Cycles on Virgin Trains

[ACS]

Hi all,

I travel quite a bit with my bike but that is normally with the easy going Northern and Merseyrail.

Anyway, I have 2 journeys I need to make using Virgin services and I've got cycle reservations. My understanding is that the Pendolinos require bikes to be loaded and locked in place by staff. I have 2 concerns about this:

1. Who do I get to do this? Is it the guard's job or the platform staff? How many of the latter are around for the late night services?

2. More worryingly, how do I get it off? I have visions of struggling to find someone, seeing doors close and seeing my pride and joy disappear Londonwards

This arrangement seems needlessly problematic, would anyone like to reassure me that it works and I'm just worrying unneccessarily?

Cheers

 

[erk]

Your bike goes at the end of coach A (normally at the country end of the train). If possible find a member of staff on the platform. They will usually accompany you to the end of the platform and open the door. If no staff to be found, wait near coach C and get the train manager's attention.

Once on board, make sure the train manager knows you have a bike, and where you're getting off. However they do sometimes forget. My advice is to get off at the passenger door of coach A and attract staff attention from the platform. If necessary stand in the doorway until they react.

Going north the driver sometimes volunteers to open the door (after safely bringing the train to a stand!). This is reliable; wait in the cycle compartment. They've never forgotten in my experience, but if they did I would knock discreetly on the cab door a few seconds after the complete stop.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Hi all,

I travel quite a bit with my bike but that is normally with the easy going Northern and Merseyrail.

Anyway, I have 2 journeys I need to make using Virgin services and I've got cycle reservations. My understanding is that the Pendolinos require bikes to be loaded and locked in place by staff. I have 2 concerns about this:

1. Who do I get to do this? Is it the guard's job or the platform staff? How many of the latter are around for the late night services?

2. More worryingly, how do I get it off? I have visions of struggling to find someone, seeing doors close and seeing my pride and joy disappear Londonwards

This arrangement seems needlessly problematic, would anyone like to reassure me that it works and I'm just worrying unneccessarily?

Cheers

I've travelled with a cycle a few times on Pendolinos. The cycle space is normally right at the 'northern' end of the train. I've never known Virgin staff put the cycle on or take it off, I've always done it myself. Getting on at Euston, this often seems to be supervised by Virgin staff - since they are normally fairly careful at Euston to make sure cycles have actually been reserved, but at other stations, it's often been unsupervised. Just make sure you get to the correct end of the train in good time for both getting on and getting off.

The only possible issue is that the door through which you load the cycle isn't normally used for passengers - usually when I've travelled, the guard has been there and opened the door. I'm not entirely sure what the arrangements in that regard are supposed to be, but I'm guessing that, even if the guard wasn't at that location, it wouldn't be a problem because a person standing on the platform at that part of the train with a cycle is going to be very obvious to platform and train staff.

Having said that, I did once have a problem getting off. It was on a train arriving at Euston around midnight, and, I guess being the last service, the guard who should have opened the door to let my bike out just disappeared - and at that time of night, there were no platform staff either (since the train wasn't travelling out again) - I ended up literally wheeling my cycle along the inside of coach A (after everyone else had got off, so the coach was empty) to get to a door that I could open to get my bike out of the train!

 

[Bob Ames]

1. Who do I get to do this? Is it the guard's job or the platform staff? How many of the latter are around for the late night services?

Platform staff. As soon as you arrive, let a dispatcher know that you have a reservation. VT requires stations to be staffed for as long as their services operate, even late at night (they usually hide away in their office at night). If you don't see anyone on the platform, use the station help point. A few minutes before your service arrives, walk your bike to the loading point on the platform (marked by a number '10' in a circle for 11-coach sets and position '8' for 9-coach sets).

2. More worryingly, how do I get it off? I have visions of struggling to find someone, seeing doors close and seeing my pride and joy disappear Londonwards

The dispatcher will have notified the TM by radio of your destination; all you have to do is get your bike ready upon approach to your station. If you are feeling super-paranoid, you can walk down to coach C after you have loaded your bike and confirm with the TM that he/she knows your destination, but that isn't necessary.

This arrangement seems needlessly problematic, would anyone like to reassure me that it works and I'm just worrying unneccessarily?

Works perfectly fine as long as you follow the correct procedure. I've loaded my bike on Pendos dozens of times and never had a problem. If you have any concerns or are unsure about the procedure, just ask the dispatcher what to do - I've always found them to be more than happy to help.

 

[Carlisle]

Considering the recent increase in the popularity of cycling the process does seem a rather cumbersome operation compared to Voyegers etc, I don't know why they can't simply fit a passanger operated door open/close button on the luggage door. where the bikes are stored to make it so much easier for all concerned (maybe it could be done at time of refurbishment if it's a complex job)

 

[HarleyDavidson]

Because it will be abused, at least VT check, unlike many other companies where it seems to be a free for all, which results in bikes being stored in doorways, vestibules, aisles & gangways and are a right pain in the backside.

 

[Emyr]

Don't sit on them then.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Because it will be abused, at least VT check, unlike many other companies where it seems to be a free for all, which results in bikes being stored in doorways, vestibules, aisles & gangways and are a right pain in the backside.

I kinda agree. If they put passenger-operated doors there, I'd bet you'll quickly find people who have reserved cycles unable to get on because the space gets filled with people who hadn't reserved. The cycle space is very small on Pendolinos (it'd be great if they could make it bigger but that's obviously very expensive) and if overfilled, it blocks the walkway to the drivers cab, which potentially would be a big problem.

