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Virgin Trains cycle capacity is a joke

by Tom Starr
Sun, Jan 30, 2011 20:20
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39

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7 comments

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Jon Burrage | 14 years ago
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quick question in response, which station in bristol is removed from where people live/work?

Temple meads (knowle, brislington, bedminster, centre - temple quay etc etc)
Parkway (bradley stoke, harry stoke, filton, frenchay - MOD, NHS, Axa etc)

Agree though, the bike carrying capacity isnt good considering so called support for 'green' travel.

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A V Lowe replied to Jon Burrage | 14 years ago
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Most of those places are a pretty decent walk from those 2 stations (and you've missed places like Filton Abbey Wood) You seem to have also missed the point I was making - the distances are no great effort or journey time by bike hence the demand for bike with train to deliver a commuter trip - and Cheltenham Station is nowhere near .....anywhere?

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A V Lowe | 14 years ago
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Trolling again !

Advise all to count bikes and passengers and type of train

Typically Bristol-Cheltenham is v popular bike-train-bike as alternative to driving along M5, and both stations are significantly removed from where people live/work making walking a pain. So (like Sheffield Leeds and Newcastle Durham) we get 1-2 stop commuting on trains which are neither fish nor fowl - but fortunately in the morning carry relatively few long distance passengers with luggage. 2 officially reserveable spaces 3 crap spaces in total - do film the bikes swinging around and smashing into the sides of the storage bins or wedged (because the width of one side is less than many MTB bars)and also gouging out the interior decor. Better space for bikes is under the shelf so typically 6-8 bikes per train PLUS folders - we nearly had 12 bikes (including folders) on 07.00 Bristol-Manchester last October but conductor got stroppy and delayed the train 10+ minutes - all the way to Manchester, upset 4 cyclists refused travel, for 2 stops, on 264 seat train with 135 passengers on it, and empty luggage bay all the way to Cheltenham - cyclists would have been 9% of fare paying passengers, and were easily accommodated until this guy gets it into his head to evict the ones over the 'official limit' and haul in the Police as well. Possible insurance here if you get on the train by another door and remain 'invisible' until after Parkway, the next place to chuck you off is where you wanted to go anyway.

FGW are good though 14 bikes on 98-seat 'nodding donkey' train the other day - sadly no pics and not yet traced who the cyclists were....

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dave atkinson | 14 years ago
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true dat.

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Tony Farrelly | 14 years ago
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Mind you they say you have to book in advance they always seem to be changing the rules on that - I never have and when I've asked about it i've been told not to bother.

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dave atkinson | 14 years ago
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not a very funny joke, eh.

Anyone's local trains got good bike capacity? Here in Bath the FGW mailines have 6 spots but you have to book in advance, the local trains have a couple of spots but it's first come first served

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KirinChris replied to dave atkinson | 14 years ago
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dave_atkinson wrote:

not a very funny joke, eh.

Anyone's local trains got good bike capacity?

At least you've got local trains 39

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