations in London and I doubt that you could take your bike on the underground. If you are carrying heavy luggage, you'd have to get a taxi between stations.

Just ride it? Kings Cross to Charing cross is probably easiest though London Bridge also straightforward(ish).

Otherwise Kings X on the Circle Line to Embankmnet then walk to Charing Cross.

Or Kings X to Monument (Circle line again) or Hammersmith and City to Aldgate.

Avoid rush hours if you're planning on taking a bike on the Underground.

Or simply take the First Capital Connect train from St Pancras to London Bridge, and change for the Dover train. You may find it quicker to go up to Charing Cross from LB.

andymiller

Oh yes of course - I'd forgotten about Thamelsink trains. D'Oh!

robthehungrymonkey

Just a quick note, you can't take a bike into London at peak times.

Also, you can't take it on most of the underground (there's a map on the london underground website, with the routes that you can take) especially central.

Not sure on Buses, i imgaine they'd be ok?

chasctc

Manchester trains come into London Euston. From there it's an easy ride to Charing Cross with just one turn at Aldwych - under 2 miles.

It may pay to purchase separate tickets for Manchester to Euston, and Charing X to Dover and/or singles rather than returns. Dont ask me why but booking online will show you all options.

srw2

robthehungrymonkey wrote:

Just a quick note, you can't take a bike into London at peak times.

Also, you can't take it on most of the underground (there's a map on the london underground website, with the routes that you can take) especially central.

Not sure on Buses, i imgaine they'd be ok?

Try to take a bike on a bus in London in the rush hour? You're having a laugh, aren't you? And you can take a bike into London in peak times, just not on a train.

As usual, reliable advice on London bike transport is best found on the TFL website. All of the subsurface lines (Met, Circle, District) and all of the above-ground sections of the other lines are accessible out of rush hour - and that accounts for most of the network by distance. But I'd never choose to do it in Central London - from one end of Zone 1 to the other is at most half an hour's riding, and there are so many steps in the tube it's a pain even without a bike.

robthehungrymonkey

srw2 wrote:

robthehungrymonkey wrote:

Just a quick note, you can't take a bike into London at peak times.

Also, you can't take it on most of the underground (there's a map on the london underground website, with the routes that you can take) especially central.

Not sure on Buses, i imgaine they'd be ok?

Try to take a bike on a bus in London in the rush hour? You're having a laugh, aren't you? And you can take a bike into London in peak times, just not on a train.

I didn't mean take the bus in rush hour (not relevant as he can't take the bike into London on a train in rush hour). The OP was asking about trains, i'm sure he realised I wasn't suggesting bikes were banned on the streets of London at peak times. Anyway, my point was that you can't take a bike on most of the underground network at any time.

srw2

robthehungrymonkey wrote:

I didn't mean take the bus in rush hour (not relevant as he can't take the bike into London on a train in rush hour). The OP was asking about trains, i'm sure he realised I wasn't suggesting bikes were banned on the streets of London at peak times. Anyway, my point was that you can't take a bike on most of the underground network at any time.

I've just taken the "trouble" (easy as pie, actually) to go to source.

You can't take a bike on a bus.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/9049.aspx#buses

You can take a bike outside rush hour on most of the underground network. Central and South East London are a bit crap for coverage, but much of northern, western and northeastern London are fine.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/ ... p-0108.pdf

And you may well find (I don't know the details) that some long-distance trains are OK with bikes even on rush-hour trains. YOu need to look operator by operator, and I can't be bothered.

redvee

When I booked up for SCR party trainline.com splashed over the screen that it might be cheaper for two singles rather than a return ticket when I got that far in the process.

orraloon

If you have a multi-leg train journey, esp if involves more than 1 train operator, I'd rec researching the fares online but then make the actual booking via a human (station or phone), as staff can see availability of bike spaces etc end to end. Previous (bad) experience of the different policies of diff train cos means I now go this way if anything other than a simple one train company booking.

andymiller

orraloon wrote:

If you have a multi-leg train journey, esp if involves more than 1 train operator, I'd rec researching the fares online but then make the actual booking via a human (station or phone), as staff can see availability of bike spaces etc end to end. Previous (bad) experience of the different policies of diff train cos means I now go this way if anything other than a simple one train company booking.

Good general advice, but on the trains from London to Dover you don't need to/can't reserve.

You can check the bike policies of the individual train companies by using the National Rail Enquiries website.

Tourist Tony

One more thing is that Dover is served both by the Charing Cross line (via Waterloo East and London Bridge) and the one from Victoris. I would simply ride from Euston to St P and get on there. Short, simple run.
(I lived in Dover area for 14 years...)

Bodhbh

AidanR wrote:

http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/

When you go have chosen your trains, you are taken through to a section where you can reserve your seat and here there's the option to book a bike space too.

Hope that helps!

Quite useful that. I'd pretty much given up booking bikes by the phone on tickets I'd bought online (getting passed from pillar to post, etc).

Gotte

Thanks for that. Again, many thanks for the help.