Booked tickets for a friend who travelled down to Sheffield today. She's going to be taking a bike back up to Glasgow with her. How do I go about getting her bike reservations for her return service next week? She's traveling on the 16:11 to Manchester (and then Glasgow), which is often rammed. After reading the conditions of carriage, I understand that the guard has the right to refuse bikes onboard in such circumstances. If this occurs, what is the validity of her advance tickets on following services, and would she need to book another bike space if she had to take a quieter service?
She will need a cycle reservation for both services and as you have already booked the tickets, you probably have no option but to either ring the customer services for the train company (Transpennine Express presumably). Their website says phone 0845 600 1674 Monday - Friday between 08:00 and 20:00, no mention of Saturdays or weekends) or call in at a manned station.
If you have booked her advanced tickets tied to a specific train, I suggest you do this as soon as possible; if you can't get the bike reservations for the specific trains booked, then you would either have to leave the bike behind or rebook the journey for a train for which you can get reservations.
If you can't get bike reservations, you could try turning up and getting on the train with the bike, and hoping for the best, but I wouldn't recommend it.
