Southern Trains & London Freewheel

[ufkacbln]

Forgive me if I am being thick - but surely if trains are crowded an there is no space it means that you need.........................a bigger train?

What we need to do is to stop the lack of incentive to actually provide seats and comfort for passengers.

Buses, aircraft, taxis etc all have restrictions, only rail is allowed to pack people in like Sardines - and as it is profitable to do so it will continue.

We need to have a limit on each train carriage (for instance 10 persons standing) to make the journey more comfortable and rovide space for bikes and luggage

 

[hackbike 6]

...and back in the real world.

That is three whizz kids the railway could do with.

 

[A V Lowe]

The lack of imaginative management seems to be a trait in Sothern and the recently Govia London Midland both have demanded that folding bikes are folded and carried for susbtantiual distances (potentially forcing passengers to exceed the limits set by HSE Manual Handling Regulations) When National Express and First were suggesting they might run full length trains on Freewheel Sunday to cater for the demand from cyclists, Southern does this

For London to Brighton ride SW Trains anticipates demand for travel to Clapham and accommodates it Souther (officially) shuts down their entire network and forces Thameslink to chuck bikes off at London Bridge. Unofficially the front line staff are much more sensible - if you aren't going anywhere near Brighton or Clapham no-one stops you getting on with a bike.

By contrast the following month Thameslink runs 8 coach trains in place of 4-coach trains, between Brighton & London to work with the Hampton Court to Hove bike ride getting people back to London, and on June 15 in Liverpool Merseyrail was running 6 coaches instead of 3 on trains to Chester, in one case 47 bikes were carried on one train (NB this is not the record for this type of train - we had 37 on a 3-coach train for one event - on a Thursday morning in the rush hour!)

 

[hackbike 6]

Eh? I work for SWT and I havent noticed any extra workings recently for these sort of biking special events.I remember that Windsor ride,my train was jam packed with bikes.No extra services on that day as far ar i know.

 

[A V Lowe]

No extra services but I suspect a few subtle strengthenings, and staff briefed to expect bikes. Was the Windsor line running with 4's or 8's for the Windsor Ride?

 

[mr_cellophane]

On the day of the London-Southend run there were extra staff at Stratford in the morning to make sure all the bike were off and clear of the trains.

 

[hackbike 6]

8's as per normal.Briefings?
You are joking aren't you?
On the day of the Windsor ride we had to turn bikes away as far as I can remember.Subtle strengthings? haha.