Train companies make it difficult to take bike when cyclists are potential good customers

[Deleted User]

Some cyclists on trains are an absolute menace and display arrogance as if they have a right to push fare paying passengers around with their huge fat tyred muddy mountain bikes and oily gears.
On a packed commuter train at rush hour from Sheffield we get the poseur mountain bike addicts who have been busy wrecking the footpaths on the Derbyshire hills returning at 5 pm in groups of three barging their way and tut tutting at paying commuters squashed up in the corridors who get in their way.
The guards can and should refuse train access to these arrogant menaces at rush hours, but they are so rushed they miss them piling on in the last carriage.
I have no objection to small wheeled folding bikes but these things are as big as a small motorbike.

prowla

Richard53 wrote: »

No, it's three. I recently travelled from Paddington to West Wales on a train where GWR had taken bookings for 10 carriages but only supplied nine. Three of us became quite good friends while standing nose to nose in the cycle space of the carriage. We could perhaps have squeezed in a fourth if he/she had been a child, but no more. Half a dozen is a gross exaggeration.

So, that's 4 in total then; the person plus 3 for the bike.
Plus the bike may be blocking access.
The train companies are OK with folding bikes, tough.

Pennywise

Tofu_eater wrote: »

This potentially makes them good customers that the train companies would want to encourage surely?

Your fatal misunderstanding is that the train companies want more custom. An awful lot of services are already full to capacity, so the last thing anyone wants is more people on already overcrowded trains.

There is also their funding formula, where each train operating company only gets a share of revenue generated on each route they travel and have to share it with other operators on the same route, so the operator of the train you want to travel on may not even get all the money you pay them to travel on it.

The joys of pretend privatisation.

beefturnmail

You could get a folding bike? These are allowed on rush hour services and I've never had any problems

Takmon

Tofu_eater wrote: »

Cyclists cannot get coaches or buses.So if they want to take their bike somewhere the ONLY thing they can do is get the train and buy a train ticket.
This potentially makes them good customers that the train companies would want to encourage surely?
So why,do they make it difficult and painful to get the train with a bike?

I disagree with this statement because obviously the most common way of taking a bike somewhere is actually riding it there

The second most common way i would say is take it in a car because most journey's people make usually return the same way.

I cycle and i would never take my bike on a train no matter how easy it is because i can't see any benefit to doing this considering that train tickets are more expensive than driving and a car can get far more places than a train!.

custardy

Takmon wrote: »

I disagree with this statement because obviously the most common way of taking a bike somewhere is actually riding it there

The second most common way i would say is take it in a car because most journey's people make usually return the same way.

I cycle and i would never take my bike on a train no matter how easy it is because i can't see any benefit to doing this considering that train tickets are more expensive than driving and a car can get far more places than a train!.

and if you don't drive?

davenport151

Mmm... add up all your associated costs of owning a car plus your time and energy in driving it, finding somewhere to park and being stuck in traffic. sometimes the train journey is cheaper even without this.
I know what i'd prefer.

Pennywise

davenport151 wrote: »

Mmm... add up all your associated costs of owning a car plus your time and energy in driving it, finding somewhere to park and being stuck in traffic. sometimes the train journey is cheaper even without this.
I know what i'd prefer.

But if you've already got a car and need it for other purposes, the only thing you need to compare is the cost of petrol and parking - all the others are fixed/spent costs that aren't changed. Train journeys are highly unlikely to be cheaper than driving, especially if there are more than one of you travelling.

But, the reality is that with trains already busy/full, there's no incentive for them to offer cheaper fares or more convenient services.

davenport151

Fair point (geddit?)
But it depends on costs in your area sometimes. I find a off peak return to some areas within 1/2 hour to 1 hour where I live are priced to make driving the better option.
I consider the ability to sit back and watch out of the window a pleasure if I am not driving.
By the by - Not sure I would like to take my bike by train either!

The_Urbanite

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

It's something I've wondered myself as it's progressively become much worse. I was trying to book my bike onto a Virgin train and found firstly their site no longer allows you to see visibility of trains with free bike slots. I contacted them using their support form asking them if there's any way I can check without having to phone or contact them directly only to get an automated reply telling me they were busy and will try to reply within 25 days. They replied in 30 and told me to phone them to check, bad enough to take so long to reply but worse not to even bother reading the e-mail first.

I managed to get a hold of someone from the company through Facebook who advised me every single train in that time frame was fully booked for bikes even though it was months in advance which I don't believe for a second but I couldn't gamble with my travel plans.

With some of the daft responses above I should point out that the cycle spaces on this particular train are completely separate to the passenger space as they're fitted within each of the locomotives hauling the train.

I find it frequently difficult to find availability of bike spaces as companies that do show the spaces often make it difficult and time consuming to do so. Taking public transport is limiting at the other end so being able to take the bike is a big advantage especially as it can't come by bus and it's too much of a hassle taking it by plane but each of the last few times I've tried to take it a longer distance I've had to give up trying.

Try checking at a station. I work in a ticket office somewhere in the suburbs and can check availability for any Train Operating Company service in a matter of seconds.