Great Western Coffee Shop

Yesterday the 8am from Maidenhead to Paddington was 10 minutes late arriving and leaving.. We were told why and apparently someone had got on the train before Tilehurst, put their bike at the back of the train (it's an HST) and then wanted to get off at Tilehurst where, apparently, only the front 5 carriages fit on the platform.

So the driver had to get permission to pull the train forward so the passenger could retrieve their bike..

I am guessing it's a mistake they will only be allowed to make once  ::) This particular train doesn't stop at Reading otherwise I imagine they'd have made them stay on the train until there..

I'd have taken them to PAD. That way, they *would* do this just the once!

It is amazing how often bikes are a cause of delay.

I was coming back from the West Country on an HST at the weekend and we were delayed several times because of issues with bicycles.

It culimated with someone getting on at Highbridge & Burnham in Coach F hoping to wheel it through to standard class.  On discovering he could not get it past the buffet counter he then decided to put it in the vestibule between F & G.

The train manager, who had already had problems with loading bikes in the correct place, took a pragmatic view after discovering the person in F was going to Bristol and told them to take it out at Weston-super-Mare and wheel it down the platform to the other end of the coach and put it in the space near the buffet "but only because you are going to Bristol".

This also happened very recently at Honeybourne causing a 10 minute delay.

So, is the issue, the bike, the riders not understanding the system, or the lack of willingness/ability to accommodate anything other than an unencumbered passenger on a train?  Or possibly all of the above?

The cyclist being too lazy to gen up in advance as to where they need to wait in the platform, basically.

That's clearly put the blame on the pesky 'customer' then ;D

It sounds like the issue was that at Tilehurst the front 5 carriages only were opened, which would not include the TGS at the back where the bike was stored. At nearly all station the TGS is on the platform and that is the correct place to load a bike. If the cyclist was not a regular traveller they may well not have known that at Tilehurst their bike would not be accessible. Staff nearly always direct passengers to the TGS at the rear as well if they have bicycles.

Don't you have to book a cycle onto HSTs in the peaks?

The Cotswold Line (just for a change) is a little awkward for bike passengers with HST's.

If you board at Worcester Foregate Street and the train is in the correct formation, then you load the bike at the rear, unless you're travelling to Evesham, in which case it has to be the front.  However if the train is in reverse, you're in trouble and have to either load it in the rear power car or a rear coach and then transfer it to the front at Worcester Shrub Hill.  If you're boarding at Great Malvern and all the other stations and the train is in reverse you only have to move the bike at Shrub Hill if you're going to Evesham though, otherwise it's fine at the rear. 

Coming the other way, if you're travelling with your bike you generally load it in the front (or rear if in reverse), but again if in reverse formation and you want to go to Moreton-In-Marsh you have to load at the front.  Similarly, if you want to board at Moreton and it's in reverse you need to load at the front but then move it to the rear at Worcester Shrub Hill - unless of course you want Pershore or Evesham in which case it has to be loaded in the middle.

Then of course, there's the 180s, which have spaces at either end, but if you want Combe, Finstock, Ascott, Shipton or Honeybourne in the down direction then it has to be the front, although coming the other way you needn't worry about Honeybourne as it can be either end.

At least it's nice and simple with Turbo's - as long as there's no more than two per vestibule they can be loaded anywhere.  Of course, if it's a Class 166 then there's a special bike compartment in the middle carriage as well, though you wouldn't know that until it arrived at the platform and you were in the know.  Oh, and I almost forgot, like the passengers, bikes need to be loaded in the correct portion of the train if it's a 6-car from London splitting at Oxford.  That's usually the front, though there's one train on a Sunday where the rear three are where you have to board.

To summarise, isn't it any wonder people get confused and delays occur?!

I've often considered, and then dismissed, the thought of putting the bike (or indeed the whole family's bikes) on a train. I dismiss it because the whole process seems too hit-or-miss and complicated. Public transport in this country is not remotely cyclist-friendly, which I find a bit bizarre given that for many people the bicycle could be the perfect way of completing the last mile or so of their journey.

In Austria and Switzerland there is often wagon with a huge bike pictogram on the side which makes everything clear.  However, this is usually on primarily tourist routes: I don't recall seeing them on 'proper' Intercity trains.  I think for the reasons Insider gives, bikes will remain problematic (as they are on the roads for different reasons) to other users of trains.  Nevertheless, I think efforts to accommodate them should still be made. 

In London you can hire a cycle at the far end ... and I think I've seen that there are some less marketed schemes elsewhere too.   Anyone know of these?




Hmmm ... on the basis that we've not heard this reason before, I don't think it was a repeat "offence".

I travelled on a train to a station I had never got off at before yesterday, and the conductor advised me that it had a very short platform and I should make my way to the extreme rear of the train in order to alight, which I did.   Had he NOT alerted me to this (and some stations serving surprisingly big communities have short platforms), I don't think that I would have been to blame for not having "genned up in advance" (how?), nor should I have been taken on to the next station to teach me a lesson.   Either of those actions would have resulted in a aggrieved passenger, and potentially the loss of future business which would had been conducted in a benign way - in other words, once I knew the system I would have followed it.

Bikes are not the problem. I'd agree that they aren't the whole solution either, but the main problem on the roads is the fact that we have allowed one type of user to completely dominate.

I strongly agree.  If road improvements had been made to include cycle lanes and in some cases proper footways they there would not be a problem. However in many cases all the space was taken by the car.  How many edge of town roads only have a rough grass verge for pedestrians when cars are allowed to 50 or 60 mph.

In my experience very often against the doors - which might be fine if only the doors on one side were used throughout the journey, but this often is not the case at several stations including Reading and Didcot. The owners of the bikes don't always appear promptly to move them unfortunately.

