Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

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Jurassic
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Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by Jurassic »

This looks like a fairly sizable step in the right direction (notwithstanding the current Coronavirus issues).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53041045
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RIP
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by RIP »

Well spotted. Excellent. If ScotRail reckon it's profitably worthwhile on the West Highland then presumably it would be in other 'touristy' areas as well. For example...ohh I don't know... say the Cambrian Coast? Come on TfW, get it sorted.
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Jurassic
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by Jurassic »

It struck me as a little ironic that the Beeb seem to be making more fuss about the mural on the outside of the carriages than they do about the ability to carry twenty bikes. :roll:
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by whitestone »

These carriages have been mooted for a few years now, in fact I thought they were meant to be in service last summer
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by ScotRoutes »

Correct. But these things take time. I mean, the design was obviously crucial. It was late summer last year when I was polled on the design options.....
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by whitestone »

RIP wrote: Sun Jun 14, 2020 10:42 pm Well spotted. Excellent. If ScotRail reckon it's profitably worthwhile on the West Highland then presumably it would be in other 'touristy' areas as well. For example...ohh I don't know... say the Cambrian Coast? Come on TfW, get it sorted.
It used to be six bikes on the Oban service and six on the Fort William service - they'd leave as one then split at Crianlarich so you had to get on the right half. I'm assuming that now it will be twenty plus twenty.

Because it is so popular you HAD to pre-book a bike on the WHL. We'd go to the local station to get tickets to Oban. We'd say: "Best do Glasgow Queen Street to Oban first as there's limited availability"

Whereupon the guy in the ticket office would go: "Skipton to Carlisle with Northern. ... OK. Carlisle to Glasgow Central with Virgin ... OK. Glasgow Queen Street to Oban ... Ah! only one bike space left." And repeat for all the services before and after. It could take an hour or more for them to sort it all out!
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Jurassic
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by Jurassic »

I've had fun and games booking bikes on as well but I've always managed to get on the train. I discovered by accident that the best train to catch was the overnight sleeper from London as this has an old fashioned guards carriage which is usually pretty much empty. It heads north from Glasgow early in the morning (arriving at Bridge of Orchy around 0830 iirc) so works pretty well time wise as well. Hopefully the new set up will make things even easier though if and when we're clear of this pesky virus.
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by ScotRoutes »

I was told the new carriages could also take kayaks....
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by ScotRoutes »

It's taken a while, but first services run today.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland- ... t-57884961
woodsmith
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by woodsmith »

There's a need for these to/fro Thurso/Wick for all the NC500 and LEJOG/JOGLE bikes too
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Richard G
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by Richard G »

Pretty cool, hopefully will get to try them at some point.
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by arkay »

Could do with some of these on the Exeter to Barnstaple line. I went down there to see my parents the a couple of weeks ago, arrived in Exeter to find that the next train to Barnstaple had been cancelled (one an hour). By the time the one after that arrived there must have been at least 10 people with bikes trying to get on the three-carriage train, which already had three or four bikes on it from Exeter Central. To give the staff credit they weren't jobsworthy at all and squoze us all on but I can't pretend it was fully socially distanced :shock:
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by ripio »

It's great that they are providing more space for bikes etc, but the actual design of the racks is pretty strange, impractical, and an ineffficient use of the space.
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by Loki »

Need these peak season in the Southwest, the most I have seen on one train was 13 bikes, previous train was cancelled, better bike storage is needed across the board, I get the feeling we are being forced off Cross country trains by the stupidly small bike spaces and onto the local level trains.
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samwise
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by samwise »

We need these everywhere! One loaded bike usually takes up 3 bike 'spaces' on our local trains.

Tandem spaces too!! :o
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thenorthwind
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by thenorthwind »

I thought I was going to get to use this the week after next, but once again, I'm left in despair at the process of taking a bike on a train in this country. The active travel carriage on the West Highland line is brilliant, but sod all use if I can't get to it by train with my bike. I need to travel back from Crianlarich to Newcastle, which involves going via Glasgow and Edinburgh. None of the LNER Edinburgh>Newcastle trains have bike spaces left (really? On a random Monday daytime in September?) so I'm limited to infrequent CrossCountry trains. There's a bike space on the West Highland line bit, but the Edinburgh to Glasgow bit is first come, first served, so I have no guarantee I'll actually be able to get my bike to Edinburgh to make the train with a bike reservation, so I'd be waiting at least another 2 hours and buying a new ticket. Why does this have to be so difficult?! ~X(

Apologies for the rant.
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by ScotRoutes »

Edinburgh - Glasgow is such a frequent service that taking a bike on has never been an issue. Just turn up a couple of trains early to make sure.

