Bikes On Trains, Its An Outrage

[Mark W]

Do you have to book early to reserve a bike place or is it just a case of asking at the ticket office?

I've never done it before but I have been kicked off so really should start.

Whenever. EArlier the better though I guess.

[Michael Hardman]

They might be more lenient if you have a mod, than a stock.

What do you ride Michael?

Because your profile says multipule.

None now, BMX infact.

The incident on the train happened with my DH bike but thats gone, it happened when I had a mod, my mate wasnt alowe don with his DH bike becasue it was a motorcross bike to the guard.

Try; laughing at.

At least I giove two shits about the environment, I recycle, turn off any lights when no one sin a room (brother will vouch for that as I piss him off doing it) The shame is that I know I cant do anythiong about transport issues, which happened to be the area I wanted to work in until I realised theres no pint bothering as its all going tits up whatever.

[Greetings]

Very surprising. In my country you are allowed on trains with bikes and practically anything that hasn't got an engine. They make no problems, but there's somtimes no place to keep the bike. In the city transport like buses and trams, they dont allow bikes and have given really stupid reasons for this. I once had a big argument with a chap that didnt want to let me on the tram with my mod bike. He first said its too big. I folded it up nicely (bars 90 degrees) so that it was no longer 68cm wide. Then he said that that they have had an accident where somebody got pierced by handlebars ( ). So I suggested taking the handlebars off, just for this retard to tell me that bikes are not allowed. Result? 5km riding against the wind. Bloody asshole.

Whereas not once did I manage to take my trials bike onto a bus, and just have to pay aditionally. I find its best if you have a word with the driver first. But still, i suppose the UK is more strict, also you only have one currency. We can pay in vodka or in złoty, the first one being very effective when asking for something.

Edited January 17, 2006 by Inur

[Michael Hardman]

Very surprising. In my country you are allowed on trains with bikes and practically anything that hasn't got an engine. They make no problems, but there's somtimes no place to keep the bike. In the city transport like buses and trams, they dont allow bikes and have given really stupid reasons for this. I once had a big argument with a chap that didnt want to let me on the tram with my mod bike. He first said its too big. I folded it up nicely (bars 90 degrees) so that it was no longer 68cm wide. Then he said that that they have had an accident where somebody got pierced by handlebars ( ). So I suggested taking the handlebars off, just for this retard to tell me that bikes are not allowed. Result? 5km riding against the wind. Bloody asshole.

Whereas not once did I manage to take my trials bike onto a bus, and just have to pay aditionally. I find its best if you have a word with the driver first. But still, i suppose the UK is more strict, also you only have one currency. We can pay in vodka or in złoty, the first one being very effective when asking for something.

Polish huh, my aunts Polish been to Polnad once in the Summer and it was damm hot. I think I went to the big square in Karkov (sp). My aunts been back to their house there and its changed beyond recognistion. I know its ace for DH and Freeride.

[matthewholdsworth]

but when you get little idiots who put all there 20 cases of luggage there so you cant put your bikes there is just far too annoying, so when you say to the platform attendant that,

"there are cases in the bike area so i cant put my bike there, any chance you can ask them to move it"

Very politely I must add as always, I get a response like this:

"Don;t you dare tell me what to do, I'll do my job as I please, get off the train, your not allowed on"

There have also been times when they won't let us put bikes in the bike spaces, hmmmm.

I don't use trains any more.

Phil.

agreed phil!!! such a hassle when this happened to me, "train manager" wouldnt get the cases moved and i had a reservation

ive been caught a few times with no reservation, virgin have told me i cant take my bike on a train between sheffield and leeds (30 mins ish) with bike racks, but if i get on the local stopper train, with no bike racks i can without reservation. now surely that doesnt make sense in terms of safety (blah blah policy of reserving etc but safety aspect think about it...makes more sense to put it in a bike rack on virgin)

ive been told a few things about reserving bikes and at each station the policy seems to be different, so im confused. i booked my bike on a train but then missed that one because a connecting train i was on broke down. so i thought oh well maybe the staff will be understanding. nope. 3 mins before the train arrived on platform 11 in leeds the virgin crew said on the platform "have u got a reservation" i explained the situation (NB this was 9 on a sunday morning hardly rush hour) and they made me go out of the station (leeds station is a fart to carry ur bike around), with bike, to buy a reservation, on gettin to the ticket office, asking for a ticket, the guy said u need to be "1 hour before train", but then stated if i just use midland mainline they wont bother (result!).

so with this "1 hour before" in mind when i next went home from uni avec bike i turned up at sheffield 1hr30 before train, asked for ticket and reservation and was told to book "1 day before" but "if i check with the guard on the virgin train he should let me on if no bikes are already on train", funnily enough he didnt.

grrrrrr trains, its a hassle, i cant afford a car and lets face it im not goin to ride between sheffield and leeds!

just have to plan ahead i guess, avoid just buying on the day tickets and so on.

(on a side note - dont u just love how any topic on TF these days seems to turn into all out cyber war, or is it just me who thinks that)

[Michael Hardman]

So ture, cycber war time and tis one only took one reply to piss me off royally.

[Sameer]

Truth hurts.

[Loosemoose`]

Sometimes being associated with clowning has its upsides, I and my friends have used excuses ranging from "Well good job its not a bike then" to "Are you really going to stop me from taking my circus prop on the train?", and it seems to work every time. Legally a unicycle is comparable with a bike (where it says 'no cycling' or there's that bike with a cross through symbol, that counts for us too) but its such a legal gray area that not even the police know whats right & what isn't.

I've spent hours riding around a local park, and even rode past 2 cops giving some 14 year old kid an earful for riding in there, there are signs about no cycling anywhere but unicycles are seemingly untouchable.

