Bikes on Trains

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BrumJim

Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
Currently reading the Williams-Shapps plan available here.

The section below applies to us:
40. Getting to the station on a bike and taking it on a train will be made easier. The government is investing £2 billion of new money to dramatically improve cycling. A bike can make clean and sustainable transport journeys door-to-door when combined with a train, bus or light rail, matching the convenience of the car. The government will invest substantial sums on safe cycle routes to stations, particularly in commuter towns such as Guildford and Harrogate, and increase cycle storage at stations, including at city-centre termini, where it is currently limited.

Bringing a bike on board makes a train journey even more convenient, yet even as cycling has grown in popularity, the railways have reduced space available for bikes on trains. Great British Railways will reverse that, increasing space on existing trains wherever practically possible, including on popular leisure routes. It will also make it easier to reserve bike spaces online and without reservation on quieter trains. All future train fleets will need to include more bike spaces relevant to the markets served. Operators will continue to restrict bikes on peak-hour commuter trains, where the space is needed for passengers.
 
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Location
Wirral
Currently reading the Williams-Shapps plan available here.

The section below applies to us:
40. Getting to the station on a bike and taking it on a train will be made easier. The government is investing £2 billion of new money to dramatically improve cycling. A bike can make clean and sustainable transport journeys door-to-door when combined with a train, bus or light rail, matching the convenience of the car. The government will invest substantial sums on safe cycle routes to stations, particularly in commuter towns such as Guildford and Harrogate, and increase cycle storage at stations, including at city-centre termini, where it is currently limited.

Bringing a bike on board makes a train journey even more convenient, yet even as cycling has grown in popularity, the railways have reduced space available for bikes on trains. Great British Railways will reverse that, increasing space on existing trains wherever practically possible, including on popular leisure routes. It will also make it easier to reserve bike spaces online and without reservation on quieter trains. All future train fleets will need to include more bike spaces relevant to the markets served. Operators will continue to restrict bikes on peak-hour commuter trains, where the space is needed for passengers.

Add a special cycle/converted guards van. Is it difficult to swap a towed trailer to other end? Or cut an existing guards van in half vertically and replace the top with a hinged lid, so it simply lifts to load/unload but is also low enough for the driver to see over. No need to reduce capacity at peak times.
 
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BrumJim

BrumJim

Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
Add a special cycle/converted guards van. Is it difficult to swap a towed trailer to other end? Or cut an existing guards van in half vertically and replace the top with a hinged lid, so it simply lifts to load/unload but is also low enough for the driver to see over. No need to reduce capacity at peak times. In terms of seeing over, the days of the driver trying to look out of a small window along the length of a steam train have long gone. The driver needs good visibility from his driving seat for things like ground signals, and control when coupling up to another train, so putting anything in front which will restrict his/her visibility is not sensible.
I'm afraid so. The other end swiftly becomes the front when the train reaches its destination. Really difficult to move it from the front to the back as you need a vehicle to shunt it, arranging points and signalling changes in a very congested location, and if the destination is a terminal station, getting it on to the back of the train.

Hopefully (and I say this with a lot of warning) this change will stop the requirement for train services to be won on the number of seats offered, and therefore allow more space to be used for other purposes such as bikes. Currently franchises are incentives to fit as many uncomfortable seats as possible into a service to the detriment of other factors.
 
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Location
Wirral
I'm afraid so. The other end swiftly becomes the front when the train reaches its destination. Really difficult to move it from the front to the back as you need a vehicle to shunt it, arranging points and signalling changes in a very congested location, and if the destination is a terminal station, getting it on to the back of the train.
<SNIP>
And a cut down guards van with forward visibility maintained?
 
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BrumJim

BrumJim

Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
And a cut down guards van with forward visibility maintained?
Yes, saw that and updated my comment which appears to have got lost.

Essentially the driver needs good visibility forwards for ground signals and for coupling, and even a cut-down van would restrict the vision too much. The driver needs to see the track a minimum of 10m from the front of the train.
 
