Train Behaviours!

[Time Waster]

Don't need to fold or break up your bike on a train? Funny but when I first got my Brompton I got told very often that I couldn't take it on the train. I always folded it 8n front of them and said you can't motor me as its in your company's regulations I can take a folding bike like Brompton as hand n luggage. Usually another train company guy would tell be to use the far carriage which had more room.

I know that I would not be able to get home until several hours later if I had a rigid bike. However whilst they try to stop me getting on as I wheel in an obvious folding bike there's other people who take rigid bikes on even when there's no room for them. How do they get past the anti bike train company people? Is it just a target on my back?

 

[Dogtrousers]

Don't need to fold or break up your bike on a train? Funny but when I first got my Brompton I got told very often that I couldn't take it on the train. I always folded it 8n front of them and said you can't motor me as its in your company's regulations I can take a folding bike like Brompton as hand n luggage. Usually another train company guy would tell be to use the far carriage which had more room.

I know that I would not be able to get home until several hours later if I had a rigid bike. However whilst they try to stop me getting on as I wheel in an obvious folding bike there's other people who take rigid bikes on even when there's no room for them. How do they get past the anti bike train company people? Is it just a target on my back?

It's often as well to have a printout of company policy as staff often make up their own policy on the hoof.

My wife used to have this problem, as she used to have a season ticket that was between the London terminus and her place of work (because it was cheaper - a quirk of the ticket pricing). We live in the burbs so she would board midway between the two points. The staff at our local station had to be shown the letter from the ToC head office confirming that this was OK, and printouts from the National Rail ticketing policy document and yet they harassed her regularly about it as they felt it was somehow wrong.

PS. I've never been challenged about taking a folded Brompton onto a train.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Don't need to fold or break up your bike on a train? Funny but when I first got my Brompton I got told very often that I couldn't take it on the train. I always folded it 8n front of them and said you can't motor me as its in your company's regulations I can take a folding bike like Brompton as hand n luggage. Usually another train company guy would tell be to use the far carriage which had more room.

I know that I would not be able to get home until several hours later if I had a rigid bike. However whilst they try to stop me getting on as I wheel in an obvious folding bike there's other people who take rigid bikes on even when there's no room for them. How do they get past the anti bike train company people? Is it just a target on my back?

I always fold the bike before boarding the train and have never had any issues or been challenged. Depending on the type of railway carriage and how busy the train is I'll either keep it next to me, tuck it behind the gap in the seats if there is one, or pop it in the luggage rack.
This is from The Trainline website:

Can I take my bike on the train?
Yes, you can. Although the types of bikes allowed on trains can vary. Fully folding bicycles are allowed on all trains without restrictions or reservations. Reservations are sometimes required for full-size bicycles on certain services, and there are also restrictions on Peak-time travel.

 

[mjr]

However whilst they try to stop me getting on as I wheel in an obvious folding bike there's other people who take rigid bikes on even when there's no room for them. How do they get past the anti bike train company people? Is it just a target on my back?

Sometimes they are practised dodgers. Sometimes they face down the train company staff and rely on the train not being cancelled due to unsafe loading or the transport police being called to remove them. Mostly they seem to get away with it but occasionally they come unstuck when, for example, the transport police are at the station after dealing with another call.

 

[Badger_Boom]

That's all they're good for.We use them to transport our Steel between departments and between our plants.
I wonder how many empty carriage passenger train journeys there are per annum?Rarely,if ever,see a full train.In fact they're almost always less than half full

My bold - I don't know about these new post-covid mid-pandemic times but my daily commutes rarely involved being able to sit down so I'm guesing that on average the trains were probably more than half full.

 

[Oldhippy]

Post Covid? Did I miss something!

 

[Badger_Boom]

Post Covid? Did I miss something!

Good point well made. Edited for accuracy.

 

[Blue Hills]

I can assure you the last thing ‘lauded’ by myself would be some Tory nut job and if I was the sort to take offence I certainly would at that comment.Thankfully I’m not.
I just don’t like trains.

please answer the questions then - I said nothing about your party affiliation, if any.
Happy that you are not one to to take offence.
As no reason for at all.
I'd take the train.

 

[Blue Hills]

Some history

Japanese bullet train - 1964.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hawOpGarkqk


Been progressively developed, seem to recall that the latest generation came in very recently.

 

[Oldhippy]

Some history

Japanese bullet train - 1964.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hawOpGarkqk


Been progressively developed, seem to recall that the latest generation came in very recently.

