Author Topic: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)  (Read 49961 times)

PaulF

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #150 on: 19 February, 2019, 01:17:44 pm »
And there's an option on the iPhone app (GWR branded) as well, haven't tried to book a bike though....

Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #151 on: 19 February, 2019, 02:21:28 pm »
Fittingly, the GWR one does.
Also Transpennine Express, which uses the same booking engine (Both being First Group subsidiaries) and Scotrail. It is also possible to make a reservation using the Transpennine Express Android app (not sure about the fruit flavoured derivatives, 'cos I don't have one!)

That's useful, thank you.  :)
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mattc

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #152 on: 19 February, 2019, 03:15:47 pm »
Fittingly, the GWR one does.
Well maybe it does ... but it also shows 3 trains in a row , on a Thu evening, with NO TICKETS available. (trains before and after are OK, and you can even get a cheap Single on 1 of them - woohoo!)

meanwhile here https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares you can of course buy a variety of tickets on those trains.

(feck knows what fun would await if I got as far as bike reservation.)

A brief glitch? Maybe ... but I find this is Situation Normal on the train sites these days. Now, where is that ryanair brochure ... no, don't be silly, a jet-pack would be safer ...
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rogerzilla

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #153 on: 27 August, 2019, 06:59:16 pm »
You cannot get two  bikes with 44cm dropped bars side by side on the hooks.  They must have used those hipster fixies with chopped bars at the design stage.  Modern MTBs stand no chance.

Cross Country trains have the same width space for ONE bike.
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Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #154 on: 02 October, 2019, 04:42:45 pm »
https://road.cc/content/news/267162-cycling-uk-slams-awful-cycle-storage-gwrs-high-speed-trains
"One of the biggest problems of cycle carriage is the diversity of bikes – a one size fits all solution isn't always possible, but this is a design that would seem to fit only a minority."
 

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Phil W

Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #155 on: 02 October, 2019, 05:20:51 pm »
Even if you do fit bikes in there you need two people to get the inner bike out as you cannot do that without first removing the outer bike.  Fine if travelling with another. But if on your own try doing that in the time it take for the train to stop, the doors open, and get off, before the train tries to go. All the while being jostled by grumpy passengers standing in the space you need to manuver in, 10 mins before train is due to stop.

Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #156 on: 02 October, 2019, 05:51:57 pm »
They are shit. I've been struggling on GWR for 10 months now and soon will be doing so on LNER when they are introduced.

It's not just the design that's at fault but also the implementation.  50% of the time I get on with my (now mandatory) bike reservation only to find the cubicle is filled with suitcases, so have to stand in the vestibule for the whole journey with people trying to squeeze past (including the refreshment trolley).  There is absolutely no monitoring going on.

The brief was clearly to make them as difficult to use as possible to act as a deterrent to cyclists.  Otherwise how the fuck did they pass any evaluation or independent scrutiny.  Were Cycling UK not involved at the consultation stage?  If not, who (from the cycling world) was?
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Phil W

Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #157 on: 02 October, 2019, 06:00:20 pm »
They ought to get their senior management to a station. Have two cyclists turn up,with bikes in touring mode, or even just typical bikes. Then film the whole lot as the managers try and get the bikes in the spaces.

Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #158 on: 02 October, 2019, 06:06:25 pm »
They ought to get their senior management to a station. Have two cyclists turn up,with bikes in touring mode, or even just typical bikes. Then film the whole lot as the managers try and get the bikes in the spaces.

They ought to have done that before they commissioned the damn things!
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Kim

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #159 on: 02 October, 2019, 06:19:16 pm »
Were Cycling UK not involved at the consultation stage?  If not, who (from the cycling world) was?

I was.  See my earlier posts in the thread.

zigzag

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #160 on: 02 October, 2019, 06:24:31 pm »
if i had to travel frequently on such trains, either a folding bike or two hack bikes for each end of the journey would make sense. their current implementation is a joke (and not a funny one).

Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #161 on: 02 October, 2019, 06:42:21 pm »
Were Cycling UK not involved at the consultation stage?  If not, who (from the cycling world) was?

I was.  See my earlier posts in the thread.

Presumably the consultation was a post-design tick-box exercise and suggestions/criticisms given were ignored.  I can't imagine any cyclist would have seen this design as acceptable.
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Kim

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #162 on: 02 October, 2019, 06:49:24 pm »
Were Cycling UK not involved at the consultation stage?  If not, who (from the cycling world) was?

I was.  See my earlier posts in the thread.

Presumably the consultation was a post-design tick-box exercise and suggestions/criticisms given were ignored.  I can't imagine any cyclist would have seen this design as acceptable.

