Bikes on Trains

[PeterK]

I haven't seen a thread covering this at all, so forgive me if I'm duplicating something. Carrying your bike on a train seems to be an area fraught with complications (not least the rush hour and deep Tube bans in London), so it would be handy to share experiences and tips, don't you think?

Early next week I have to get my bike from East London to Paddington and then to Bristol. According to what I've read, the Paddington to Bristol section is easy - go to carriage 'A' of the train, which is clearly marked with a while-on-vivid pink sticker. The carriage can take five or six bikes at a time.

The Underground bit is much more complicated, and with people who will look at you and jostle you as if you're threatening to sacrifice their first-born. London Overground between Blackhorse Road and Barking doesn't seem to have a rush hour ban (please correct me if I'm wrong), so I can get to Barking for 09:30, which is when the ban for the Hammersmith & City line ends. Then it's all the way to Paddington, but these trains have absolutely nowhere to stand a bike except in the doorway. And there are stations on both sides of the train on this route, so I'm going to be in the way whatever I do. Has anyone tried this route before, and do you have any advice?

 

[Red Light]

http://www.atob.org.uk/bike-rail/

If you find a change - like the recent restriction on folding bikes to be less than18" wheel size on Worst Great Western, then drop an email to David and he'll add it.

And use http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/ to book your tickets because it allows you to make on-line bike reservations with your booking.

 

[PeterK]

Everything I've ready says that reservations aren't required on FGW. Would it be a good idea anyway, just in case there are a lot of cyclists fighting for the same train?

I think cycling to Paddington from here would be more problematical than taking the Tube.

 

[subaqua]

before i was confident enough to ride to marylebonestation i used to get thehammersmith and city from west ham to baker street before the morning rush. i used to stand in the door area and just move the bike when people wanted to get off and on.

no problems at all really. once i got the confidence i rode in to marylebone. took about 55 minutes on a slow tootle.

 

[PeterK]

Thanks subaqua. That's pretty much what I'll be doing, plus just a few more stations. If you stand on the offside, there are only a few stations that use that side of the train, so you'd probably only have to move three or four times, I think. Naturally, though, those are the busiest stations, including Kings Cross and Liverpool Street).

I try and avoid central London entirely on the bike. Most of my cycling has either been along the River Lea, or the local roads, or by taking the Tube out to Epping or Upminster and cycling out from there.

 

[mcshroom]

http://www.atob.org.uk/bike-rail/

If you find a change - like the recent restriction on folding bikes to be less than18" wheel size on Worst Great Western, then drop an email to David and he'll add it.

That looks better than the ageing leaflet on the nationalrail site - thanks

And use http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/ to book your tickets because it allows you to make on-line bike reservations with your booking.

I'd use http://www.southernrailway.com or http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk as they use the same system but don't charge the £1 fee East Coast started doing

 

[PeterK]

Cost of travel comparison:
Chiltern Railways site: £48.50
Southern Railway site: £48.50
East Coast site: £25.00
National Rail Enquires site: £25.00

Bit of variation there...

 

[mcshroom]

I'b be interested to see what journey that was for.

I just checked a standard journey for me - Whitehaven to London on a Friday evening

NR, EC, Chiltern and Southern all quoted £69 (and for some daft reason it would be £51 on all the sites 1st class)

 

[snorri]

Friendly tip..................
Don't look for logic or attempt to understand the UK rail fares pricing system, it will do your head in.

 

[PeterK]

It was London Paddington to Bristol Template Meads.

The price just three days ago was £22.50, and now the best I could find was £25.00, so I bought my ticket just in case. The East Coast site really does offer booking space for your bike, too. Even the National Rail Enquires site, which reroutes you to First Great Western for the ticket purchase, doesn't do that. All I have to do is collect the ticket when I get to the station.

 

[ColinJ]

Friendly tip..................
Don't look for logic or attempt to understand the UK rail fares pricing system, it will do your head in.

I had that conversation with someone yesterday!

If you go to a station ticket office and tell them when you are travelling, they will typically try and sell you a peak or off-peak ticket or maybe an Advance ticket. Advance tickets are cheaper but cannot be bought on the day of your journey and may not be available since numbers are limited. They are often still not the cheapest tickets but staff won't tell you that. If you tell them that there are cheaper alternatives, they will ask you what you had in mind rather than finding the information for you.

