Cycle Restrictions at Motherwell?

[drb61]

I have a trip planned to London travelling down on the evening of Thursday 29th, returning the following evening and plan to take my cycle with me as last time I was in London I found cycling a great way to get around the capital with its excellent cycling infrastructure.

As I arrive back quite late on the Friday evening, I had planned to drive to Motherwell and leave my van parked at a colleague's house, in case my train is delayed and I miss the last connection back home to Cambuslang (don't really fancy at 10 mile cycle close to midnight on a January evening).

Having had the tickets booked for me earlier today by the company paying for my travel, I collected them and went to the travel centre at Glasgow Central to add on cycle reservations. The helpful assistant tried finding several services between Motherwell and Euston with cycle spaces available to no avail. After then repeating the search on the original services I was booked on it appeared that the cycle spaces WERE available if booked from / to Glasgow Central, rather than Motherwell! What apparently transpired was that loading and unloading of cycles on Avanti West Coast services at Motherwell is no longer allowed, which seems bizarre as I've used Avanti services from Motherwell with my bike previously without any issues. The cycle reservations were then duly issued from / to Glasgow Central along with a permit to travel for a return journey from Motherwell to Glasgow, but what I think I'll just do instead is park the van somewhere near Glasgow Green, a relatively short distance from Glasgow Central.

Does anyone have any idea why this restriction has come into force? Perhaps to reduce dwell time of Avanti services at Motherwell? Or have dispatch staff at Motherwell (needed to open the door of the cycle compartment) been cut back? Or are ScotRail staff now refusing to do this because Avanti are a different company? I assume this restriction wouldn't apply on TPE or XC services where no staff intervention is required for loading / unloading cycles? Are there any other stations on the network where loading / unloading of cycles is prohibited?

 

[reb0118]

Haymarket, on Avanti services. However, that is because the cycle carriage is not on the platform there.

 

[styles]

Motherwell and Haymarket are actually mentioned on the Avanti website fwiw:

Travelling south from Haymarket? Your bike can't be loaded there due to the short platform, so you'll need to book and travel from Edinburgh Waverley in order to travel with your bike.

Travelling to or from Motherwell? Your bike can't be loaded there for operational reasons, so you'll need to book and travel from Glasgow Central with your bike.

Taking Your Bike on the Train | Avanti West Coast

Find out how you can travel by train with your bike, where to store your bike & the best places to hire one for your journey with Avanti West Coast.

www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk

 

[Bletchleyite]

Intrigued what the "operational reason" is. Do they not have dispatchers there or do they have fewer than elsewhere? It's normally them that open the staff door to the bike space.

 

[380101]

Intrigued what the "operational reason" is. Do they not have dispatchers there or do they have fewer than elsewhere? It's normally them that open the staff door to the bike space.

It's ScotRail that do the dispatch at Motherwell for Avanti. There's 3 or 4 assisting with the dispatch at Glasgow Central due to the 'S' curve platforms so more scope to assist loading bikes. Maybe only 1 or 2 dispatchers at Motherwell and with a short dwell time there's no way to load bikes.

 

[mfc3024]

Great post and something I was not aware of. I live in Motherwell and plan to take my bike down to Carlisle / Penrith this spring, for a cycle down round the Lake District. That's good to know about Avanti services.

Think I'll just then look at TPE services then from Motherwell.

 

[KNN]

It's ScotRail that do the dispatch at Motherwell for Avanti. There's 3 or 4 assisting with the dispatch at Glasgow Central due to the 'S' curve platforms so more scope to assist loading bikes. Maybe only 1 or 2 dispatchers at Motherwell and with a short dwell time there's no way to load bikes.

Non Avanti staff dispatch at other stations too, and there is no restriction on bikes there. Lockerbie, Sandwell & Dudley and Blackpool North off the top of my head.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Unless you have a particular need to use your own bike in London, I would hire a Boris Bike or Lime bike once down here.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Non Avanti staff dispatch at other stations too, and there is no restriction on bikes there. Lockerbie, Sandwell & Dudley and Blackpool North off the top of my head.

