Northern Rail - trips without bike reservations?

[matticus]

(I can't find the thread where this was mentioned - hopefully no harm in starting a dedicated one!)

Can anyone tell me what trips are (ALWAYS!) possible without a reservation? I'm particularly interested in getting from the Peak District to North of Manchester, but I imagine other trips will be of wide interest. 👍

 

[DCLane]

There's lots of space and almost always enough space for bikes, except at peak times.

 

[Blue Hills]

Northern are great with bikes, very easygoing and sensible. You will be fine. I would avoid peak times for obvious reasons.

 

[KnittyNorah]

(I can't find the thread where this was mentioned - hopefully no harm in starting a dedicated one!)

Can anyone tell me what trips are (ALWAYS!) possible without a reservation? I'm particularly interested in getting from the Peak District to North of Manchester, but I imagine other trips will be of wide interest. 👍

It is not actually possible to make a reservation on any Northern train, AFAIK. I have certainly never made one, not ever attempted to make one, or been asked for or offered one, and I've been using Northern Rail with my bike at least once a week since the beginning of August. Mainly to the Fylde coast but also to Lancaster and beyond.

Don't expect to travel in rush hour into or out of Manchester on any service used by commuters.

If you're not travelling in rush hour, it is highly unlikely that you will encounter any problem UNLESS here's a bus replacement service for engineering work or similar, or if you are rude or mean to the platform/train staff.
Otherwise it's my experience that they are at worst merely accepting of you and your bike and at best very helpful indeed.

I've been on busy trains to the seaside with several bikes, scooters, baby buggys and bulky sporting equipment, and we all just arranged ourselves cheerfully around, questioning where we would each be getting off and swapping positions in advance so that disembarking was easy. When someone else got on halfway, he arranged himself amongst us accordingly and when the conductor/ticket collector came past, she just said 'make sure you keep the aisle clear!' Someone said 'if anyone else gets on with a bike or a buggy, this lady (he nodded towards me) says she can fold her bike up to make room for it' and the conductor was happy.

I can imagine if someone with a 'different' attitude tried to get on, they might find themselves being told there's no space for them, though!

 

[mjr]

The official cycling statement for the train company called Northern is at https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/travel/cycling/54-bike-on-trains : no reservations required (but I think not even possible) and it's always at the guard's discretion. Avoid services stopping in cities at peak times and I'd expect it would be fine.

Some services between Manchester central stations and the Peak District are operated by Trans Pennine Express who always require reservations (but some guards are relaxed) and by East Midlands Railway who don't allow reservation, only have a few spaces and AFAIK almost always refuse to carry bikes elsewhere (like all their Netherlands Railways siblings).

 

[matticus]

I can imagine if someone with a 'different' attitude tried to get on, they might find themselves being told there's no space for them, though

That's me bu99ered then .... oh well, I'll try to stick to quieter services!

 

[ColinJ]

I have only failed to get my bike on one Northern train, and that was just after 5pm on a commuter train out of Leeds.

I have had to postpone trips because of replacement buses being run. They usually give notice of those, but obviously things do go wrong from time to time causing line closures at short notice, but that can happen with any form of transport.