Taking bikes on train from Oxford to Glasgow?

[oxford_guy]

Hi - I'm going on a cycling trip to Islay in mid-May, but need to travel up on the train, with bike, from Oxford to Glasgow first, to meet with my fellow cyclists. Is it possible to book a space for my bike online, or would I have to phone or visit my local station first to do this? Are some of the routes to Glasgow easier to do with bikes than others? Any advice on would be most welcome! Thanks

 

[andym]

Bad news is that Virgin trains don't have a good reputation for cycle-friendliness. There are only two bike spaces on the pendolinos so reservation is a must. I think you have to do it by phone. The National Rail enquiries website has information about the cycle policy of all the train companies - simply click on details for the train you are interested in. I suspect you will need to book by phone or in person which is a hassle.

If you don't mind coming to London you might find that the Caledonian sleeper is an option that's worth considering - you can get a Bargain Berth for £19.

 

[oxford_guy]

Bad news is that Virgin trains don't have a good reputation for cycle-friendliness. There are only two bike spaces on the pendolinos so reservation is a must. I think you have to do it by phone. The National Rail enquiries website has information about the cycle policy of all the train companies - simply click on details for the train you are interested in. I suspect you will need to book by phone or in person which is a hassle.

If you don't mind coming to London you might find that the Caledonian sleeper is an option that's worth considering - you can get a Bargain Berth for £19.

I don't necessarily mind coming to London - provided, of course, I can also get my bike on a train from Oxford to London...Is this likely to be difficult?

 

[andym]

I don't necessarily mind coming to London - provided, of course, I can also get my bike on a train from Oxford to London...Is this likely to be difficult?

Not sure, I haven't travelled on that line in a long time. FGW are one of the more cycle-friendly companies, but I know that there have been a lot of complaints about service on that line. Avoid rush hours.

 

[oxford_guy]

Not sure, I haven't travelled on that line in a long time. FGW are one of the more cycle-friendly companies, but I know that there have been a lot of complaints about service on that line. Avoid rush hours.

Will probably be going on a Saturday, coming back on a Sunday, if it makes any difference...

 

[andym]

I'm pretty sure you'll be fine - I've travelled all over the South East and never had a problem. BUT I have a feeling the Caledonian Sleeper doesn't run on Saturday nights.

So you might be looking at CrossCountry to Birmingham and then Virgin to Glasgow or coming into London and then back out again.

 

[TwoTired]

Use nationalexpresseastcoast.co.uk to book yourself and the bike - it's the only website does both and good on any line. The only cheap sleeper tickets are midweek otherwise it's around £130!

 

[andym]

Use nationalexpresseastcoast.co.uk to book yourself and the bike - it's the only website does both and good on any line. The only cheap sleeper tickets are midweek otherwise it's around £130!

For the Bargain Berths you need to go via the Scotrail site:

http://www.scotrail.co.uk/caledoniansleeper/book-online.html

You can get the cheaper tickets on Sundays as well, but the £19 ones get snapped up very quickly.

There was a thread on here recently where someone was having problems booking a bike using the nationalexpress site and travelling on an FGW train. It would be great if it does work but I wouldn't count on it.

Bad news for oxfordboy is that here's definitely no Saturday night sleeper service.

 

[ronmac]

I booked the Caledonian Sleeper for my upcoming trip in April. The website is quite good for looking at what is available. Unfortunately I think you'll be lucky to get a £19 bed. I paid £29 one way and £39 coming back.
I used the website to pick my trains and then phoned Scotrail and she was good enough to book bike on for me without me having bought tickets (I didn't want to buy tickets and then find I couldn't get bike on !). I then went back onto website and booked my travel tickets.
p.s. When booking on website you can only book single. You book outward journey first, then it gives you option to book another journey then you pay for them by card.

 

[Cranky]

I've travelled from Oxford to Glasgow with a bike, and various other destinations, using Cross Country. I've booked my ticket and bike reservation by telephone, usually without problems. It's just a bit of a pain if you have to change at Birmingham but there are lifts big enough for bikes when changing platforms.

If you wanted to go via London there's also the Oxford Tube bus service which is very cheap, frequent, and also takes bikes in the hold.

 

[Kirstie]

If you can cycle to Banbury or Bicester first you can get the chiltern line to Birmingham snow hill without a bike reservation.
West coast mainline service from Brum to Glasgow tends to be OK if you go early midweek. I always go to a station to book my cycle reservations and generally speaking I'm OK down to 6 weeks in advance. It's worse in the summer months. I've never done it by phone as I don't trust them. I'd rather have the tickets in my hand myself.
There were problems with the west coast mainline reservations system last year because of the engineering works, but I think that's mostly over now, so you should be OK.
If you are taking the train to Oban call first scotrail because sometimes you are required to book bike spaces on that train. There are 8 spaces available on that train though. You can book bike spaces with scotrail over the phone.

 

[WaldoXerxes]

If you want any chance of booking a £19 bargain berth, and you can be bothered to waste your time on pandering to their absurd system, you have to watch the scotrail web pages on a MONDAY at half hour intervals between 8am and 1 pm, 12 weeks before the week of travel, waiting for their issue.

Even after doing this for myself, I went out for lunch, came back to find that the £19 ticket on my intended day of travel had been taken, and had to make do with a £29 ticket. Still pretty good, but I could have done without a morning of web-site clicking!

 

[oxford_guy]

If you want any chance of booking a £19 bargain berth, and you can be bothered to waste your time on pandering to their absurd system, you have to watch the scotrail web pages on a MONDAY at half hour intervals between 8am and 1 pm, 12 weeks before the week of travel, waiting for their issue.

Even after doing this for myself, I went out for lunch, came back to find that the £19 ticket on my intended day of travel had been taken, and had to make do with a £29 ticket. Still pretty good, but I could have done without a morning of web-site clicking!

Were you able to book your bike on at the same time?

 

[andym]

and had to make do with a £29 ticket. Still pretty good, but I could have done without a morning of web-site clicking!

...and you have to go through the same again for the return leg...

 

[Bodhbh]

If you want any chance of booking a £19 bargain berth, and you can be bothered to waste your time on pandering to their absurd system, you have to watch the scotrail web pages on a MONDAY at half hour intervals between 8am and 1 pm, 12 weeks before the week of travel, waiting for their issue.

Even after doing this for myself, I went out for lunch, came back to find that the £19 ticket on my intended day of travel had been taken, and had to make do with a £29 ticket. Still pretty good, but I could have done without a morning of web-site clicking!

Hehe, most of the time i spent in front of a PC last week was alt-tabbing and F5 spamming the Scotrail site, then 2 weeks worth of tickets came up when I was in a 2hr meeting on Friday. My understanding was they're made available on the Friday, but they wait for National Rail (or whatever it's called nowadays) to make the tickets available. I don't understand it but that's what they told me anyhow.

A friend booked the tickets in the end as I had to rush off after work, think ended up 50quid for a single + berth which I suppose is not too bad as rail prices go.