JOGLE train travel - that'll teach me

"vernon" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Who is the best train operating company for dealing with bicycles?

Indian Railways are bloody good -- especially away from the big cities.

Deutsche Bahn are fine as long as you don't want one of their fancy trains.

Based on a single experience (a go and return journey) Midland Mainline
(though booking has to be at a local station) are good and the service for a
cyclist at Wellingborough station was completely beyond reproach.

T

"vernon" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Have congratulated myself on getting a £28 single to Thurso in August from
Scotrail's telesales service I am still to take delivery of the ticket
despite making the purchase on 29th June.

Chasing up the whereabouts of the ticket has been a trial of my patience
as I found myself in the hands of Central Trains' ticket service in India
on three seperate occasions when initially dealing with Scotrail or so I
thought.

I've been offered three seperate sets of advice, all of them wrong and
finally, more through good luck than good fortune I finally got a genuine
Scotrail employee to tackle the problem of non delivery. Even so, she
never rang back in the promised half an hour I waited an hour and a half
before chasing up the non-returned call.

Some advice for potential Scotrail users:

* Make sure that you keep the booking reference number
* Extract from the sales person their name and expected date of delivery
* Do make sure that you have a bicycle booking number and make sure that
you get a hard copy I need four as I have to change trains three times.
* Do keep a log of who you speak to when trying to resolve any problems.
* If you have any problems use the post sales option on the recorded
message thingummy bob that gives you options

That'll teach me to gloat over the problem free rail use that I have had
over the past two years.

I really thought that I had found a near one-stop solution for the
northwards journey. Several inconsistancies came to light in the evolution
of my journey booking. The trains that were booked for me were not the
same as the one's listed by the online booking system. The telesales
trains gave me a better margin of safety in Inverness - 25 minutes to
change trains as opposed to 10 minutes. The original telesales person
could not book my bike onto the GNER part of the journey necessitating a
seperate journey to a local railway station where the booking clark had
problems understanding my need to book my bike onto a train that
represented 25% of the trains that I would be using on the journey and
more so my wish to do so without possessing any tickets as evidence that I
was going to use the service I was booking. During my chasing up of the
tickets, Scotrail then booked my bike onto the missing link but could not
tell me why they couldn't do it when I originally made the booking.

My head has been in a whirl trying to unravel the half truths and
conflicting advice that I've been given over the past week and a bit. If
only there was one train operating company, things must surely be
simpler??....or is that over optimistic

GNER to their credit responded quickly to my query about the difficulties
I had in getting their part of the journey booked for my bike and offered
to do it via email request. Apparently they are going to improve their
bike booking service further in the near future and are in the process of
acquiring software to do the job.

Who is the best train operating company for dealing with bicycles?

Having experienced Scotrail on our JOGLE last year (that's "Rob & Joe's
JOGLE" if you have seen the tome on the Waitrose site) you have my sympathy.

In future I suggest that for ALL rail bookings you use GNER (on the phone) -
they can book anything on any rail co - and tickets arrive the next morning
without fail. And ... their phone system answers with "Thank you for
calling GNER, proud to be speaking to you from the North of England" Says
it all really.

RG

vernon said:

Who is the best train operating company for dealing with bicycles?

IME GNER. A few years ago I needed to book a ticket, i can't remember
the destination, maybe Inverness to York. I was working in Sheffield so
I went to Sheffield Mainline station to book the ticket for me and my
bike. Immediately prior to leaving I checked on line and saw a very
cheap ticket, £15 IIRC. At the station they couldn't get me that price
so I walked out and used my mobile phone to call GNER Telesales. Sure
enough they sold me a ticket at the cheap price, I was heartened by the
operators NE England accent, not too dissimilar to mine ! The actual
journey was more problematic due to flood, delayed trains and jobsworth
Scotrail employees. Again though GNER gave no hassle when I finally
boarded a train of theirs at Edinburgh, not the one me and my bike were
meant to be on though, but no problem.

MSeries said:

vernon said:

Who is the best train operating company for dealing with bicycles?

