replacement bus service

[MossCommuter]

What happens if you turn up for a train (with your bicycle) only to find a replacement bus service in operation?

Just wondering

 

[rich p]

You're as screwed as if you went to catch a train, only to find that you'd thrown the ticket away

 

[MossCommuter]

Now what sort of idiot would do that?

 

[biggs682]

you get pedaling !

 

[Matthew_T]

Well if the train had specific bike storage facilities, then a bus should too. The alternative should always have the same facilities and features that the normal service would have (i.e. disabled facilities mainly).

 

[Sara_H]

Some coaches do have sufficient space for a bike in the under carriage. Whether the driver will allow it or not is a different matter.

 

[Arch]

Well if the train had specific bike storage facilities, then a bus should too. The alternative should always have the same facilities and features that the normal service would have (i.e. disabled facilities mainly).

Have you ever seen a bus? There's a bit of a disparity in the relative passenger/luggage capacities.

I suspect the answer to the question is, you're stuffed if you have a bike, unless the replacement is a coach with a large underbelly area, and a sympathetic driver, and none of the other passengers have any significant luggage.

In the case of a wheelchair user, I think it might be possible that the train company might have to pay for a taxi, although it might depend on whether the bus replacement was a last minute thing, or advertised well in advance, IE before the person booked their ticket.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Last time that happened to me after a FNRttC (long time ago then) I diverted to Reading and Oxford to get home, High Wycombe was shut - no biggie apart from I'd had no sleep and lots of beer for breakfast.

 

[P.H]

It's happened to me twice, York - Doncaster in the floods after York Rally a couple of years ago and Norwich - Nottingham after the Dun Run five years ago. Both times I got on, both times I was told by the rail folk it was at the drivers discretion. From York I had to wait till all the other passengers had loaded their luggage as the driver would only put my bike in a compartment on it's own. From Norwich the driver said no then changed his mind after ringing the coach company. I don't know what the legal position would be, both times I had cycle reservations.

 

[Fnaar]

I have an ample undercarriage, and I can probably cater for the disabled. However. I'm not a coach. Or a train. Or a replacement. But I am halfway through a Saturday evening bottle of red wine.

 

[Brandane]

Depends on what type of bus is doing the replacement service I think. I was waiting for a train at a small station a couple of years ago, when a bus pulled up. Driver asked if I was waiting for a train, and then told me they were not running. I put my bike in the boot, and off we went. No-one ever asked me for a ticket, and I didn't have one as I had cycled from home to the place I was picked up! (Before anyone gets overly concerned about my fraud, it was an unmanned station and the bus driver didn't have the facility to sell tickets).

On the odd occasion I have had to use a replacement bus and I have had my bike, I haven't had a problem getting the bike on the bus. Maybe I have just been lucky, or maybe Scotrail stipulate that any company tendering for the contract must be able to transport bikes too?

 

[Globalti]

I did it between Malaga and Motril because I didn't fancy cycling on that coast road. The bike just slipped into the bus's empty hold on its side.

(Note to self: check before cycling all the way to Orgiva in the Sierra Nevada that your friends are actually still there and didn't give up the Good Life and go home just a week before you went out for your idyllic cycling holiday.....)

 

[classic33]

Its time to get on your bike. Most bus replacement services are not insured to carry bicycles.

 

[rich p]

I seem to remember someone I know telling me that she and a friend got stranded when this happened once but they both had bike reservations, and she made such a terrible fuss the station manager called a people-carrier cab for them both and their bikes to honour their tickets. Sometimes the journey is too long for people to cycle; it does depend what they've already done that day and what distances they're used to doing.

I'm guessing it will be too far for Mossy

 

[ufkacbln]

Depends on what type of bus is doing the replacement service I think. I was waiting for a train at a small station a couple of years ago, when a bus pulled up. Driver asked if I was waiting for a train, and then told me they were not running. I put my bike in the boot, and off we went. No-one ever asked me for a ticket, and I didn't have one as I had cycled from home to the place I was picked up! (Before anyone gets overly concerned about my fraud, it was an unmanned station and the bus driver didn't have the facility to sell tickets).

On the odd occasion I have had to use a replacement bus and I have had my bike, I haven't had a problem getting the bike on the bus. Maybe I have just been lucky, or maybe Scotrail stipulate that any company tendering for the contract must be able to transport bikes too?

Scotrail is different, they even operate a bike recovery service in conjunction with ETA