Excess Luggage Charge

[krisk]

What do you think about an excess luggage charge, do people take the p**s when it comes to loading themselves plus numerous suitcases onboard a train. Or should there be less seats but more luggage room. Or is a train a vehicle to move people, not to move their belongings?

I know where I stand on this but my views are restricted.

 

[SS4]

Luggage is covered in the NRCoC, it just needs to be enforced although I'm not entirely sure how it would be done aside from platform staff checking.

A train is more to move people than goods. Far more annoying is the way people put luggage in seats and obstruct passageways

 

[CarterUSM]

Ideally a bit of both would suffice. I believe there is a charge on excess articles of luggage as it is, can't remember for sure but I think 2 items of luggage may be conveyed free of charge, and the third item is chargeable. Though items conveyed on seats are technically chargeable I suppose ......

 

[WestCoast]

I am surprised the railways don't charge for animals - my local bus company has a dog flat fare of 40p.

 

[CarterUSM]

We do. 2 dogs per owner may be conveyed for free, above that they are chargeable as per AAA.

 

[WestCoast]

We do. 2 dogs per owner may be conveyed for free, above that they are chargeable as per AAA.

Interesting. The dog fare on the bus applies to every animal, except assistance dogs.

 

[radamfi]

Around 1994 ish BR heavily publicised the limts of baggage that could be carried free. I haven't seen any publicity since then.

 

[ainsworth74]

From Appendix B of the NRCoC:

2. Condition 46 allows you to take small items of Luggage and Articles into the
passenger accommodation of a train. Small items are considered to be those with
dimensions not exceeding 90 x 70 x 30 cm with a weight not exceeding 50kg. Each
passenger (aged 5 years or more) may take three small items into a train free of
charge, however, the dimensions of only two of these items may exceed 55 x 40 x 20 cm.

3. A fee not exceeding half the adult fare for your journey is charged for:
• each additional item in excess of a passenger’s free allowance; and
• any item with dimensions exceeding 90 x 70 x 30 cm.

4. A Train Company may refuse to accept Luggage or Articles in passenger
accommodation if any of the following apply:
• the restrictions listed in Condition 49 apply;
• the item would obstruct doorways, gangways or corridors;
• the dimensions of the item exceed 100 x 100 x 100 cm; or
• in the opinion of the Train Company’s staff, the item is only suitable to be
conveyed in a luggage van.

7. Under Condition 47 the Train Companies may convey larger items of Luggage and
Articles in a luggage van, if one is available. Items with dimensions exceeding 150 x
150 x 100 cm, or with a weight exceeding 75kg, will not be accepted. A fee not
exceeding half the adult fare for your journey is charged for each item.

Just in case anyone was wondering what the exact rules are on luggage and its conveyance on the railway. Certainly the limits set out the NRCoC seem pretty reasonable (heck I would say very reasonable because per person that's a lot of luggage for free!) to me because as others have said these days the railway is the business of carrying people rather than goods (which I suppose is an interesting reversal on the railways original purpose way back in the 19th century).

 

[W-on-Sea]

Hmm, 1994 (when I was a student, travelling almost from one end of the UK to the other, on the ECML, with loads of loads of baggage) would have been about the time that I certainly exceeded the regulations on numerous occasions. Don't think I'd even heard of there being an official limit on how much baggage one passenger could take (however logical and necessary such a think is). Certainly never saw anything like any attempt to enforce at - even at somewhere like Kings Cross where there might just about be sufficient staff to attempt to. Obviously I would never have dreamed of blocking the passageways, obstructing doorways, etc, but I vaguely seem to recall bringing back maybe four big suitcases plus two bags plus a backpack back from Scotland to London once. This is also when I became an expert on using cross-platform interchanges on the tube, for obvious reasons)

 

[bnm]

A train is more to move people than goods. Far more annoying is the way people put luggage in seats and obstruct passageways

Announcement: "In the interests of safety and security, please keep your luggage and personal possessions with you at all times."

 

[Oliver]

My daughter took a medium size chest of drawers on a 365 from Cambridge to Kings Cross a few years ago. I helped her get it on the train but warned her she'd never be able to get it off the other end. However as she was about 22 and quite pretty several young men carried it to a taxi for her.

 

[Mark_re]

I have seen it enforced by EC at Durham at the end of the University term. Really I think it was because some of the students were getting arsey. I once went to Kings Cross at the end of my term to ask about taking extra luggage. They looked at me like I had two heads and said 'have a word with the guard'. I duly did and she helped me load all my possessions into the DVT (8 boxes, bike, suit carriers, computer). She also called ahead to Durham and there were two staff waiting to help me unload. This was 2009 and I didn't pay a penny.