IME GNER. A few years ago I needed to book a ticket, i can't remember
the destination, maybe Inverness to York. I was working in Sheffield so
I went to Sheffield Mainline station to book the ticket for me and my
bike. Immediately prior to leaving I checked on line and saw a very
cheap ticket, £15 IIRC. At the station they couldn't get me that price
so I walked out and used my mobile phone to call GNER Telesales. Sure
enough they sold me a ticket at the cheap price, I was heartened by the
operators NE England accent, not too dissimilar to mine ! The actual
journey was more problematic due to flood, delayed trains and jobsworth
Scotrail employees. Again though GNER gave no hassle when I finally
boarded a train of theirs at Edinburgh, not the one me and my bike were
meant to be on though, but no problem.

I suppose we all have our horror stories from different companies.

GNER,[censored],or they were a couple of years ago.Bike laid on the floor of
the parcel van,no one to open the door get it out at Peterborough till I
chased down a guard with the train ready to go.

Midland Mainline,[censored],shouted at by a station attendant,bike laid on top
of a load of rubbish in parcels van.

After both incidents I wrote to the Managing Director the service was so
bad.

Virgin,say no more.

The best I have used was Anglia Trains ( I believe they are called
something else now in the privatisation merry-go-round ),very helpful
and ample bike space.

I must admit I find long distance train travel with a bike so stressful
and uncomfortable from booking a ticket to getting off at the other end
that I am loathe to do it any more.

I quite agree that life would be far simpler with one train company,one
set of tickets and one set of rules.The present situation is ridiculous.
But then again the train companies don't want cyclists on trains and
they are doing an excellent job of dissuading us from travelling.

Sam Salt

Sam Salt said:

GNER,[censored],or they were a couple of years ago.Bike laid on the floor of
the parcel van,no one to open the door get it out at Peterborough till I
chased down a guard with the train ready to go.

I find GNER to be amongst the best now. They have dedicated bike
provision that is sensible, the staff both on and off the trains seem
to want to do their best to help, and they can actually cope with doing
cycle reservations. Then again the comparison is with First ScotRail
who have economised on their dosage of clue somewhat.

Virgin are OK if they have a train that is working and not stinking,
but GNER are my preferred carrier.

Again, most of it comes down to the staff on the particular train.

If they modify the caledonian sleeper to make getting cycles on and off
easier then it would be a good thing..

...d

vernon said:

Have congratulated myself on getting a £28 single to Thurso in August from
Scotrail's telesales service I am still to take delivery of the ticket
despite making the purchase on 29th June.

Chasing up the whereabouts of the ticket has been a trial of my patience as
I found myself in the hands of Central Trains' ticket service in India on
three seperate occasions when initially dealing with Scotrail or so I
thought.

I've been offered three seperate sets of advice, all of them wrong and
finally, more through good luck than good fortune I finally got a genuine
Scotrail employee to tackle the problem of non delivery. Even so, she never
rang back in the promised half an hour I waited an hour and a half before
chasing up the non-returned call.

<snip>

It seems nothing has changed since we did LEJOG.
Your tale rings so many bells from the non arrival of tickest to the
non-returned calls. :-(

http://jpbdesign.net/travel.html

In the end we ended up arriving at Wick for our return journey to be greeted
by the train (van) driver who asked the two of us, where our other four bikes
were.
Incredible.

John B

Sam Salt said:

Virgin,say no more.

Care to expand on this?

They work very well for me, although now it's come to summer, they are
telling me I need a reservation to put my bike on the (almost empty late
commuter) train I take a few days a week, because they might need to use the
bike space for luggage, which seems fine and dandy.

You're not, perchance, using reputation instead of experience to think for
you, are you?

A

Ambrose Nankivell said:

Sam Salt said:

Virgin,say no more.

Care to expand on this?

They work very well for me, although now it's come to summer, they are
telling me I need a reservation to put my bike on the (almost empty late
commuter) train I take a few days a week, because they might need to use the
bike space for luggage, which seems fine and dandy.

You're not, perchance, using reputation instead of experience to think for
you, are you?

