London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · April 14th 11, 09:59 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

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.

Indeed.It's a right pain on the 09:20 from Cambridge to King's Cross since
they added the Royston and Letchworth stops.

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.

In such cases I always stand with the bike anyway.

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.

in class 450s I try to get in the marked bike space but passengers don't
usually agree.

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.

Not a problem on King's Cross trains though I try to get to the station
early to get the bike out of the way before the crowds if any arrive.

--
Colin Rosenstiel