Also I think Nuneaton and Tamworth have despatch staff working for West Midlands Railway. Iirc Lichfield is self despatch.

 

[Techniquest]

Unless you have a particular need to use your own bike in London, I would hire a Boris Bike or Lime bike once down here.

Honestly, that’s a good shout on paper. Not so much in reality though, the brakes on those bikes can be very, well, hit and miss. I rode one of the Santander Cycles machines last weekend, they are good for the price but they are all very patchy in terms of how well they work.

Never tried a Lime bike, not heard or seen good things about those.

 

[Efini92]

Non Avanti staff dispatch at other stations too, and there is no restriction on bikes there. Lockerbie, Sandwell & Dudley and Blackpool North off the top of my head.

Does seem odd, I’d wonder if it’s to do with platform curvature and where the guard has to stand. Though it’s no different to Sandwell and Dudley.

 

[Toby268]

Does seem odd, I’d wonder if it’s to do with platform curvature and where the guard has to stand. Though it’s no different to Sandwell and Dudley.

Yes, and where the dispatcher needs to stand. And how frequent dispatchers were dealing with passenger assists as well as getting into a position to dispatch the train when short staffed. To many delays were being attributed to bikes at Motherwell, most services only have a 90 second dwell.

With regards to posters drawing similarities to Sandwell and Dudley. On the up, the dispatcher is positioned at the rear of the train and can get bikes off. On the down, a dispatcher is regularly at the front when it is fully staffed but providing the sets are the right way round, which they are most of the time, the driver will get it off.

 

[drb61]

Honestly, that’s a good shout on paper. Not so much in reality though, the brakes on those bikes can be very, well, hit and miss. I rode one of the Santander Cycles machines last weekend, they are good for the price but they are all very patchy in terms of how well they work.

Never tried a Lime bike, not heard or seen good things about those.

I did hire the Santander bikes on a previous visit to London, but there were no bike stations near where I was going (Imperial College) and the two nearest ones (at White City and Wood Lane) were full, so I ended up returning the bike at Shepherds Bush and then having to rush to get to the place on foot! Also I cannot mount my cycle computer (for directions) onto the hire bikes and struggled to hear spoken directions from my 'phone above the traffic noise - hence why I opted to take my own bike on the most recent visit.

 

[Techniquest]

I did hire the Santander bikes on a previous visit to London, but there were no bike stations near where I was going (Imperial College) and the two nearest ones (at White City and Wood Lane) were full, so I ended up returning the bike at Shepherds Bush and then having to rush to get to the place on foot! Also I cannot mount my cycle computer (for directions) onto the hire bikes and struggled to hear spoken directions from my 'phone above the traffic noise - hence why I opted to take my own bike on the most recent visit.

Honestly, I don’t blame you, I’d have done the same. The scheme in London just doesn’t seem to be extensive enough, the amount of times I’ve wanted to use one but found the nearest bay is literally miles away is absurd.

I also found it worked less well than the Starling Bank Bikes/Beryl scheme in places like Greater Manchester, Brighton, Hereford (woop woop, big up Beryl in Hereford, very biased towards them!) and other places.

Most of the time when I’m on a Santander Cycles ride it’s because impulse has taken hold. It’s not for the convenience although I will say the day pass does look like good value in a city not known to offer much of anything at a good price!

 

[drb61]

Latest in this saga is that seemingly cycle reservations from Motherwell cannot be made using TPX services either (even though they don't require platform staff to assist with boarding on the 397s). Just attempted to book myself and my bike from Cambuslang to Carlisle (via Motherwell) for Ride to the Sun in June and showed no cycle spaces available. Re-attempted on the same train (17.10) from Glasgow Central - no problem!

However I was able to book bikes on a Cross Country service from Motherwell to Newcastle in May for our Dutch cycling holiday - so doesn't look like it's a complete blanket ban with all operators.