"Fold and Carry" on Rail Stations

[Bromptonaut]

Long standing chatters will recall various attempts by rail companies to require folding bikes to be kept folded on the station in what is described as a "fold and carry" policy.

London Midland tried this on in 2008 and were seen off by a strong protest. I retain an email confirming their apologetic retraction of a "fold & carry" policy at Milton Keynes and other stations. Unfortunately posters requiring users to keep folding bikes folded on stations have recently re-appeared at Euston and Milton Keynes.

I have written to LM asking whether they have resiled from the assurances given last year about this misguided policy. A reply is awaited.

In the meantime please use this thread to exchange views.

 

[ianrauk]

why is it such a problem to fold the bike as asked? Isn't that why you bought a Brompton in the first place?

 

[Bman]

What’s the problem with folding it before you get on the train? You're only going to fold it when you get on the train anyway right?

That way, its easier to board the train and causes less of an obstruction to other passengers.

 

[mr_cellophane]

I would have thought it was easier and quicker to keep the bike folded until you were out of the station. Not to mention better for the other passengers as well.

 

[Bromptonaut]

No problem at all with folding it before boarding the train (ie at on the platform at the train the door).

Issue is carrying the bike from the station door 300m or so to the train & vv. Wheelable object + person is turned into person + 2 unwleldy packages. Which is easier on platforms, staircases and at particularly at ticket barriers?

 

[ianrauk]

have you actually ever been asked to fold the bike or seen others asked?

 

[TheDoctor]

I took a Brompton through MK station last Friday. Wheeled it through the barriers, down in the lift and then folded it on the platform, once I'd established which end of the train I needed. No-one batted an eyelid.
No problem wheeling it around when I had to change trains at Chester either. Or coming back through MK on the Sunday.

 

[TheBoyBilly]

Never had a problem wheeling a folder around Southern/SouthEastern/FCC stations.What is it with some Managers? Are they so short of meaningful work that they sit twiddling their thumbs before coming up with some stupid, unnecessary local by-law designed solely to p*ss folk off? There is absolutely no need to fold a bike until just before boarding a train. I bet Health & Safety will be churned out somewhere.........grrrr!

 

[LOGAN 5]

No problem at all with folding it before boarding the train (ie at on the platform at the train the door).

Issue is carrying the bike from the station door 300m or so to the train & vv. Wheelable object + person is turned into person + 2 unwleldy packages. Which is easier on platforms, staircases and at particularly at ticket barriers?

+1
Totally agree it's very awkward to carry a folded bike plus bags hundreds of yards through the station. My Dahon Jack would be almost impossible to carry with two panniers as well!

Afterall they don't insist suitcases are carried and not wheeled or push chairs dismantled and baby carried do they. Stupid discriminatory thinking.

 

[Flying Dodo]

I've wheeled my full size bike a few times through MK station in the last year without anyone asking me to (somehow) fold it. It would be discrimination to expect owners of folding bikes to keep them folded at all times. I'm sure there's an EU law against that sort of thing.

 

[jonesy]

Let's not bring loaded words like 'discrimination' into this... the rule does seem silly and unnecessary, and indeed not necessarily helpful for the purpose it has been introduced for, but we do need to acknowledge that bikes around in crowded stations can cause problems for other passengers and we need to do what we can to minimise them. I quite often see people with folders getting on and off busy trains with them unfolded, and leaving them haphazardly propped in crowded vestibules- why? Especially with a Brompton, whose ease of foldability is presumably the reason it was bought in the first place!

 

[ianrauk]

Well put Jonesy.
When I was a rail commuter I did used to see folders being taken on trains unfolded. It is lazyness as well as damn inconsiderate. And one of the first things that Bromptonites do like to do is brag at how quick and easy they are to fold.

As to the original poster, please do not take this as a dig a those with folders rather then I can't really see what the problem is and why all the fuss. Other posters have commented that they have never been stopped on stations. Wheel your bike to the barriers then fold the thing and if a member of the station staff accost you just say sorry and fold it. I can't see unfolded Bromptons are high on the list of Station Staff's radar.

 

[LOGAN 5]

bikes folded or not are no more a problem than any other kind of luggage or push chairs. Lost count of the number of times I've almost tripped over those wheeled suitcases when someone passes me with it in tow. So it is discrimination to pick on passengers with bikes as opposed to those with other items to trip over and obstruct vestibules etc.

 

[jonesy]

Bikes are dirtier and oiler than suitcases and have more things sticking out of them for people to snag their clothes on, or catch their fingers in and hurt themselves. Oh, and a bike propped in a vestubule or against a door is far more likely to collapse awkwardly and unfold than a suitcase. Also, at peak commuting times then bikes are actually quite a high proportion of 'luggage', as commuters don't usually carry large suitcases.

 

[Twenty Inch]

Cannon Street station every so often issues platform staff with a letter requiring a "fold and carry" policy, which is given to cyclists. At Cannon Street, complying with this policy to the letter of the law would inconvenience other passengers MORE than my current practice. At the moment, I wheel my bike in the heavy flow of passengers from the street, sidestepping the free-paper distributors, carry it up the first set of steps without breaking step, wheel it diagonally across the first lower concourse in the stream of passengers, carry up the second set of steps, wheel it across the second concourse, through the gate, wheel up the platform and into the train, and fold it there so that it takes up less room.

If I were to comply with the policy, I'd stop on the narrow, scaffolding-and-free-paper-distributor-obstructed pavement outside the station, creating an extra obstacle, fold the thing, taking all that extra space, and then carry a large, heavy metal bundle with several sharp sticky-out bits, and my pannier, in the passenger stream, presumably going through the regular ticket barriers. People would be less aware of the bike until a sharp bit of it came into contact with them, and I would be slower and wider as I carried it, creating a greater obstacle at the several pinch-points on the way from the street to the train.

The platform staff, to their credit, look embarassed as they press these things on you, and don't enforce the policy afterwards. If it happens again, I may ask a station manager to accompany me as I give a demonstration.

All the above discounts the inconvenience to me of carrying a bulky, heavy, dirty metal object as opposed to using the two wheels with which it is equipped.

Rail managers simply don't like bikes - they disrupt patterns and require special arrangements. They've long tried to force cyclists off peak-hour services in particular and rail in general. Their insistence on folding bikes was a great boon to Dahon and Brompton, but they'd like to get rid of us entirely. They only accomodate wheelchair users as they are required to by law.