Bicycles on trains (merged topics)

[whole diary]

[Toiletdriver]

Just to bring this back, a classic a few days ago at Cardiff. Full and standing 158 heading towards Maesteg. Cyclist turns up late, boards at the very front and leans his bike against the cab door!!! Unfortunately my colleague did nothing 
PS SDS, have you noticed recently that people are buying full size BMXs which fold in half and then blocking a door because it's too big to go in a luggage rack?

[Mookiemoo]

Just to bring this back, a classic a few days ago at Cardiff. Full and standing 158 heading towards Maesteg. Cyclist turns up late, boards at the very front and leans his bike against the cab door!!! Unfortunately my colleague did nothing 
PS SDS, have you noticed recently that people are buying full size BMXs which fold in half and then blocking a door because it's too big to go in a luggage rack?

Um My  Dahon does that BUT BUT BUT in my defence

I always put it in the disabled space in G AND more than once I've found myself on a deserted platform (at my own doing) in the middle of no where late at night because some one has actually needed the first class disabled space.

However I think its three times in 10 years and on one occasion the TM^‡(resolve) did put my bike in the shredder room!

so its twice - but I took/take that risk

Dont tar all big folder people with the same brush

[Henry]

 I have sympathy with cycle/train user's - no sympathy at all for the recent explosion of baby buggies.

 On a Newton Abbot - Totnes service when a mother was asked to move her pram from the
 disabled area for a wheelchair, her response ' but my baby just gone to sleep'.

 Perhaps my astonishment is a sign of my old age (and it could be me one day).

[LiskeardRich]

 I have sympathy with cycle/train user's - no sympathy at all for the recent explosion of baby buggies.

 On a Newton Abbot - Totnes service when a mother was asked to move her pram from the
 disabled area for a wheelchair, her response ' but my baby just gone to sleep'.

 Perhaps my astonishment is a sign of my old age (and it could be me one day).

so what do you expect people with prams to do? a disabled person is far more likely to be able to sit in a normal seat than a baby. most new babys cant sit up, whereas many disabled people can. mums with babys have the same rights as a wheelchair user. babies cant walk or sit so need the pram to convey them from a 2 b via the train

[Cruithne3753]

Reading this thread with some interest, wondering where things stand wanting to take my bike to London one Saturday on a complimentary ticket.  I gather all the problems are with people taking bikes during peak times? (which I don't.)

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hmm.  

On another of my recent train journeys, between Bristol and Nailsea, on a Saturday morning on a 158, I saw a young mother with her baby being repeatedly moved further down the train, to make room for the cyclists getting on at Bristol Temple Meads, Bedminster and Parson Street.

To be fair: the conductor was almost literally pulling his hair out, trying to get everyone (and their bikes!) on board, and the young mother was quite philosophical about the need for her baby's pushchair to be continually moved out of their way.

I had a brief chat with the proud mother: her baby was eight weeks old, and she was travelling to Highbridge. I wished her well on her journey, as I alighted at Nailsea, as beyond Weston (hopefully!) things might be a bit less hectic for her!  

[Henry]

 I did not say prams, I said 'baby buggies'.

 You know the 'fold up variety', like the 'fold-up bicycles' we were talking about earlier.

  So who takes priority wheelchairs, prams or bikes ?
 
 

[Toiletdriver]

I did not say prams, I said 'baby buggies'.

 You know the 'fold up variety', like the 'fold-up bicycles' we were talking about earlier.

  So who takes priority wheelchairs, prams or bikes ?
 
 

Law states wheelchairs. Then depending on the type of train, we can will decide how many prams and bikes can be boarded safely, FGW^▸ (First Great Western) cycling by train policy clearly states the number of bikes that can be carried.
Unfortunately staff all have different interpetations, which confuses passengers. But my problem is with those who can see they is no room and still deliberatley block a door, ie an emergency exit. And if needed, who gets the blame? I do!
PS Why do kids go round as a group of 6, and still try to force their way on to a full 2 car 158? And if going home, we can't throw them off because they are deemed as a minor! Damned if we do, and damned if we don't!

[brompton rail]

As Toiletdriver states, Wheelchairs take priority because the law obliges transport operators to make provision. Cycles are second in priority since most TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) mark a designated area for cycles, often the wheelchair area. To my knowledge no TOC indicates that pushchairs have a dedicated space on their trains, and would expect them to folded as hand luggage. Not since Mark 1 rolling stock days when DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) had guards/parcel areas have prams been fitted onto trains. Most Intercity stock doors are not wide enough anyway.
On IC^▸ (Inter City) stock cycles are carried in a non-passenger area of the train anyway (HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) - in the TGS, and in Mark 4s in the DVT^‡(resolve), Pendos and Voyagers have dedicated cycle areas too). If cycles are reserved on a particular train and the space is occupied by pushchairs, huge luggage etc you can see where conflict might arise, but common sense should solve most problems without expecting train crew to behave like Soloman!

Of course, courtesy to fellow passengers and train crew can solve most problems, and bikes and pushchairs can be accommodated, provided all are reasonable (which might mean waiting for the next service on a frequent service line).

[vacman]

prams/buggies etc are required to be collapsed (I believe its in the NRCoC^▸ (National Rail Conditions of Carriage)), as for saying a baby can's sit up what tosh, a baby can be carried and held whereas a disabled adult cant!

[Kingfisherdart]

I travel regularly with a bicycle on both the DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) and HST^▸ (High Speed Train) fleets. I do everything I can to 'not get in other people's way' but I find the lack of courtesy from other passengers extremely frustrating.
-On 158s, passengers standing in - and not moving out of - the bike storage area, despite ample free seats.
-On 150s, one one side you have the wheelchair space, the other the bicycle space. When I arrive there are too often buggies in both spaces and they never move from the bike area.
-Again on 150s, passengers sitting on the flip down seats in the bike storage area and not moving when asked - despite ample free seats.
-All the above resulting in me looking like the bad guy because I end up blocking doorways!
L