It would suck if the government decided to stop trains from carrying bikes, and I agree with the 'Green Government' comments already made. If every city made the effort that they have done here in Southampton, I'd use the public transport system a lot more often, its £1 to go anywhere in the city on any bus, and they'll take bikes no problem (as long as its not packed) and unicycles are almost a joke to them. I still ask every time, but usually I get a reply along the lines of 'Of course mate, half of its missing!' (har har )

Loose.

[Michael Hardman]

Truth hurts.

So Im not allowed to feel passionantly about anything these days. Isee the government have managed to take over your tiny tiny brain and your unable to form any sort of rational view or opinion n a serious tpic.

Oh well a stateof mindless zombies has been born run for the hills the diots are taking over.

[biketrialler]

So Im not allowed to feel passionantly about anything these days. Isee the government have managed to take over your tiny tiny brain and your unable to form any sort of rational view or opinion n a serious tpic.

Oh well a stateof mindless zombies has been born run for the hills the diots are taking over.

You are the only one in this that doesnt have a rational view. The world doesnt revolve around you. It never will. Things arent perfect. They wont be. Thats rational. Saying Sameer has a tiny tiny brain is just hypocritical, and wrong. If youre going to personally insult someone that wants to discuss the topic with you, and doesnt completely agree, then f**k off.

[Michael Hardman]

OK the world as we know it is over bye bye cruel world

[biketrialler]

So youre saying bye bye cruel world... so now you think things are getting better as we're leaving that cruel world behind? lol.

[tank_rider]

I must be lucky as I've never had a problem on trains with my bike, admittedly, i do only do very short journeys (luf to notts or leics, and outskirts of london in, on a local train, so don't really have the greatest of experience. However I've found the midland mainline guys to be really helpful, both the platform staff at notts and leicester and the on train guys.

Will be interesting to see if this changes now though, although genreally i always drive or get a lift these days.

[Michael Hardman]

So youre saying bye bye cruel world... so now you think things are getting better as we're leaving that cruel world behind? lol.

No it was just a random comment seeing as thats wat I do best according to people

[Janson]

if worst comes to worst, pack the trials bike up in a big-ass bag.

we have to do it here as bikes are banned on trains. works well, and if the train stations have lockers you can use or whatever, you can just leave the bag on the station. at least our stations usually have those kinds of lockers you put a coin in and you get to use it 'til a certain hour.. always a last refuge.

[PaRtZ]

I've never had a problem with the trains. They're really stupid round here;

They believe im under 16

They don't care what stop I got on at (although admittedly Im 100% truthful there)

They're fine with whatever bike I take

If the ban came into place, I would still play stupid just to annoy them and delay the train, maybe forcing them to let me on

As for getting laughed at for being environmentally friendly, thats low . But as said above, if the law comes in, theres little we can do

[JT!]

Result? 5km riding against the wind. Bloody asshole.

I would have thought just riding 3 miles would have been easier than faffing with trains in the first place.

if worst comes to worst, pack the trials bike up in a big-ass bag.

I have very little (no) experience with trains. I'm going to be daring and goto middlesbough one day, but from what i'v seen there's no trouble on getting on the trains with a bike. I supose this could be down to the fact that it's a very small station and there'll always be room.

How the hell do you know what station your just about to stop at anyway?

[Siders77]

How the hell do you know what station your just about to stop at anyway?

There's a sign saying "Welcome to <insert station name here>" Or something. Also the driver says over the loud speaker "We are now arriving at <Insert station name here>"

[011001000110010101110010]

Do what they did in MBUK take wheels off put them in bin liners and the frame etc. Carry it on as luggage.

[Jaffacakes]

I have had no problems with my bike on trains what so ever. I usually get on at St Erth ( about as far down to the south east the trains go ) with no reservations, with my bike and with no ticket. I just sort it all out on the train. I can get a child ticket between St Erth and Plymouth for about a 5er and its a 2 hour train journey.

The virgin trains seem the best to me, on time service bike space but only for four bikes (and they hang at a 90 degrease angle on the wall which is really cool. Great western have a whole carriage at the front devoted to bikes so I really cant see a problem there.

Fat people hats another thing that pisses me off on trians but I wont go into it, actually yes I will for a laugh. If I have to pay more to take my bike which is an extension of me then fat people should pay extra for the extra shit they carry round due to being lazy f**kers i nthe whole. Yes I know some people have problems but most of the fat people are fat becasue their lazy, greedy f**kers.

Woah calm down . There is a limit to how fat you can be on planes now, a 20kg limit to your luggage (but not your hand luggage), But I suppose there is only a very narrow line on a percentage of extra weight they can take on, It is somewhere around 0.015% of the planes weight with the passenges on until they are too heavy to take off, but It still probably comes up to about 5 tons. So it will only be a matter of time before weight limits are introduced on trains for eficiancy reasons or what ever the government comes up with.

[rich4130]

Never really had any problems with trains, I don't use them as much as some people, but a couple of times a month On average, only problems I've ever had is when I've been late, and I didnt have time to put my bike in the guard van, and ended up in the doors by the buffet lmao, but that was understandable.

[Michael Hardman]

There's a sign saying "Welcome to <insert station name here>" Or something. Also the driver says over the loud speaker "We are now arriving at <Insert station name here>"

They dont always.

[Greetings]

I would have thought just riding 3 miles would have been easier than faffing with trains in the first place.

tram not train

Edited January 19, 2006 by Inur

[rich4130]

They dont always.

99.99999% of the time, you'd have to be pretty silly not to realise, even I've never done that........

The train will slow anyways, and you'll be able to see the station.

[Synergy]

buy the monty luggage suitcase from cleanbikes would that not work?