Cycles on rail in 2019

[snorri]

Scotrail announce cycle coaches on west coast lines
https://www.scotsman.com/news/trans...itched-to-trains-to-ease-bike-crush-1-4755533

 

[Littgull]

Well done Scotrail.

Now we just need the remaining UK train operators to be COMPELLED to follow!

 

[robjh]

This will be a welcome development if it indeed gets implemented - I note that the plans are for a year ahead, and it is stressed that they are on a 'trial' basis.
In any case, we shouldn't get too excited yet about the rest of the network. The solution being proposed - refurbishing redundant one-coach trains by removing some or all seating and attaching them to the existing trains on these routes - will be rather costly and best suited specifically to conditions on these lines which already suffer seasonal overcrowding and have a high potential demand from cyclists, and where the redundant units (class 153s for train buffs) are easily compatible with other stock on the line. As for the extra costs, I wonder how they are expecting to cover them - would there be a charge for taking bikes, or does someone believe that this would lead to more cyclists taking the train (and therefore needing more seating too)?

 

[mcshroom]

I think the 2019 date bit is the key. The 153s don't meet DDA requirements at the moment and converting them to have things like accessible toilets could be quite expensive. stripping out seats and using them as a goods carriage sounds a good idea. I'd imagine the extra engine would be useful for reliability too.

 

[Littgull]

This will be a welcome development if it indeed gets implemented - I note that the plans are for a year ahead, and it is stressed that they are on a 'trial' basis.
In any case, we shouldn't get too excited yet about the rest of the network. The solution being proposed - refurbishing redundant one-coach trains by removing some or all seating and attaching them to the existing trains on these routes - will be rather costly and best suited specifically to conditions on these lines which already suffer seasonal overcrowding and have a high potential demand from cyclists, and where the redundant units (class 153s for train buffs) are easily compatible with other stock on the line. As for the extra costs, I wonder how they are expecting to cover them - would there be a charge for taking bikes, or does someone believe that this would lead to more cyclists taking the train (and therefore needing more seating too)?

Yes, you make some very good points @robjh. We are, indeed, a very long way before anything like cycle friendly train operators are commonplace. But at least this little crumb is mildly positive concerning Scotrail.

The disgraceful reality of all this train company discrimination against cyclists is that the UK government had it within their powers to spec out these train operator contracts to ensure that those companies bidding for franchises must provide sufficient space on all trains to accommodate at least 4+cycles. This totally incompetent Tory government claims to be in favour of getting people to exercise more and thereby reducing the pressure on the NHS and yet allows the privatised rail operators to make it as difficult as possible to reliably take a bike on a train!

We have the ridiculous scenario of, for example, The German state owned rail company owning large tranches of UK train operator franchisees (especially in the north and Wales) i.e. Arriva, Northern and Cross Country. They operate unfriendly cycle policies, cream off large profits from overcharged exploited UK passengers and reinvest this in their own state of the art highly cycle friendly train service in Germany!!! What mugs we all are to allow this to happen. (N.b. nothing anti German in my view by the way. I actually really admire how committed and efficient they are in running their public services).

 

[mjr]

As for the extra costs, I wonder how they are expecting to cover them - would there be a charge for taking bikes, or does someone believe that this would lead to more cyclists taking the train (and therefore needing more seating too)?

There used to be a charge, until CTC campaigned for its removal IIRC. That's turned out to be a pyrrhic victory.

 

[robjh]

There used to be a charge, until CTC campaigned for its removal IIRC. That's turned out to be a pyrrhic victory.

In the early 90s there was certainly a charge, IIRC £3, for a bike on some long distance trains - it may have been for all of the InterCity sector at that time, I can't honestly remember. It was a slight annoyance, sure, but it never stopped me taking a bike on a train.
I don't know about the CTC campaign - I always imagined its demise was more on the dog licence model - it cost as much/more to collect as/than it raised and was rarely policed anyway making it widely evaded and rather pointless.

 

[ColinJ]

The disgraceful reality of all this train company discrimination against cyclists is that the UK government had it within their powers to spec out these train operator contracts to ensure that those companies bidding for franchises must provide sufficient space on all trains to accommodate at least 4+cycles. This totally incompetent Tory government claims to be in favour of getting people to exercise more and thereby reducing the pressure on the NHS and yet allows the privatised rail operators to make it as difficult as possible to reliably take a bike on a train!

We have the ridiculous scenario of, for example, The German state owned rail company owning large tranches of UK train operator franchisees (especially in the north and Wales) i.e. Arriva, Northern and Cross Country. They operate unfriendly cycle policies, cream off large profits from overcharged exploited UK passengers and reinvest this in their own state of the art highly cycle friendly train service in Germany!!! What mugs we all are to allow this to happen. (N.b. nothing anti German in my view by the way. I actually really admire how committed and efficient they are in running their public services).

I thought that you might have been exaggerating when you told me of your difficulties travelling with a bike on Arriva Trains Wales, but then I experienced it for myself a few weeks ago! A 4-carriage train was reduced to 2 carriages on a busy bank holiday weekend. An exasperated guard helped us squeeze our bikes onto a crowded train with only 2 official bike spaces, which already had 4 bikes on board. He told us that he didn't want to turn cyclists away - he is a cyclist too - but if one more passenger tried to board with a bike, he would be forced to stop them.