On 12 Feb, 13:31, "Paul Scott" wrote:
"Stagecoach Group Chief Executive Brian Souter today launched the new
initiative at London Waterloo station along with Will Butler-Adams, Managing
Director of Brompton Bicycle, passengers taking part in the trial and Dave
Holladay of CTC...
"Passengers will be able to hire the South West Trains' branded Brompton
bicycles from our Lost Property Office at Waterloo station...

....that have previously been handed in as being lost property? ;-)

Brompton only do folding up bicycles so this is what SWT will offering
- I guess it makes sense in that they'll take up less space when being
stored at Waterloo.

The blurb is lacking in any specifics - how many bikes will there be,
can one/ will one have to reserve a bike etc - it'd be annoying to
plan on using a bike only to find on arrival at Waterloo that none
were available (indeed the availability or otherwise could impact on
one's choice of ticket - e.g. plain-vanilla return or Travelcard).
They're being offered free for the three month trial period to season
ticket holders - is the expectation that season ticket holders would
use them every day?

As well as these issues, another important element in cycle hire
schemes is how well the bikes are maintained - they don't need to be
perfect, but they do need to be of a reasonable standard, and fairly
clean to boot!

Good luck to them, we'll see how it pans out over time.


Full article at:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWT...bikescheme.htm

I wonder if bystanders shouted that they'd prefer Oyster PAYG...


Paul C's summary of the latest TfL board meeting suggests that SWT
have come around to Oyster PAYG. As with the whole roll-out of Oyster
PAYG across London's railways, I'll only truly believe it when I can
touch it! It does appear to be inching ahead though...