I regularly need to take a bike on the Basingstoke/Southampton/Bournemouth
route and Virgin is the company I try and avoid, which says something as the
alternative is SWT.

Occasionally there will be a jobsworth who will not let an unreserved cyclist
on, even when there is plenty of space. As bad, is their timekeeping as the
trains often run *very* late, especially the ones heading south - probably
something to do with the overall journey length as they come down from
Scotland, but such excuses don't wash for passengers who plan journeys using
published timetables and expect a reasonable service.

The bike space is also often full of rubbish bags, luggage, railway
paraphernalia, passengers without seats - but then SWT suffer from all of that
too.

John B

Ambrose Nankivell said:

Sam Salt said:

Virgin,say no more.

Care to expand on this?

They work very well for me, although now it's come to summer, they are
telling me I need a reservation to put my bike on the (almost empty late
commuter) train I take a few days a week, because they might need to use the
bike space for luggage, which seems fine and dandy.

You're not, perchance, using reputation instead of experience to think for
you, are you?

A

No not reputation,experience.

No one on the platform seemed to know which end of the train the bike
accommodation was,was told to stand in a particular spot by Virgin staff
which turned out to be the wrong end of the train.

It is ( or was ) not the easiest cubby hole to get your bike into or out
of.It was full of smelly black bin-bags and what can only be described
as *rubbish*.

Not cycle related but I had a reservation the train was packed to
capacity and some more ,so I sat on the floor rather than fight my way
down the train and back when due to get off.The air con or whatever
wasn't working so it was sweltering,it was late of course.

Virgin ?

I don't think so.

Sam Salt

Sam Salt said:

Virgin ?

I don't think so.

It's called Virgin because it doesn't go all the way.

--
Danny Colyer <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
Subscribe to PlusNet <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/referral/>
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

Danny Colyer wrote on 18/07/2006 19:09 +0100:

Quoted message said:

Sam Salt said:

Virgin ?

I don't think so.

It's called Virgin because it doesn't go all the way.

Not because its Virgin on the ridiculous?

(the old ones are the best ;-) )

--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

Sam Salt said:

GNER,[censored],or they were a couple of years ago.Bike laid on the floor of
the parcel van,no one to open the door get it out at Peterborough till I
chased down a guard with the train ready to go.

This seems to be much improved now with Sheffield type racks in the
luggage van. I agree with the other posters that GNER are the best
company now - though they do need sort out the convoluted bike
reservation system - we simply need a 'live' booking system linked with
travel ticket booking. The Deutsch Bahn website, as ever, sets the
standard - one tick box and you're sorted.

Quoted message said:

I quite agree that life would be far simpler with one train company,one
set of tickets and one set of rules.The present situation is ridiculous.
But then again the train companies don't want cyclists on trains and
they are doing an excellent job of dissuading us from travelling.

GNER & One-Anglia apart, I agree. Its being made progressively more
difficult so less cyclists use trains so they can use the 'no demand'
arguement to reduce bike carriage even further. We need to keep using
the trains to keep the pressure up.

Paul

We used scotrails "Bargain berths" site for or lejog last year, and got
a berth from inverness for £30, which seemed quite good. They have some
cheaper, but not many I suspect! You can't bee too picky when you
travel, and need to buy ages in advance, but seemed to work well.

Ben

John B said:

vernon said:

Have congratulated myself on getting a £28 single to Thurso in August from
Scotrail's telesales service I am still to take delivery of the ticket
despite making the purchase on 29th June.

Chasing up the whereabouts of the ticket has been a trial of my patience as
I found myself in the hands of Central Trains' ticket service in India on
three seperate occasions when initially dealing with Scotrail or so I
thought.

I've been offered three seperate sets of advice, all of them wrong and
finally, more through good luck than good fortune I finally got a genuine
Scotrail employee to tackle the problem of non delivery. Even so, she never
rang back in the promised half an hour I waited an hour and a half before
chasing up the non-returned call.

