Bikes on French TGV (luggage racks are now sealed off)

Quoted message said:

I read on rec.travel.europe that the large luggage racks
(where one used to be able to put dis-assembled bikes,
held in a special bag) on TGVs are now sealed off for
security reasons (after the Madrid bombing). Can anyone
confirm this?

This has been discussed on the tandem email list: ca-ca-Open ↗
tfood.phred.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=tandem.10404.0180.eml

There are likely related posts. Search using the bike list
search tool (catfood.phred.orgquery.aspOpen ↗) over the
last month.

Good luck,

Chris Neary [email hidden]

"Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you
ask of life? Bicycling combined all the elements I loved" -
Adapted from a quotation by Charles Lindbergh

Chris Neary said:

Quoted message said:

I read on rec.travel.europe that the large luggage racks
(where one used to be able to put dis-assembled bikes,
held in a special bag) on TGVs are now sealed off for
security reasons (after the Madrid bombing). Can anyone
confirm this?

This has been discussed on the tandem email list: http-
://catfood.phred.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=tandem.10404.-
0180.eml

There are likely related posts. Search using the bike list
search tool (catfood.phred.orgquery.aspOpen ↗) over the
last month.

I wrote to SNCF last week for confirmation, and just got
this reply:

"It is correct that the luggage areas on TGV are not
available because of the [anti-terrorism plan].

"For more information about travelling with your bicycle, we
invite you to contact our call center Ligne Directe. The
phone number is 08.92.35.35.39 from France and
0033.892.35.35.39 from Europe.

"We hope this information will be of assistance."

I received the same reply over the weekend. I think I will
call that # closer to the time that I am going there (in
July) rather than call now b/c things may change
b/w now and July (or maybe not)

They also suggested using SERNAM to ship the bike from
station to station but I know that takes two days minimum.
I don't think people could normally budget two days in the
beginning and another two at the end just to wait for
their bikes.

"Robert Chung" <[email hidden]> wrote in message -"]news:[email hidden]-
berlin.de...

Quoted message said:

Chris Neary said:

Quoted message said:

I read on rec.travel.europe that the large luggage
racks (where one used to be able to put dis-assembled
bikes, held in a special bag) on TGVs are now sealed
off for security reasons (after the Madrid bombing).
Can anyone confirm this?

This has been discussed on the tandem email list: http:-
//catfood.phred.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=tandem.10404.01-
80.eml

There are likely related posts. Search using the bike
list search tool (catfood.phred.orgquery.aspOpen ↗)
over the last month.

I wrote to SNCF last week for confirmation, and just got
this reply:

"It is correct that the luggage areas on TGV are not
available because of the [anti-terrorism plan].

"For more information about travelling with your bicycle,
we invite you to contact our call center Ligne Directe.
The phone number is 08.92.35.35.39 from France and
0033.892.35.35.39 from Europe.

"We hope this information will be of assistance."

I could find no mention of this supposed new policy on the
French railroad website (www.sncf.com). I speak French, and
I looked both in the baggage regulations portion of the
website and the press releases section going back to March
11, the day of the Madrid bombings, and found nothing. There
was an expression of sympathy dated March 11, 2004, however.
I'm going to e-mail a couple of friends in France and see if
they know anything about it.

Eric said:

I could find no mention of this supposed new policy on the
French railroad website (www.sncf.com). I speak French,
and I looked both in the baggage regulations portion of
the website and the press releases section going back to
March 11, the day of the Madrid bombings, and found
nothing. There was an expression of sympathy dated March
11, 2004, however. I'm going to e-mail a couple of friends
in France and see if they know anything about it.

I live in Paris, and I didn't know anything about it. I
scanned the SNCF website, just as you did, and saw no
mention of the new policy, then e-mailed them. I posted the
reply I got from them earlier in this thread.

In article <[email hidden]>,

JG said:

I received the same reply over the weekend. I think I will
call that # closer to the time that I am going there (in
July) rather than call now b/c things may change
b/w now and July (or maybe not)

They also suggested using SERNAM to ship the bike from
station to station but I know that takes two days minimum.
I don't think people could normally budget two days in the
beginning and another two at the end just to wait for
their bikes.

Never, ever, use this shame of a service ! Once upon a
time,
SNCF did have a decent bike transportation service,
but no more !

As for TGV, don't worry. If your bike is in a bag, just
take it with you and store it where you can! Your best
option would be to get a reservation on the last or first
car of the train and leave the bag on the last platform. I
once traveled with three bags (hand made and unclosed) plus
a baby seat on top in an overcrowded TGV. The conductor did
a few contorsions to go throught the platform and didn't
even asked to who this belonged...

Jean-Pierre