Dunwich Dynamo 2026

[mjr]

not just the Sunday, but Monday too on the local services.
https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/abo...ia-advises-dunwich-dynamo-cyclists-plan-ahead

It says "There are six cycle spaces on each of Greater Anglia’s intercity trains, which is not enough to accommodate the large number of cyclists who take part in the ride."

which is

a. Incorrect, as the trains without buffets have 18 spaces, which is still not enough but why not let those be booked and check bike tickets at the barriers on those days?

b. Incompetent, running trains between the most cycle-using regions of England without enough bike spaces. Isn't GBRailways meant to be fixing this sort of lunacy, not merely standardising the obnoxiousness?

Bottom line, the train companies are still turning away customers instead of finding solutions to serve needs. The Great British "won't do" attitude lives on!

 

[sevenfourate]

Bottom line, the train companies are still turning away customers instead of finding solutions to serve needs. The Great British "won't do" attitude lives on!

Couldn’t agree more. Rather than see an opportunity to increase usage / revenue; they see an insurmountable challenge and give in. Quite pathetic……..

 

[freiston]

Can't but help think of that old film from the 50s of the BR/CTC special from London to Rugby ("Rugby! Who wants to got to Rugby?")

 

[freiston]

Can't but help think of that old film from the 50s of the BR/CTC special from London to Rugby ("Rugby! Who wants to got to Rugby?")

Link:

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-cyclists-special-1956-online

ETA: I can't get that link to work (tried two different browsers and tried viewing a different film successfully so I reckon it's a problem with that film at the website end). I found one on Vimeo but it insisted on age verification (despite the film being suitable for family viewing) - first time I've logged into it since the law change. I ain't bothering with that. I've probably had the account for about 15 years or more! The film used to be on YouTube but got taken down

Further ETA: Vimeo link works with VPN without logging in to Vimeo

View: http://www.vimeo.com/2716712

 

[rogerzilla]

Couldn’t agree more. Rather than see an opportunity to increase usage / revenue; they see an insurmountable challenge and give in. Quite pathetic……..

With a few exceptions, modern trains don't have guard's compartments, so there's nowhere to physically stash lots of bikes. TfW have retrofitted a few class 153s as bike carrying units, and services with DVTs (TfW Premier Service and the remaining east coast main line Electra sets) can take bikes easily, but I don't think anything serving Suffolk does.

You can blame successive governments for setting the standards for passenger accommodation; cyclists were very low on the priority list.

 

[mjr]

With a few exceptions, modern trains don't have guard's compartments, so there's nowhere to physically stash lots of bikes. TfW have retrofitted a few class 153s as bike carrying units, and services with DVTs (TfW Premier Service and the remaining east coast main line Electra sets) can take bikes easily, but I don't think anything serving Suffolk does.

Modern trains don't have guard compartments, but they're not even using the bike compartments they do have, which is ridiculous.

Both 153s and DVTs (probably only Mark 2 & 3s on Saturday specials) have operated on the East Suffolk and the Great Eastern in the past. Now it's all becoming GB Railways, special services are more possible than under the privatised battling businesses.

You can blame successive governments for setting the standards for passenger accommodation; cyclists were very low on the priority list.

I do, but can we also blame the current one for not improving the situation at all? At least some private operator(s) tried to provide some service to Dynamo riders in the past, before the last "greater" franchises made them too big to compete.

 

[biggs682]

Why not just do the same route on a different day ?

 

[katiewlx]

With a few exceptions, modern trains don't have guard's compartments, so there's nowhere to physically stash lots of bikes. TfW have retrofitted a few class 153s as bike carrying units, and services with DVTs (TfW Premier Service and the remaining east coast main line Electra sets) can take bikes easily, but I don't think anything serving Suffolk does.

You can blame successive governments for setting the standards for passenger accommodation; cyclists were very low on the priority list.

its a topic that comes up every year in cycling forums, but always ignores the reality of the situation, we rightly (imo) dont build our public transport system to cope with exceptional demands of a one off yearly peak. theyre designed to support the average passenger demands, that means we get 6 cycle spots per train, which actually is greater than the number the old trains on the local lines used to support, and the same as the old Intercity ones that used to trundle around on the main line.

its rural Suffolk ok, we're not able to fully support thousands of cyclists descending on the place on one day, and cater for all their needs and desired transportive choices home.

 

[mjr]

its rural Suffolk ok, we're not able to fully support thousands of cyclists descending on the place on one day, and cater for all their needs and desired transportive choices home.

And yet they used to try, but now they also fail to cater to any cyclists on the main line despite having 3 trains per hour (tph) to London with between 6 & 18 bike spaces, 2tph to Norwich, 1tph to Cambridge and 1tp2h to Peterborough. The trains are going the wrong way, full steam reverse!

edit to add: and it's not entirely true that 6 cycle spaces is more than the old trains on the East Suffolk used to have. Anglia were running sprinsters with a bay of bike hangers instead of a table seat bay, plus you used to be able to stand bikes in the vestibules. I think it was National Express's "one railway" that refurbished without the hangers and banned more than 4 bikes on regional route trains. This wasn't some long-gone age of guards vans. This was two franchisees ago. It always surprises me some cyclists oppose fixing what's broken. Why shouldn't we have decent transport?

 

[Deeferdonk]

i travelled down to the dunwich dynamo from the east midlands for a few years in a row about 2015-2018. I really enjoyed it and it was one of the reasons that i bought a brompton to enable me to get back on the local trains at the end and make my way home - which was still a mission. Then they even banned folding bikes on the trains and it became too inconvenient without stopping a night or travelling back to London and i descided it was too inconvenient. For anyone not local to the Dunwich Dynamo who wants an alternative for future years, i would recommend Ride to the Sun, which is another free night ride from Carlisle to Edinburgh, which i did a couple of times. It was still a distance for me to get to and from but as i'm near the central spine of the rail network (and they don't ban bikes from trains!) was far more convenient