London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · April 17th 11, 09:20 PM posted to uk.transport.london

*From:*
*Date:* Sat, 16 Apr 2011 18:36:12 -0500

In article ,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

On Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:01:51 -0500,
wrote:
I'm evacuated from a train with my bicycle. Wires down near
Welwyn GC station. The only complication was getting the bike
down the ladder, for which I received assistance from staff or
fellow passengers.

Must admit to being pleasantly surprised someone didn't mutter
"H&S" and make you leave it.

I don't think I gave them the chance.

The experience also demonstrated how ludicrous is the blanket ban
on bikes being carried on rail replacement services. As most of
them are provided by coaches rather than buses there is actually
plenty of space underneath to accommodate bikes on much the same
scale as on trains. My daughter has been unable to bring her bike
home from uni this weekend because there is a blockade between
Waterbeach and Ely again this weekend. All the rail replacement
buses this year have been actually coaches as far as I have seen.

In the Welwyn wires down incident I was lucky that one of the rail
replacement buses they summoned up was a coach which was happy to
take my bike to get us to Potter's Bar. Most of the rail
replacements were in fact buses. In the circs the railway accepted
they had to carry my bike. Dunno what happened to the other guy
with a bike, though.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Do the rail replacement coaches actually use that space for any storage?
My rather limited experience of using NR replacement coaches is that the
driver normally sits in the drivers seat and watches people struggle on
with luggage, unless they are the exception. (I try and avoid travelling
when there's a replacement service unless I really have to).

Roger