mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
If you are paying Trainline's booking fees, I expect your butler can book your bike for you.
Taking a bike on a train
- Thread starter Mazz
- Start date
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vickster
Legendary Member
Just had a quick look. TrainLine still seems cheaper even with the piggybank breaking fee of 50p. I'll have a closer look later👍
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
https://www.brfares.com/
That's a joke btw. That website will list out the underlying fare data that ticket sellers use. It's borderline incomprehensible but interesting nonetheless.
https://www.brfares.com/
That's a joke btw. That website will list out the underlying fare data that ticket sellers use. It's borderline incomprehensible but interesting nonetheless.
LOL if you that's interesting, you need to get out on your bike more. 😆
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
They sell the same tickets for the same trains, so EMR should be 50p cheaper from what you wrote.
If they differ, one has probably erred, but fortunately the error is decided in your favour: even if the cheaper ticket is incorrect, if you can prove that Trainline sold it to you for that exact train, you win and the train company's dispute is with the ticket seller. Don't expect such errors to be common or be left uncorrected for long, though.
presta
Guru
I went to Braintree to book a ticket from Witham to Penzance:
"Sorry, you need to go to the mainline station at Witham, our ticket machine won't do that"
Seven miles away at Witham, the guy spent 30-40 minutes on the phone to head office asking how to book bike tickets before telling me to go away, and pointing to the notice on the wall saying "Special Tickets Won't be Sold at Weekends".
After another 10 mile drive, I got a ticket at Chelmsford.
- Location
- Inside my skull
Not a special ticket. Sounds like they just weren’t trained to do their job.
The train operators do not like allowing cycles on their trains. The carriages are made for passengers. The luggage wagon no longer exists so these spikey awkward machines have to be boarded alongside passengers who are averse to being bumped, possibly bruised or otherwise inconvenienced by our bicycles. It seems the surest tactic to avoid being discriminated against on account of our bicycles is to use a proper light weight folder such as the Brompton. In its transit case this very capable bike is no more than another piece of luggage on the bag shelves or on the luggage rack.
Jackslad
Active Member
- Location
- Lancashire
The ‘Red Spotted Hanky’ app lets you book bicycle places on trains.
This may be the wrong place to ask this question, but in October a friend and I are travelling from Liverpool to Cambridge with bikes and panniers. Can anyone advised about the possible complications or difficulties doing this having made reservations for the bikes. We are planning to use the route that goes cross country to Cambridge and not go via the London connection. Thanks
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Thanks. It is ridiculous when you have to be more concerned about getting to the start of your tour than the actual tour. But I guess we'll just have to get used to it. The good old days when trains had goods vans behind the engine are gone. I guess what we well do is book for the first train possible after arriving from the Belfast ferry and then hope to actually get on that train. If not, we will just keep trying the next trains until we can actyually get space for the bikes. The same coming back. Cheers
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
My only bit of advice is to ask platform staff (if there are any) whereabouts the bike carriage is, so you don't end up pegging it down the platform to the other end of the platform when the train pulls in.