A small semantic defence of my post on this subject.  I used the term 'problematic' (not 'problem') of bikes because I recognise that the issue is NOT solely the bike, but a complex range of issues around their use both on the railways and the roads.  I apportion no blame, but merely point up the ongoing discussion, to which of course both RS and ellendune have added interesting points-of-view.

I perhaps should declare a small interest in a bicycle business (not in the FGW area) and would not want to disrespect potential customers.  :)

I thought that it was simply that FGW had switched to its Summer Edition excuses book.  This offers new and improved reasons for service interruption and delay, including the introduction of a special section dedicated to "It's not us, it's Network Rail...".

Since the railways no longer have a common carrier obligation, it's really up to them to decide whether to accept bicycles on trains - though it'd be good if they could come up with a clear, consistent and usable policy. However my little bushy ears are (perhap s over-) sensitive to any suggestion that non-motorised vehicles do not have as much right to be on the roads as evil community-destroying vile smelly noisome mobile death greenhouses cars. Not that you were suggesting that!  :)

One of the problems is that some 40 years ago, many platforms were reduced in length, presumably as some sort of cost saving measure thought necessary to cope with lower levels of income from falling passenger numbers. Many of these platforms now need to be lengthend again but this usually at enormous expense so very few get lengthened.
60 years ago my family went by train from Bridgwater to Weymouth for our annual 7 day holiday - very few people had or could afford anything longer. In those carless days (for most people) I used to take my bike with me, after paying the bike fare. It meant using 3 trains - Bridgwater to Durston, Durston (on the Taunton to Yeovil Pen Mill flyer - just a few coaches pulled by a tank engine but always a guards van) and then on to Weymouth. There was a guards van on all these trains and I never thought much about the arrangements for taking my bike. I just turned up and went!
Those were the days!

Why was the van there? Not just for bikes; I rather fancy it was provided mainly for urgent goods and the local parcels service that was dying out at the time.

Of course it was not just for bikes. Large items of passenger luggage, a multitude of big and small parcels for the then extensive railway parcels service. I remember when thousands of day old chicks were sent by rail for a speedy delivery all over the country. Some how or other our supplies of day old chicks came as a gift via our neighbouring railway porter! And of course, the guards van housed the guard's accomodation. It was a true multi-purpose vehicle.

Areas for bikes are more often than not, empty. Spaces where fare-earning seats could be, and will be, as the DfT more often than not 'encourage' every space to be fare earning.

It is really Government policy that is to blame. Maybe charge child prices for bikes?.....Might encourage TOCs to provide better spaces?

Is it possible to get into the TM office from the saloon of coach A as a passenger? It's been a long time, but I seem to remember once having big luggage, putting it in there and having to quickly walk round from the door at the London end of coach A (in correct formation) on arrival.

Also, are the storage areas in the power cars accessible? I seem to remember reading somewhere that since additional equipement was put in the public was not allowed in these areas.

It's possible to get into both areas if someone lets you in with a 'T' key.  The power cars can be used for bike storage (they have racks for three bikes) or luggage storage - so the public is allowed in them to load/unload such items under the supervision of staff.

Yes ChrisB - in days of old fares were charged to take bikes on trains. But basic train fares were much more modest in those days and many more people could afford to travel by rail. A child fare now for a bike could well decimate bikes on trains, but perhaps that is what some parties would prefer to see to match demand more against supply?

The luggage area of a PC while inside the train requires a high-secure key to access, (T-key from external platform doors).

The public are not allowed through the TM office door (except in an emergency), as the guards doors do not have CDL locking.

Out of area but a few months ago I witnessed several bikes being loaded onto a Severn Beach Service at Bristol Temple Meads. 150's are meant to accomodate 3 bikes, however they often take 6 bikes and use the space allocated to a Wheelchair.

I recall a rather 'snobby' lady getting irate because a chap got on in a Wheelchair at Stapleton Road and she was asked to move her bike (The fourth) off the train. Needless to say that didn't go down well at all.

Also in Frome I'm not sure how bikes work there, but for at least 3 of the HST workings the TGS is also not on the platform. I believe the reason for this is when the train needs to reverse the driver cannot get into the cab as the opposite Power Car is stopped across a bridge with no room to safely get into the cab.

(Apologies for the thread resurrection; I'd not seen this thread until now.)

A very many moons ago, long before elfin safe tea, (and also before Central Door Locking on HSTs) I was taking my bike on an overnight Summer Saturday HST to St Columb Road.  (It had come from York or possibly Leeds, and I joined it at Derby.)  Goodness knows why, of all the stations on the Newquay branch, the train was timetabled to stop there.  The platform is, at best, 2 coaches long, and there's an AOCL level crossing at the Newquay end of the platform.  The TGS was at the rear of the train.  Well before departure from Par, I asked the Senior Conductor what I should do regarding my bike, such as move it to a door nearer the middle of the train; he said "it'll be fine where it is".

Once the train arrived at St Columb Road, the Senior Conductor let me walk through the TGS to the van part; he then used the intercom to the driver, who advised that, because of the level crossing, he (the driver) couldn't pull forward to let me out.  So the senior conductor opened the van door.  I stepped out onto a bridge parapet, and he passed me the bike.  After the train had gone, I stepped down onto the track, then along the bridge to the platform ramp!  I had about an hour and a half to complete this before the HST came back from Newquay.

Little wonder that, in the next summer's timetable, the St Columb Road stop became "Pick Up Only". So I had a 10 mile (hilly) bike ride to my destination, instead of an 8-mile flatter one.

Aside: the Derby CIS for this train showed all the passenger stops, and "St Blazey" and "Goonbarrow Junction"!