I'm not surprised that bookable bike spaces are full, but then I've been aware of bike travel issues for years due to my last job and demand has been through the ceiling this year. There's a local Edinburgh PH on one of the September Mondays too.

And no apology needed. It's bloody frustrating.
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thenorthwind
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by thenorthwind »

ScotRoutes wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:20 pm Edinburgh - Glasgow is such a frequent service that taking a bike on has never been an issue. Just turn up a couple of trains early to make sure.
Not impossible, but I'd have to get the 0633 from Crianlarich instead of the 0933 - don't mind getting up early, but it turns a 5 hour journey into an 8 hour journey!

Could probably ride to Edinburgh in the 3.5 hours!
ScotRoutes wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:20 pm I'm not surprised that bookable bike spaces are full, but then I've been aware of bike travel issues for years due to my last job and demand has been through the ceiling this year. There's a local Edinburgh PH on one of the September Mondays too.
Could explain it. I'm still suspicious that the LNER spaces are all booked, but XC aren't.
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by stevenshand »

thenorthwind wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 2:15 pm
ScotRoutes wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:20 pm Edinburgh - Glasgow is such a frequent service that taking a bike on has never been an issue. Just turn up a couple of trains early to make sure.
Not impossible, but I'd have to get the 0633 from Crianlarich instead of the 0933 - don't mind getting up early, but it turns a 5 hour journey into an 8 hour journey!

Could probably ride to Edinburgh in the 3.5 hours!
ScotRoutes wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:20 pm I'm not surprised that bookable bike spaces are full, but then I've been aware of bike travel issues for years due to my last job and demand has been through the ceiling this year. There's a local Edinburgh PH on one of the September Mondays too.
Could explain it. I'm still suspicious that the LNER spaces are all booked, but XC aren't.
I'd be amazed if you can't get a bike on the Glasgow-Edinburgh train at almost anytime. I used to commute on that line and in hundreds of trips I don't remember ever having an issue. The only time I can see it being problematic is if it's during peak time and perhaps the train before was cancelled so everyone is squashed on. Even then you'd probably still be able to get on with it. I've often just stood at the doors with the bike for the journey if I can't get to the correct carriage with bike space.
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by lune ranger »

I had a similar experience with GWR recently. Random week day not in the holidays and all 6 bike spaces on multiple trains were booked. The train I did get a space on was devoid of bikes except mine…
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by thenorthwind »

stevenshand wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 8:36 pm
thenorthwind wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 2:15 pm
ScotRoutes wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:20 pm Edinburgh - Glasgow is such a frequent service that taking a bike on has never been an issue. Just turn up a couple of trains early to make sure.
Not impossible, but I'd have to get the 0633 from Crianlarich instead of the 0933 - don't mind getting up early, but it turns a 5 hour journey into an 8 hour journey!

Could probably ride to Edinburgh in the 3.5 hours!
ScotRoutes wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:20 pm I'm not surprised that bookable bike spaces are full, but then I've been aware of bike travel issues for years due to my last job and demand has been through the ceiling this year. There's a local Edinburgh PH on one of the September Mondays too.
Could explain it. I'm still suspicious that the LNER spaces are all booked, but XC aren't.
I'd be amazed if you can't get a bike on the Glasgow-Edinburgh train at almost anytime. I used to commute on that line and in hundreds of trips I don't remember ever having an issue. The only time I can see it being problematic is if it's during peak time and perhaps the train before was cancelled so everyone is squashed on. Even then you'd probably still be able to get on with it. I've often just stood at the doors with the bike for the journey if I can't get to the correct carriage with bike space.
Maybe I was worrying about it unnecessarily. In the end I just decided I was supposed to be enjoying myself not stressing about whether I was going to get home, so I'm not taking a bike. Cheers British railways.
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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by ScotRoutes »

FWIW

Abellio have just placed a tender for someone to convert the existing Edinburgh/Glasgow to Inverness/Aberdeen trains so that they can carry between 12 and 20 bikes (depending on number of units).

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Re: Active travel carriage on WH railway line.

Post by fatbikephil »

Blimey things are looking up! Mind you, being the cynic that I am, I'd be minded to say this was now possible due to minimal passenger numbers with no sign of recovery for several years. Actually an ideal time to travel by train!
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