<snip>

It seems nothing has changed since we did LEJOG.
Your tale rings so many bells from the non arrival of tickest to the
non-returned calls. :-(

http://jpbdesign.net/travel.html

In the end we ended up arriving at Wick for our return journey to be greeted
by the train (van) driver who asked the two of us, where our other four bikes
were.
Incredible.

John B

"PD" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Sam Salt said:

GNER,[censored],or they were a couple of years ago.Bike laid on the floor of
the parcel van,no one to open the door get it out at Peterborough till I
chased down a guard with the train ready to go.

This seems to be much improved now with Sheffield type racks in the
luggage van. I agree with the other posters that GNER are the best
company now - though they do need sort out the convoluted bike
reservation system - we simply need a 'live' booking system linked with
travel ticket booking. The Deutsch Bahn website, as ever, sets the
standard - one tick box and you're sorted.

I've asked First Great Western to look into correcting their website to
allow this as well and received an assurance that it will be put to the
management for "consideration". Given that its not their company policy to
make cycle reservations over the phone unless the tickets are booked this
way at the same time, I'm far from convinced that they are keen to make
things easier for cyclists.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I quite agree that life would be far simpler with one train company,one
set of tickets and one set of rules.The present situation is ridiculous.
But then again the train companies don't want cyclists on trains and
they are doing an excellent job of dissuading us from travelling.

GNER & One-Anglia apart, I agree. Its being made progressively more
difficult so less cyclists use trains so they can use the 'no demand'
arguement to reduce bike carriage even further. We need to keep using
the trains to keep the pressure up.

Agreed. You've spured me on to writing a follow-up letter to first Great
Western to ask what the managers have decided and why re on-line cycle
reservations.

Paul M

Sam Salt said:

Ambrose Nankivell said:

Sam Salt said:

Virgin,say no more.

Care to expand on this?

They work very well for me, although now it's come to summer, they
are telling me I need a reservation to put my bike on the (almost
empty late commuter) train I take a few days a week, because they
might need to use the bike space for luggage, which seems fine and
dandy. You're not, perchance, using reputation instead of experience to
think for you, are you?

A

No not reputation,experience.

No one on the platform seemed to know which end of the train the bike
accommodation was,was told to stand in a particular spot by Virgin
staff which turned out to be the wrong end of the train.

It is ( or was ) not the easiest cubby hole to get your bike into or
out of.It was full of smelly black bin-bags and what can only be
described as *rubbish*.

Not cycle related but I had a reservation the train was packed to
capacity and some more ,so I sat on the floor rather than fight my way
down the train and back when due to get off.The air con or whatever
wasn't working so it was sweltering,it was late of course.

So you caught a train once?

Bikes are at the end of Standard Class accommodation, if that's signposted
on the board. If it's not on the signs, Standard class is at the end of the
train where the coupling is painted black, not yellow.

Overcrowding can be a problem, it's true.

A

On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:18:07 +0100 someone who may be Sam Salt
<[email hidden]> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

No not reputation,experience.

An experience of one trip, so something to be noted but not treated
as gospel for all trips.

Quoted message said:

No one on the platform seemed to know which end of the train the bike
accommodation was,was told to stand in a particular spot by Virgin staff
which turned out to be the wrong end of the train.

Unlike aeroplanes, cars and buses, trains can travel, in normal
service, in both directions. In this day and age it is possible to
keep track of this, but it is not always done correctly. Thus
sometimes trains can be in reverse formation. This is particularly
so for trains which run over most of the UK and can be turned in all
sorts of ways, such as having to take an unplanned route due to
suicide, vandalism, broken rails and all sorts of other things.

Quoted message said:

It is ( or was ) not the easiest cubby hole to get your bike into or out
of.

Virgin originally said these trains would take tandems. Ha, ha.

Quoted message said:

Not cycle related but I had a reservation the train was packed to
capacity and some more ,so I sat on the floor rather than fight my way
down the train and back when due to get off.The air con or whatever
wasn't working so it was sweltering,it was late of course.

I have sat on the floor in this cycle compartment on such a train,
but only once. Many other journeys have been fine.

--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54