I'm from NZ & I'm planning a bikepacking tour around the Highlands & Cairngorms in August, using the HT550 & Cairngorms Loop as the basis of the trip. I'll be flying into London, spending a few days with friends and then I was planning on jumping on a train, with the idea of starting in Fort William. (might whip up Ben Nevis before I head off ).
Do you folks have any recommendations for train services etc, and travelling with a (unboxed) bike? I was thinking of getting the sleeper but am unsure where my bike would be stored, and do I need it in a place where I can keep an eye on it? I'm willing to take a recliner seat if that's a better option.
cheers Brian
Bikes on UK trains is a minefield. One company won't require a reservation while the next needs to be booked in advance. What is generally true is that you can't reserve a bike place on-line (or at least I've not been able to find the hidden menu that lets you do so)
London to Ft William will be Virgin Trains London to Glasgow Central for which you need a reservation for both yourself and your bike. Lots of trains every day, not really a problem.
Glasgow to Ft William is Scotrail from Glasgow Queen St and you need a reservation for your bike. There's only three trains a day so this is the service you need to sort out, probably not too bad away from weekends. Not sure how the sleeper fits in to this timetable.
Note that it's a ten minute walk between Glasgow Central and Queen St stations - you can get a train but bizarrely it costs about twenty quid.
Don't know about bikes on the sleeper but on the standard trains you just strap your bike in to the provided racks.
Better weight than wisdom, a traveller cannot carry
You can get the sleeper train from London Euston to Fort William direct. Your bike would got in the guards van from London to Edinburgh , the train splits in Edinburgh where another guards van is attached to the Fort William portion. Bikes for Fort William are transfered by staff from one portion to the other. If you are concerned about your bike you could take the seating option and supervise the changeover.
Don't know where the £20 between Glasgow Central and Queen Street comes from there is a free shuttle bus between the two stations.
Quote:
Bicycles: You can take bikes on the Caledonian Sleeper trains free of charge, placed in the bike racks in the guard's van. A bike reservation must be made as the number of bike spaces is limited. To reserve your bike, call the new Caledonian Sleeper Guest Services Centre on 0330 060 0500, lines open 08:30-18:00 every day. Tandems aren't carried. There is a separate guard's van with 6 bike spaces (only 3 spaces London-Inverness) in both the London-Edinburgh & London-Glasgow portions of the Lowlands sleeper, and in the London-Inverness & London-Aberdeen portions of the Highland sleeper, but not on the London-Fort William portion. So if you're taking your bike to Fort William you'll need to transfer it at around 5am from the London-Inverness guard's van to the new guard's van attached in Edinburgh bound for Fort William.
The £20 came about when we were looking to book a similar journey: train from Skipton to Glasgow Central was £X but to Queen Street it was higher. It may have been £20 but I've a feeling it was quite a bit more. Just checked (trainline.com) and showing the same price, definitely not my memory, definitely not that.
Better weight than wisdom, a traveller cannot carry
whitestone wrote:The £20 came about when we were looking to book a similar journey: train from Skipton to Glasgow Central was £X but to Queen Street it was higher. It may have been £20 but I've a feeling it was quite a bit more. Just checked (trainline.com) and showing the same price, definitely not my memory, definitely not that.
Think that'll have been on a different service altogether trains entering Queen street generally arrive from the East so prob via Edinburgh. The train to central from Edinburgh goes a longer route via Carstairs junction and adds a chunk of time no reason it should be dearer except maybe the higher demand up the EasT Coast from your start point in Yorkshire? Wasn't the cross town shuttle that added it though...
Didn't know about the shuttle service. First time we wandered around a bit having failed to see any signs to Queen Street. The second time, knowing where things were and that Queen Street isn't the best station to spend lots of time waiting around for a train we had loads of time spare so went for a ride around one of the parks on the banks of the Clyde - got a very fancy cafe/theatre building in the middle of it.
Better weight than wisdom, a traveller cannot carry
Correct advice above, although I travel many miles by train the idea of paying is one I am unfamiliar with (ex employee). One problem you may have is that you can only book your bike once you have your train ticket. And you need to go to a booking office with said ticket to book the bike on. Bike places are at a premium in Scotland (not so bad up on lines to Glasgow or Edinburgh). This issue may have changed the last few years.
If you find this becomes an problem for you PM me and I can sort out a bike reservation for you on the back of my pass. My concern is more that you book a ticket in NZ, arrive here and then no bike reservations left for you when you come to book at a station.
Regarding routes there is a link from Aviemore to FW called the East Highland Way which you may be able to use as a base for linking the other routes.
Blackhound wrote:If you find this becomes an problem for you PM me and I can sort out a bike reservation for you on the back of my pass. My concern is more that you book a ticket in NZ, arrive here and then no bike reservations left for you when you come to book at a station.
Regarding routes there is a link from Aviemore to FW called the East Highland Way which you may be able to use as a base for linking the other routes.
Cheers for all the advice and offers to help. I'll either make a phone call from NZ to book said ticket and bike space, or get my brother-in-law in London to do it on my behalf.
Re route: I'm thinking I'll detour off the HTR route at Loch Ossian and shoot through to Dalwhinnie with a side trip up Ben Alder (namesake!) and then make my way up to Kingussie before getting stuck into the Cairngorm inner loop.
Top tip 1: First Great Western journey planner allows you to make bike reservations as part of your online ticket purchase. You can use it for any UK rail journey.
Top tip 2: get your bike on the train ASAP for the journey back to London. The guards van is usually stacked high with cold boxes full of fish and they are a bugger to move.
Zippy wrote:I've been kicked off a train before now in the middle of nowhere (Garlochhead) despite there being space on the train for the bike...
I thought you could put a bike on a train without a reservation as long as there are spaces. I think you may have been kicked off because the spaces were reserved for later down the line and it would take too long to hunt down the owner of an unreserved bike. I could be wrong though.
You can take your bike on any local service free of charge provided there is space. On longer service it is recommended you make a reservation. Its a must on the West Highland only 6 spaces on each set of coaches. Also recommend on the Highland line.
I decided to go on the Caledonian overnight so I can start riding when I get there. I booked a sleeper seat online (£50) and then emailed the customer service folk with my reservation number and they booked on my bike ( with it's own reservation #). All too easy from the other side of the world...
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