Best railways I have ever used. Everything works and they run state and private side by side and it works brilliantly. We could learn so much from the Japanese.

 

[Time Waster]

Sometimes they are practised dodgers. Sometimes they face down the train company staff and rely on the train not being cancelled due to unsafe loading or the transport police being called to remove them. Mostly they seem to get away with it but occasionally they come unstuck when, for example, the transport police are at the station after dealing with another call.

Nope! They simply don't challenge people taking full rigid bikes on. Yet as I'm wheeling my Brompton to the front carriage before folding they try to stop me. First time I was halfway through folding, with only the seat to lower and bars to fold left. I then got on next to a rigid bike. They're weird at Lancaster!

What annoys me is huge suitcases that are two or three times bigger than my bike isn't an issue. Even planes overhead locker suitcases get dumped in the disabled or bike area. Nobody puts anything overhead. Then there's the kiddiewinks. Why on earth do they stand in the doorways,disabled/bike/toilet areas instead of sitting down in the empty seats? I have to stand with my brommie but they have no reason to stand.

The female guard tried to move them on but they just moved back, or some did. They're hindering people getting on. The doorways are always packed but there's plenty of empty seats. I say sit down or get kicked off at the next station. Stuff them! They can call their parents to pick them up. I bet they'll get sorted then.

 

[Time Waster]

A young guy at work got the BTP called out for him. He refused to pay the penalty £20 ticket for not having a ticket before travelling. He refused because the ticket guy had just let the guy before him pay for a ticket without the penalty despite them both getting on at the same station without a ticket. He got crammed into a police minibus with a couple of BTP officers until he agreed to take the penalty ticket.

Northern staff are their own law and do what they want on the line I use. There is only the odd good one who's consistent. Mind you they're still consistently ignoring the penalty station rules for everyone.

 

[Blue Hills]

A young guy at work got the BTP called out for him. He refused to pay the penalty £20 ticket for not having a ticket before travelling. He refused because the ticket guy had just let the guy before him pay for a ticket without the penalty despite them both getting on at the same station without a ticket. He got crammed into a police minibus with a couple of BTP officers until he agreed to take the penalty ticket.

Northern staff are their own law and do what they want on the line I use. There is only the odd good one who's consistent. Mind you they're still consistently ignoring the penalty station rules for everyone.

was this person's journey with Northern?
I think most of their stations have a machine where if you don't have a credit card (and when was it a legal requirement to have one - and are they going to search your underpants for one?) you can get it to issue, for no charge, a "promise to pay" ticket for your journey. You then won't be prosecuted - you just search out the Northern staff member once on the train and pay up. All very civilised.
I have used this a lot - not because I'm a fare dodger* , but because during Northern's extended meltdown I was never sure if the train was going to turn up, so didn't want to pay for a ticket and find that there was no damn train with maybe an hour to the next one on some lines. Time to pedal.

* I did once get a free ride though - turned up at a small town station very early in the morning, northern had only just managed to scrape a driver and guard/ticket guy together but hadn't managed to get a ticket machine for the ticket seller. So I flourished my "promise to pay" ticket and got a free ride. If I'd been going to Bolton I could have paid there but I was off to the metropolis of Entwistle - pretty much nothing there, no staff, no barriers, nothing - not even a regular stop - you have to remind them to pull over.
So if on northern always get one of those tickets/honesty slips.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I think most of their stations have a machine where if you don't have a credit card (and when was it a legal requirement to have one - and are they going to search your underpants for one?) you can get it to issue, for no charge, a "promise to pay" ticket for your journey. You then won't be prosecuted - you just search out the Northern staff member once on the train and pay up. All very civilised.

A few years back I did a few rides that ended at Otford in Kent. This had one broken ticket machine. There was absolutely no way to get any kind of ticket. Not even one of those permit to travel machines. I felt like a right gangster getting on the train ticketless, having taken photos of the knackered ticket machine on my phone just in case.

Which reminds me of another time, on the S-bahn in Frankfurt in the 80s. Again the ticket machine was broken, and got to say my most memorable ever German sentence when the guard challenged me: "Der fahrkartenautomat ist kaput!" The nice guard spoke perfect English and took my money.

 

[Landsurfer]

I often travel for free on the train ... and nearly always get asked if i’d like to travel in first class ..... nothing to do with the Northern, GWR, SWR and Scotrail id cards on lanyards i have for work ...