Even if they wanted to help you find the cheapest tickets, the system is so fragmented and complicated that it takes ages to find them and staff wouldn't have the time to do it.

I saved £20 on a return trip to Coventry by buying a single from Hebden Bridge to Leeds, a single from Leeds to Derby, a single from Derby to Coventry, and a similar set of single tickets for the return leg. I travelled on the same trains and in the same seats that I would have used travelling on the more expensive ticket and it took 3 times as long to issue the tickets to me. How does that make sense?

Companies like Red Spotted Hanky can save you a lot of money if you book far enough in advance.

I travelled up to Lancaster a couple of months back to do a forum ride. After doing some research, I had discovered the 'Lancashire Day Ranger' ticket. The ticket machine at Hebden Bridge station didn't sell them and the ticket office hadn't yet opened so I had to buy one on the train. When the conductor (are they still called conductors?) came along, I asked him for one of those tickets. He didn't have a clue what they were. I had to tell him all about them. He did a search on his ticket machine and found that there was indeed such a thing and said that they were about £2 or £3 cheaper than the day return tickets that he would normally issue for such a journey, which is why I wanted one of course!

Credit to him - he took out a notebook, wrote down the details and said that he'd make sure to issue those tickets in future when they would be cheaper than standard tickets. It's a bit sad though, that passengers are having to tell rail staff how to do their jobs!

 

[Soltydog]

I saved £20 on a return trip to Coventry by buying a single from Hebden Bridge to Leeds, a single from Leeds to Derby, a single from Derby to Coventry, and a similar set of single tickets for the return leg. I travelled on the same trains and in the same seats that I would have used travelling on the more expensive ticket and it took 3 times as long to issue the tickets to me. How does that make sense?

I have a friend who travels on the trains often & he splits journeys regular to make savings like that, but there is a downside. We spliting your journeys / tickets if you miss your connection somewhere along the line & can not get to your final destination, you may end up stuck somewhere, but if you have 1 ticket for the whole journey the train companies have a responsibilty to get you to your final destination (normally by taxi )
My mate travels upto 3 times a week & in the last 12 months has only been caught out once & ended up having to fund his own taxi from Doncaster to Hull, so I guess over the year its paid off for him

 

[ColinJ]

I have a friend who travels on the trains often & he splits journeys regular to make savings like that, but there is a downside. We spliting your journeys / tickets if you miss your connection somewhere along the line & can not get to your final destination, you may end up stuck somewhere, but if you have 1 ticket for the whole journey the train companies have a responsibilty to get you to your final destination (normally by taxi )

I must admit that I do worry about that when I have to change trains, but sometimes I am actually using 2 tickets for one train so I just stay in the same seat.

Incidentally - there is an even greater idiocy ... If you do that, you need to be able to get off the train and back on it again at the intermediate station, even if you were to actually remain in your seat. The tickets to/from the intermediate station are only valid if the train stops there, even if the actual route taken is the same.

I confirmed that with the conductor/train manager at Manchester once. I showed him my tickets before getting on the train and asked if they were valid. He said no, but since the train didn't have many passengers onboard, he let me on anyway.

 

[subaqua]

Thanks subaqua. That's pretty much what I'll be doing, plus just a few more stations. If you stand on the offside, there are only a few stations that use that side of the train, so you'd probably only have to move three or four times, I think. Naturally, though, those are the busiest stations, including Kings Cross and Liverpool Street).

I try and avoid central London entirely on the bike. Most of my cycling has either been along the River Lea, or the local roads, or by taking the Tube out to Epping or Upminster and cycling out from there.

being the sad feck i am I know the ham and city platforms are on the left of the train ( looking in direction of travel) from Stepney Green to Baker street. west ham is on right.

 

[subaqua]

[quote="ColinJ]
Credit to him - he took out a notebook, wrote down the details and said that he'd make sure to issue those tickets in future when they would be cheaper than standard tickets. It's a bit sad though, that passengers are having to tell rail staff how to do their jobs![/quote]


to be fair there are about sixty billion ticket combos so expecting staff to know all of them, especially one on the dark side of the hill , is a bit much