Theft on trains

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mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
The point about locking bikes to trains is that if something goes wrong, say you lose or mislay the key to your lock, the whole train is held up, which can be incredibly disruptive in so many respects. I can see why it is not allowed.
I don't see why the train would be held up by a bike locked to a rack. You'd miss your stop but it's only you that you'd inconvenience, except for those stupid companies which use racks where later arrivals block earlier bikes (Greater Anglia Ely-Ipswich) but they cause holdups without locks anyway.
 

theclaud

Openly Marxist
Location
Swansea
If you have the guard's van door open, and are inside looking for your key, what do you think they are going to do, shut the door and drive off with you in there. It is a sad consequence of the current structure but the train operators get fined for delays they cause, and they don't want cyclists giving them a load of bother.
Guard's van and luggage racks are different prospects, though. In the guard's van, your non-foldy bike can have a lock securing the wheel to the frame (without locking it to the train), which should be a reasonably effective deterrent, because the thief is not going to want to attract attention to himself in a station by having to carry a bike on his shoulder. If you can't find your key you can just lift the bike off and panic on the platform, and it doesn't matter if you draw a small puzzled crowd. Not much use locking a Brompton to itself in a luggage rack by the door, though, as it doesn't look any more odd carrying someone else's Brompton off the train than your own.
 

theclaud

Openly Marxist
Location
Swansea
Anyway, the wider point is that it's a shame, although (as Adrian implies) an entirely predictable outcome of the political structure of the railways, that the response of TOCs to increased demand for integrated bike-rail transport is to discourage and obstruct people who wish to travel with a bicycle, and to provoke conflict between users, rather than changing the way they operate to accommodate a benign and socially desirable development.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
If you have the guard's van door open, and are inside looking for your key, what do you think they are going to do, shut the door and drive off with you in there.
I rarely use a train with a guard's van. I was thinking more of the in-carriage racks. Guard's vans are more secure anyway so a lock to itself as @theclaud suggests seems like it would be enough, plus you can then futz with keys and bags on the platform at your leisure.

It is a sad consequence of the current structure but the train operators get fined for delays they cause, and they don't want cyclists giving them a load of bother.
Good: anyone whose bike gets nicked while unlocked because of their stupid rules should claim the money back off them and give them a load of bother.
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
If you have the guard's van door open, and are inside looking for your key, what do you think they are going to do, shut the door and drive off with you in there. It is a sad consequence of the current structure but the train operators get fined for delays they cause, and they don't want cyclists giving them a load of bother.
ime, yes, twice, with GWR, and then you get an "Oi, mate!" bollocking off the platform staff at the next stop.
 

bonker

Guru
In my area you don't have the option of being very far from your Brompton. Certainly no chance of a rack for the bike and a seat for the rider.
The whole original story sounds fishy, who goes to the trouble of nicking a Brompton then abandons it?
 

MiK1138

Veteran
Location
Glasgow
I no longer know if we're just talking about folders, but supposing we've moved onto all bikes, then watching them gets harder when you have to store them in things like this, at the end of a carriage
View attachment 388100
In cases like this I try and sit within view of the nearest exit onto the platform, and check at each station that no-one is wheeling my bike away. I would have to react quickly if they were though. Not a perfect system, but I haven't had any losses so far.
D lock through the back wheel = stress free train journey
 
In my area you don't have the option of being very far from your Brompton. Certainly no chance of a rack for the bike and a seat for the rider.
The whole original story sounds fishy, who goes to the trouble of nicking a Brompton then abandons it?
An opportunist "amateur", who sees a bike he can take while the owner is distracted. He finds it's hot, being written up in the local press, and realises his friends will be suspicious if he rides it, and if he puts it on gumtree, a thousand junior detectives will be ringing the police to let them know.

I would have no idea how to dispose of such a bike, except abandoning it.
 
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