London Banter - View Single Post

Roland Perry · April 14th 11, 08:50 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In message , at 08:36:38 on Thu, 14 Apr
2011, d remarked:

He got very huffy because my bike was in the doorway which he wanted to
open the doors from at Putney, starting as the train left Wandsworth Town
(where he had used another doorway), long before he needed to get me out
of my seat to move it. He was very unpleasant about it. Taking a bike on
slow trains from Vauxhall to Putney is a bit of a pain because the side
the doors open on keeps changing from one station to the next. There are
bike spaces in class 450 trains with tip-up seats but even well into the
evening or mid-afternoon you try shifting someone sitting in one of them.

Having had the misfortune of clambouring past a couple of his-n-hers bikes
blocking a doorway on a cambridge service recently I can rather share his
frustration. If you're going to take a bike on a commuter train take a fold-up.
Large suitcases are bad enough but a bike with dirty wheel and a greasy
chain getting in your way is just taking the ****.

Colin's miffed because he would claim that he's a good guy and will get
out of his seat and move the bike on approach to a station where it's
now in the doorway on the platform side.

But many people are not as considerate, and if the vestibule was full of
standing passengers, then neither of his actions would be very easy.

He might even claim that if the train was that full he'd not try to park
the bike in such a vestibule - I'm not sure.

But in the race-to-the-bottom which characterises so much of modern
life, the guard can't assume anyone will act the good guy. Indeed, on
one of my most recent trips someone parked a disabled scooter in a
dorway and then went and hid, leaving a substantial obstacle in the way
of both passengers and their luggage.

Later in the same trip, after the scooter had gone, a lycra-clad cyclist
had to literally force his way onto the train it was that crowded.
--
Roland Perry