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Caltrain in the Silicon Valley has dedicated bike carriage where bike are stored on the lower deck and you sit on the upper deck. You can keep an eye on the lower deck.


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BoldonLad

Not part of the Elite
Location
South Tyneside
Judging by the age of some of the Rolling Stock I see in use, existing, none cycle friendly, rolling stock is going to with us for some considerable time.

A solution could be to introduce specialist units, for bicycles, "inserted" into the train. Not holding my breath on this one, talk is cheap. ;)
 

BoldonLad

Not part of the Elite
Location
South Tyneside
I think the only actually practical way to increase bike capacity would be to remove/rejig seating in existing stock. Even that would be very expensive I'd guess. Unless there is some already unused "guards van" style storage that could be pressed into service.

Yes, that is what I was trying to suggest (badly expressed). Say, for example, alter an existing "seating" unit to be 50% seating, 50% bike space, and, add such unit into existing train.

No, I have not been over indulging in the vino, just dreaming ;)
 
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BrumJim

BrumJim

Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
I thought they had wheels not feets. This is what you get when you let William Shatner write your plans.
Strange copy and paste error. Maybe due to copyright issues? Had exactly the same 'fleet-feet' transposition when I copied some other text from the document and pasted it.
 
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DRM

Guru
Location
West Yorks
I suspect this is just another 3 word phrase, like the COVID ones we’ve had, if they were serious about this, the current franchises would be cancelled, the railways would be nationalised and the fares sorted out, so they were more affordable and uncomplicated, there would be space for bikes too, but as others have put we’re stuck with what we already have for the foreseeable future
 
Location
Wirral
Yes, but I think you'd run into problems with "add that unit" because it could make the train too long and put some doors outside platforms. So you'd be restricted to ripping some seats out of an existing train, putting a bit of old carpet down, and putting up a handwritten sign "Bikez heer pleez" (I'm trying to keep costs down).
Are all trains really at platform max? Or how about they just add "the extra scummy cyclist" carriage to those services that aren't at sardine levels of packing. Or put us cyclists off the end of the short platforms but make the access to the nearest platform door easy, or maybe have those able to walk simply move a carriage to platform (it's everyone's planet that needs saving after all) so as long as the less abled folk are using the carrriages towards the middle then we're all good.
 

robjh

Legendary Member
Add a special cycle/converted guards van. Is it difficult to swap a towed trailer to other end? Or cut an existing guards van in half vertically and replace the top with a hinged lid, so it simply lifts to load/unload but is also low enough for the driver to see over. No need to reduce capacity at peak times.
The days of guards' vans are long gone. All modern British trains - and this is true for most comparable railway systems too - run in fixed formation, where there is no shunting or question of adding extra wagons for particular needs. Cycle capacity has to be inside trains and therefore at the expense of seats. There are some modern units that manage this quite well such as the Greater Anglia class 755s, and others such as the Hitachi 800/802 series on GWR and LNER which have abominable cycle storage.
 

robjh

Legendary Member
Currently reading the Williams-Shapps plan available here.

The section below applies to us:
40. Getting to the station on a bike and taking it on a train will be made easier. The government is investing £2 billion of new money to dramatically improve cycling. A bike can make clean and sustainable transport journeys door-to-door when combined with a train, bus or light rail, matching the convenience of the car. The government will invest substantial sums on safe cycle routes to stations, particularly in commuter towns such as Guildford and Harrogate, and increase cycle storage at stations, including at city-centre termini, where it is currently limited.

Bringing a bike on board makes a train journey even more convenient, yet even as cycling has grown in popularity, the railways have reduced space available for bikes on trains. Great British Railways will reverse that, increasing space on existing trains wherever practically possible, including on popular leisure routes. It will also make it easier to reserve bike spaces online and without reservation on quieter trains. All future train fleets will need to include more bike spaces relevant to the markets served. Operators will continue to restrict bikes on peak-hour commuter trains, where the space is needed for passengers.
Nice if it turns out to be true. I will reserve my praise until I actually see these newly-commissioned trains with greater cycle capacity.
 
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