What I would like to see is cycle reservations made a lot easier - at present you can't reserve cycles online, which is a real pain when you're trying to buy advance tickets online. I've tried a couple of times to buy advance tickets with a cycle reservation, travelling from Euston, and the procedure is horrible. After identifying the ticket you want online, you have to phone to actually buy it and get the cycle reservation at the same time (that seems to involve spending 15 minutes convincing the sales person on the phone that you really do want this particular ticket and not a much more expensive one ). You get given reservation codes to pick up your ticket at Euston but the catch is that the machines there won't print the cycle reservation. You have to queue to pick that up at the counter - and the queues at Euston are often so long (I've queued for 25 minutes a couple of times) that that can easily make you miss your train - which obviously for an advanced train-specific ticket would be a disaster (Luckily when I did this, I took the precaution of specially going to Euston a couple of days before to get the tickets, just in case...)

 

[DaveNewcastle]

What I would like to see is cycle reservations made a lot easier - at present you can't reserve cycles online, which is a real pain when you're trying to buy advance tickets online.

This is incorrect.
I book over 100 Advance tickets a year online which include a cycle reservation, and find it not in the least 'painful'.

I use the East Coast website, and I've just this morning used it to book an Advance on a Virgin service with a cycle reservation with no difficulty whatsoever. I'm not a user of Virgin's own website so can't comment on how easy or 'painful' it is to use that site.

One of the several reason for taking my bike on the train is how easy it is to do (and much easier than driving & parking or than using most local public transport), how easy it is to book and how accomodating rail staff are.

 

[Bob Ames]

I kinda agree. If they put passenger-operated doors there, I'd bet you'll quickly find people who have reserved cycles unable to get on because the space gets filled with people who hadn't reserved.

Yep, just as happens with Voyagers... :roll:

What I would like to see is cycle reservations made a lot easier - at present you can't reserve cycles online, which is a real pain when you're trying to buy advance tickets online.

Whilst VT does not, EC and TPE do offer online cycle reservations for VT services. At the TVM, the reservation tickets are printed along with your travel tickets.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

This is incorrect.
I book over 100 Advance tickets a year online which include a cycle reservation, and find it not in the least 'painful'.

I use the East Coast website, and I've just this morning used it to book an Advance on a Virgin service with a cycle reservation with no difficulty whatsoever. I'm not a user of Virgin's own website so can't comment on how easy or 'painful' it is to use that site.

Whilst VT does not, EC and TPE do offer online cycle reservations for VT services. At the TVM, the reservation tickets are printed along with your travel tickets.

Yep, on some investigating, it looks like my mistake has always been to use Virgin Trains' own website for buying the tickets. Whenever I've bought advanced tickets from that site, the website has always displayed a message to the effect that if you want to reserve a cycle, you must phone to do so. When I've done that, I've always been given two codes over the phone for picking up the tickets - one code for the tickets and another one for the cycle reservation. The ticket machines at Euston seem to accept the code for the tickets, and print those OK, but not the code for the cycle reservations.

But on checking on EastCoast's site, I see you are both correct, if you book there, then it is possible to reserve your cycle online at the same time. I'll remember to do that from now on - thanks!

Time for Virgin to upgrade their IT systems, methinks

 

[ACS]

It is particularly annoying if you want a cycle reservation with an SVH Off-Peak Single which only Virgin seem able to sell online.

As one of the few companies which insists upon cycle reservations they really should be able to issue them online.

 

[Urban Gateline]

As a member of Platform Staff at a station which VT serves, I have put many Bikes on, some tips:

• Make sure you have a Cycle reservation and turn up for the Reserved service as we do check these before letting you on with a Bike.
• As someone said before, make Platform staff aware which service you intend to board and where you are going to (yes it says the destination on the reservation but its best to confirm!)
• Be at the right place on the platform in good time, at the front for Northbound services and at the back for Southbound services. Ask Platform staff if unsure where to wait.
• We normally ring through to your destination to make them aware a bike needs to be taken off **insert Train headcode here** so don't worry about not being able to get the Bike off! However do alert the TM if nobody turns up to help!

 

[Carlisle]

Yep, just as happens with Voyagers... :roll:



Whilst VT does not, EC and TPE do offer online cycle reservations for VT services. At the TVM, the reservation tickets are printed along with your travel tickets.

Maybe cycle reservations are discouraged online as some might reserve a bike months in advance and by the time they travel for a multitude of reasons decided not to take it thus clogging up the system weeks and weeks ahead with loads of bikes that don't actually turn up and preventing others from reserving closer to the actual departure time,similar problems happen with reserved seats

 

[ACS]

I suspect most of the problems with seats come from the way some booking sites issue them automatically even for walk on fares.

If you are buying advance tickets for a journey where you will be travelling with a bike and involving a company which offers or insists upon cycle reservations you should be able to book a cycle reservation.

If some tickets are only available online through Virgin - like the previously mentioned SVH Off-Peak Single - then Virgin's website should accommodate those wishing to take cycles.

 

[ACS]

Just to update. I went on my journeys (3) last week and both me and my bike managed to alight at the correct stations

All the staff were very helpful and staff were indeed present when boarding the late night train. Each time I was asked if I had reserved a place but none of the staff actually asked to see the reservation.

Two issues:
The last door from carriage A into the cycle/luggage storage area is marked as "train crew only beyond this point" which is misleading if you are meant to enter that section and be ready to unstrap and alight with your bike.

On the late night journey I reminded the train manager about the cycle as he was passing through carriage A to the driver. he said the driver would open the door for me. It turned out that he hadn't said anything to the driver and I was lucky that my stop was at the train's terminus. Otherwise that could have been a problem.

Anyway, thanks for your help everybody.