 

[caliwag]

I recall in the early 90s, before privatisation, when Provincial (Provisional!) Railways where dreamt up (precursor or Reggy Rail), some wag thought it'd be a money spinner to charge unsuspecting passengers for extra luggage.
Now this may be one of those urban (or indeed rural) myths, or guff from the Daily Wail, but I recall a story about a guard demanding payment from a woman for an extra bag of shopping. Quietly dropped as a wheeze after it hit national press.

Into the early eighties you could, when purchasing a ticket, send luggage in advance...free. My girlfriend at the time moved from Hull to Perth, and on a student railcard requested the service. Duly a surly oppo turned up in a truck, hoicked a weighty tin trunk into the rear. Said trunk appeared, at a prearranged time at her new residence.

Such service, no wonder it was scrapped though, could never have covered costs...from a different age altogether presumably when shooting parties decended on the Highlands for the glorious twelfth!

 

[72C]

shame really. the Swiss railways , I believe, will provide this service for their passengers and I believe will take luggage to the airport and check it in - selected airlines only. As I said I stand to be corrected but the principle of customer service remains the same.

Cetainly I agree with the first post. Passengers arriving a station with two or three large rigid cases and then being faced with a foot bridge, no lifts, in the rain can be quite demanding!!

it also does nothing for departure times when the standing time is only two minutes!!

 

[W-on-Sea]

caliwag, was that "Red Star"? A thoroughly (and presumably intentionally) communist name for a service that would obviously not pay for itself...

 

[Holly]

... Into the early eighties you could, when purchasing a ticket, send luggage in advance...free. My girlfriend at the time moved from Hull to Perth, and on a student railcard requested the service. Duly a surly oppo turned up in a truck, hoicked a weighty tin trunk into the rear. Said trunk appeared, at a prearranged time at her new residence.

I don't think the Passengers' Luggage in Advance service was ever free. You did have to hold a timely ticket though. I seem to recall that in the mid fifties the charge was 4/6d for a trunk if you handed it over at the station when you bought your ticket.

AMTRAK still does a decent luggage service.

 

[island]

I think excess luggage on the railways is enforced as the exception rather than the rule. With luggage space on most trains very limited (with a few honourable exceptions) it should be a lot more carefully done.

 

[LE Greys]

Into the early eighties you could, when purchasing a ticket, send luggage in advance...free. My girlfriend at the time moved from Hull to Perth, and on a student railcard requested the service. Duly a surly oppo turned up in a truck, hoicked a weighty tin trunk into the rear. Said trunk appeared, at a prearranged time at her new residence.

Wish there was some equivalent now, it would avoid having my mum turn up in her Corsa to get all my stuff to university every year.

 

[caliwag]

W-on-sea...it indeed was Red Star and it was indeed free, but it was worth a few quid. What would you pay now for such a service? OK within weight or item limits, blah blah. Of course, then all trains had serious luggage space, now 2 cycles are a hassle.
Sadly, luggage in advance would be exploited by clowns and ne'r do wells to say nothing of exploitative chancers. Sadly these are the people that have jiggered public life.

Apropo of nothing, I visited Truro recently (post gateline installation) and bold as brass a lad wandered down the Westbound platform and jumped over the new fence...to non-paying freedom...cool as you like. Plainly the new fence is not high enough.

I'll get my coat!

 

[bnm]

caliwag, was that "Red Star"? A thoroughly (and presumably intentionally) communist name for a service that would obviously not pay for itself...

Yep, "Red Star" would sort out excess luggage requirements. They weren't just there for parcels. In the mid 80s my step-dad got a job as a screw at HMP Winson Green, and prior to the whole family moving to the Midlands he moved various bits of stuff to our new (rented) house in Tamworth. Unfortunately, just before the final move he got sacked for striking a prisoner on the head (instead of the shoulder) with his truncheon. Everything came back to Somerset via Red Star as well!

Evidence of "Red Star" lives on. In various locations across the network you can still see "Red Star" signs. Some 'Sprinter' stock was originally laid out with secure 'parcels' areas. One example is the Class 150/1s, some of which still have a 'P' after the unit number on one end denoting which end had the parcels storage.

 

[Ferret]

I think excess luggage on the railways is enforced as the exception rather than the rule. With luggage space on most trains very limited (with a few honourable exceptions) it should be a lot more carefully done.

Agreed. It's hard to enforce though - station staff need to be far more involved! Once the passenger is on board, it's much harder to deal with.