As I say, they listened, but the consultation was too far down the design stage to do anything about the fundamental bikes-hanging-in-a-cupboard problem.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #163 on: 02 October, 2019, 06:51:24 pm »
Despite living in the heart of GWR land, I've never taken a bike on one of these trains. So far I've managed to find local train alternatives for any journeys when I wanted to put a bike on a train, apart from one recent occasion when I missed the local and ended up on a Cross Country Voyager. Luckily, there were no other bikes on it. I've been on those services when there have been about five bikes for the three spaces and 8 carriage-loads of passengers for the 5 carriages (and 9 loads of general luggage). This mostly happens on Sunday evenings IME.
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Kim

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #164 on: 02 October, 2019, 06:52:02 pm »
if i had to travel frequently on such trains, either a folding bike or two hack bikes for each end of the journey would make sense. their current implementation is a joke (and not a funny one).

It's what we've had to suffer on CrossCountry Voyagers[1] for ages.  We're only getting noise now because the GWR users are discovering how awful dangly bike spaces in public vestibules are.  (Or alternatively, how good the provision on the HSTs actually was.)


[1] If anything the CrossCountry design is slightly worse.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #165 on: 02 October, 2019, 06:53:58 pm »
if i had to travel frequently on such trains, either a folding bike or two hack bikes for each end of the journey would make sense. their current implementation is a joke (and not a funny one).

It's what we've had to suffer on CrossCountry Voyagers for ages.  We're only getting noise now because the GWR users are discovering how awful dangly bike spaces in public vestibules are.
Well mostly... see above! But I think the inherent problem is the dangling. It might be space efficient but it's not efficient in terms of usability.
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Kim

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #166 on: 02 October, 2019, 06:58:33 pm »
Agreed.  It's fundamentally discriminatory, and arguably unsafe.  And on busy services (those Sunday evening Voyagers are a prime example), there simply isn't room to load and unload your bike without first evicting several passengers, a couple of Luggages and assorted bags of coffee-dripping rubbish from the surrounding area.

Even when it's not rammed, I often have to use the Teacher Voice to persuade people to move so I can un-dangle my bike and re-attach panniers before arriving at the station, rather than getting in everyone's way trying to do it in the limited dwell time available.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #167 on: 02 October, 2019, 07:05:18 pm »
You're lucky if it's only coffee the rubbish bags are dripping...
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rogerzilla

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #168 on: 04 October, 2019, 06:42:34 am »
Nah...Cross-Country use the same width space for ONE bike.  I had both CC and GWR in the same journey last month.

AIUI the trains were specified by some government department, not the train companies.  "They don't pay for their bikes...f**k 'em".

It's ruined one-way rides.
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Kim

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #169 on: 04 October, 2019, 11:24:28 am »
Nah...Cross-Country use the same width space for ONE bike.

In the one on the left.  It's a double compartment on the right (without proper provision for handlebars).  And unlike the IEP, you have to offer the bike up to the hook from the front, rather than the side, which means more cantilevering and less room to manoeuvre in the vestibule.


Quote
AIUI the trains were specified by some government department, not the train companies.  "They don't pay for their bikes...f**k 'em".

Indeed.  The TOC gets to choose how many of these modular spaces are used for bikes, toilets, catering.  But the DfT specified them in the first place.

Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #170 on: 05 October, 2019, 08:26:58 pm »
With some dismay I've just discovered that Transpennie Express will shortly begin operating the new 800 class on the Newcastle-Liverpool route.  At the moment they are running some fairly modern looking DMU type commuter trains one that route which aren't to bad for bikes so long as you've booked. 

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #171 on: 05 October, 2019, 09:03:32 pm »
On a totally different angle, a common complaint about the Class 800s seems to be that the seats are too hard. I reckon they're quite comfortable. Does anyone here find them too hard?
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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #172 on: 05 October, 2019, 09:22:25 pm »
Earlier this year I booked my bike on CrossCountry.  Getting on at Oxford, the single to the left was occupied, and the bike in the double was on the LHS - it seems that a bike in the RH position of the double can't be removed without the other bike being taken out first.  At one point three other cyclists joined, at least two without bike reservations, two of their bikes went in the  luggage bay - with wheel off (guard had a 'don't do this again' word with them).   All in all, not the best experience.   3 bike spaces??!   I think if memory serves the single bay, had a heater in it at ground level(?) - not as big as the double at any rate.  edit.

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Kim

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #173 on: 05 October, 2019, 09:25:24 pm »
The heater's not a problem in practice, unless you lean your removed panniers against it.

That's a pretty good piece of bike tetris there.  Normally one of the bikes has handlebars, tyres or a sufficiently long wheelbase that prevents it from fitting.  If the train goes through Oxford, a Little Old Lady or Bemused Foreign Student with a Sensible City Bike™ is likely to be comprehensively defeated by them.

Karla

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Re: Bikes on Class 800 trains (GWR)
« Reply #174 on: 05 October, 2019, 10:08:39 pm »
That's a pretty good piece of bike tetris there.  Normally one of the bikes has handlebars, tyres or a sufficiently long wheelbase that prevents it from fitting.

... or in the case of the extremely unsensible Bunbury Batbike, sufficiently deep section wheels.