Taking a bike on a train

[abcd efg]

Good advice. Thanks

 

[Petrichorwheels]

LOL, the Butler (Claud) will come with me on the train.

Which train app do you recommend that has no fees?

I'd avoid any app - don't trust them for most transactions - their primary purpose to me seems to be to collect info about you they can leverage.
No probs to book online with most train cos using the web-page (and worth bearing in mind that you can get the same fares at ticket offices after your research.
I have used ticket offices after wonky bike bike booking with Avanti.
And as for your other post, sod trainline.
Suggest you look at the trains more.

 

[Petrichorwheels]

I haven't a Scooby's about the individual train company names, I just go on TrainLine and book tickets, mainly Leicester/Sheffield. Would that be midland or northern rail?

first step.
get a map out.
figure out where leicester and sheffield are.

 

[mjr]

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

If you're doing it with one change at Ely, I think the EMR train has two small bike cupboards, a two bike and a one bike. Reservations compulsory in theory, so worth having but, as others said, don't expect them to be cast iron. Trains start in Liverpool so hopefully you can grab the spaces before unreserved chancers do. Class 158 if you want to find pictures online. I think the bike space is near a coach connection, not an end. Not in sight of seats, so keep an eye on them at stops.

Ely to Cambridge is a mix: Greater Anglia trains to Cambridge or Stansted are best, with level boarding and 6 non reservation bike spaces at one end. Their trains to London Liverpool Street are also fairly good.

Next are Great Northern to King's Cross with no spaces but you're allowed to stand near doors with two bikes per doorway.

Worst will be CrossCountry to Stansted because they will have come from Birmingham and are usually rammed. I think in theory they have four bikes per train, all reserved, but seriously, they're usually rammed.

I think your key challenge will be to get on the EMR. There is a short section north of Peterborough where it is by far the best option and avoiding it means a detour (best detour maybe Northern to Manchester then Leeds and Doncaster then EMR to Lincoln and Peterborough finally Greater Anglia to Ely then Cambridge) or using an LNER Intercity with crap bike spaces and reservations sometimes enforced. If it all goes wrong after Ely, it's only 20 miles ride via Witchford and Cottenham, or 25 on NCN11 including gravel.

 

[a.twiddler]

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.

It's a while since I travelled on a train with a bike (2 of us) but to be fair it wasn't too bad. On the way out we travelled from the train's station of origin so we were able to get the bikes into the spaces before the luggage shelves filled up with cases and rucksacks. On the way back, despite being booked, we got on at an intermediate station and had to struggle to stow them where they weren't going to inconvenience passengers and get bumped and scraped because they were sticking out due to passengers filling up bike spaces with luggage. A contrast to travelling in the 70s and 80s when there was still loco hauled stock and older generation multiple units with generous guard's vans, and you could just turn up and get on.

I do have a Brompton, though haven't travelled by train carrying it as luggage yet. The prospect of just turning up and travelling with it as luggage is very appealing, with a transit case or for me, more likely an IKEA bag .

I don't see why we should be discriminated against on trains. The more inclusive and easy to use the services are, the more customers will travel on them, especially off peak and in touristy areas.

 

[Solocle]

Trainline now have bike reservation booking:

 

[T4tomo]

Trainline now have bike reservation booking:
View attachment 665711

View attachment 665712

does it actually book it though? I assume it just tells you you need to phone up and book it separately...At least it tells you if there is room which is a step forward I guess

 

[Dogtrousers]

does it actually book it though? I assume it just tells you you need to phone up and book it separately...At least it tells you if there is room which is a step forward I guess

I would get excited about seeing that, but like you I'm a bit jaded. "Ah, a seamless ticket purchase and bike booking facility ... what's the catch?"

 

[Solocle]

does it actually book it though? I assume it just tells you you need to phone up and book it separately...At least it tells you if there is room which is a step forward I guess

Oh dear, yeah, it gives you a phone number to call.

When getting tickets to Penzance I was using the GWR website, which does have online booking - but didn't show availability, and it was a right pain finding a train with space!

So use Trainline to scan and GWR to book, I reckon.

 

[ColinJ]

Every time I've taken the bike on a train, I make a reservation and all the bike racks are full (TFW)

Having a bike reservation means nothing. My normal booked bike space (I have a a space booked daily for my commute) is occupied half the time by the time I board the train. I either just put it on anyway or find a space in another carriage.

I was going to point that out.

It happened to me on one trip back to Leeds from Coventry. The bike spaces were full, one of them with an unreserved bike in it. I told the guard/conductor/whatever-they-are-called-now and she simply replied that she had no intention of walking up and down the train trying to find which naughty cyclist owned that bike. Super...

I stood with my bike for 2 hours and watched for the owner of the bike to appear as the train came in to Leeds. A small young man went to the bike. I recognised him immediately as a student at Leeds university who had come out on several of my local forum rides... I walked up behind him, towering over him, slapped my hand down on his shoulder, and in my deepest, gruffest, most intimidating voice barked out something along the lines of "Sir, you had no reservation for that bike!!!"

The little fella almost crapped himself. He spun round, blurting out apologies, and found me smiling back at him! (It was @Calum - he hasn't logged in to the forum for 7 years, but maybe he lurks now and then?)

 

[a.twiddler]

Since my reply upthread I've done a trip with the Brompton. Although I booked a seat, I took it at face value that it would travel as luggage even to the extent of putting it in a bin bag. Nantwich to Shrewsbury, then change for Shrewsbury to Welshpool, all on Transport for Wales Rail, on the luggage rack. A totally stressless experience compared with taking a touring bike despite having tickets checked to the nth degree on the train to Shrewsbury and on getting on the Welshpool train. There was no one to check when I got off at Welshpool.

I'd planned to cycle home from there using the Montgomery Canal towpath for part of the way but like many plans, the time rolled away faster than the miles. I ended up hopping on an un booked train between Whitchurch and Nantwich as I got way behind schedule. Again, no one took any notice of the Brompton which I just plonked in a bike space. Surprisingly, late on a Saturday night/Sunday morning, no one troubled me for my ticket. Despite hopping on the train, I managed to cycle 65 miles. It might have been a similar experience if I'd taken my tourer but the foldability of the Brompton took away that uncertainty that I could have been turned away if the bike spaces were full. I would certainly try this again for future trips.

 

[ColinJ]

Again, no one took any notice of the Brompton which I just plonked in a bike space.

Were you sitting nearby and watching it? I would be worried that somebody would pick it up and walk off with it!

 

[a.twiddler]

Like a hawk!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Like a hawk!

Hovering above whilst flapping your arms?

 

[a.twiddler]

If I could do that, I wouldn't need a bike (or a train)! I might be a kestrel rather than a hawk. I suspect that train cyclists' twitch might be an occupational hazard for regular cycle/train commuters, forever turning to check on your bike.