Most Bikes On Train

[ooo]

What's the highest number of bikes that you have seen one train compared to the official amount?

For me
11 on a HST (Space for 6)
6 on a 158 (Space for 2)


Sorry if this is in the wrong Sub Forum

 

[yorkie]

I am sure we had a thread on this recently. Greater Anglia sometimes show discretion by allowing dozens of bikes in their DVTs when events are on.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

In excess of 40 on a 4 car, going to London for the London - Surrey classic and got called a few expletives for slinging some off too.

Now I just book the day off, because I'm not prepared to put up with the abuse by a bunch of [censored].

 

[jopsuk]

I estimated ~240 on an 8-car 317 (including my own!) on the morning of one London-Cambridge. It was the first service that morning that was stopping at Ponders End- and I think it was a special call + planned 8 car when it would normally be 4. I counted around 30 bikes in my carriage, and it was clear it was the same all the way down the train. The few people on the train without bikes weren't impressed. Pretty sure we left some bikes behind at Stortford and Harlow- the last few to board did so at Audley End.

This year for the Dunwich Dynamo Greater Anglia had a pre-book system in place for Ipswich-London where they were loading up to 50 bikes in the DVT (and banning them from East Suffolk locals, Ipswich-London EMUs). Which would have worked really well had the Network Rail ballast cleaner not bashed a bridge in, which wasn't discovered until the first trainload was on it's way. Weirdly enough GA struggled to find a large number of coaches willing to take bikes at short notice!

 

[ooo]

I estimated ~240 on an 8-car 317 (including my own!) on the morning of one London-Cambridge. It was the first service that morning that was stopping at Ponders End- and I think it was a special call + planned 8 car when it would normally be 4. I counted around 30 bikes in my carriage, and it was clear it was the same all the way down the train. The few people on the train without bikes weren't impressed. Pretty sure we left some bikes behind at Stortford and Harlow- the last few to board did so at Audley End.

This year for the Dunwich Dynamo Greater Anglia had a pre-book system in place for Ipswich-London where they were loading up to 50 bikes in the DVT (and banning them from East Suffolk locals, Ipswich-London EMUs). Which would have worked really well had the Network Rail ballast cleaner not bashed a bridge in, which wasn't discovered until the first trainload was on it's way. Weirdly enough GA struggled to find a large number of coaches willing to take bikes at short notice!

Wow that is impressive

 

[Bletchleyite]

Weirdly enough GA struggled to find a large number of coaches willing to take bikes at short notice!

Lorries might have been more useful!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I've seen three unfolded bikes in the rearmost doorway of a time-restricted peak hour pair of 455s off Waterloo only last week... I boarded at clapham Jct; the bikes had obviously been on all the way from Waterloo.

One unfolded bike is normal, three is really extracting it...

 

[jopsuk]

Indeed, but whilst they'll have a list for emergency disruption coaches, they won't have any appropriate contacts at control for trucks.

No advance on my 30 bikes per carriage then?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I've seen three unfolded bikes in the rearmost doorway of a time-restricted peak hour pair of 455s off Waterloo only last week... I boarded at clapham Jct; the bikes had obviously been on all the way from Waterloo.



One unfolded bike is normal, three is really extracting it...

Barrier staff not doing their job then?

 

[jon0844]

What's the highest number of bikes that you have seen one train compared to the official amount?

For me
11 on a HST (Space for 6)
6 on a 158 (Space for 2)


Sorry if this is in the wrong Sub Forum

Probably over 25 on a 4 car 365, going by how many I saw on the platform and what the two carriages I could see were like (thus my belief the other two would have been identical and perhaps there were even more). The vestibules were full and they were even down the aisles.

It was a cycling group and they were only on a couple of stops. It was quite surreal, and they were lucky that the train wasn't that busy.

I can't even imagine 30 per coach!

 

[Be3G]

I estimated ~240 on an 8-car 317 (including my own!) on the morning of one London-Cambridge. It was the first service that morning that was stopping at Ponders End- and I think it was a special call + planned 8 car when it would normally be 4. I counted around 30 bikes in my carriage, and it was clear it was the same all the way down the train. The few people on the train without bikes weren't impressed. Pretty sure we left some bikes behind at Stortford and Harlow- the last few to board did so at Audley End.

I've seen something fairly similar, in the same part of the world, also on Greater Anglia: boarding a southbound train at Turkey Street one Sunday morning it was completely full of bikes in the vestibules and down the aisle. If my memory's correct they all disembarked at Edmonton Green – I never did work out what the cause of the mass of cyclists was.

As an aside, I can't imagine there ever being a special call made at Ponders End! (With the exception of the AM peak ex-Stansteads some yeas ago…)

 

[Deepgreen]

It has to be the 12 car EPB formations that BR used to run for the returning London to Brighton bike rides in the 1980s - I don't know what the official capacity of a 4EPB would be (using the guards' compartments obviously), but BR used to take out the cushions in the saloons and stack bikes on the frames of the seats. This was usually in about 6 -8 of the 12 cars (pretty much the only time that 12 EPBs ran in passenger service), while the remaining cars were in standard passenger formation (i.e. seats in place). I would estimate that most trains left Brighton with 400-600 bikes aboard.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

Barrier staff not doing their job then?

They never do at Waterloo, Clapham, Surbiton & occasionally at Woking and Guildford. I know one poster on here who to his credit does stop them though.

Traincrew's have had some grief from some members of ORR about it too, but you have to remember that SW London/Surrey residents tend to think that they're above the rules & regulations when it comes to the carriage of bicycles in the rush hour. :roll:

 

[jopsuk]

It has to be the 12 car EPB formations that BR used to run for the returning London to Brighton bike rides in the 1980s - I don't know what the official capacity of a 4EPB would be (using the guards' compartments obviously), but BR used to take out the cushions in the saloons and stack bikes on the frames of the seats. This was usually in about 6 -8 of the 12 cars (pretty much the only time that 12 EPBs ran in passenger service), while the remaining cars were in standard passenger formation (i.e. seats in place). I would estimate that most trains left Brighton with 400-600 bikes aboard.

That ride's too big now- I calculated that just to carry about half the riders, without their bikes, you'd need to lay on over 20 extra 12 car 377 services! Thus the area-wide total ban on the day

 

[Juniper Driver]

That ride's too big now- I calculated that just to carry about half the riders, without their bikes, you'd need to lay on over 20 extra 12 car 377 services! Thus the area-wide total ban on the day

That's true.I did the 1993 London - Brighton bike ride and got the train back.It was a nightmare.On the 1994/1997/1998/1999 ride I rode back as well.Haven't done it since.Too many on it now.

It was a slammer.They took the seats out and stuck all the bikes in one or more coaches or something like that.I can't remember now.

 

[bearhugger]

10 bikes on a 156 on the Middlesbrough to Whitby line on a Friday night late night special service that left Whitby at 22:25. about 8 of them got off at Battersby in the pitch black.

 

[BurtonM]

I got on a 185 once in Manchester and found the cycle storage full, after that I was joined in a vestibule by 3 or 4 mountain bikes, and there were a couple more further down too. I'd have taken a guess there were 9 or 10 total.

 

[Drsatan]

I counted nine bikes on a Salisbury-Romsey via Southampton Central service once.

 

[Kite159]

They never do at Waterloo, Clapham, Surbiton & occasionally at Woking and Guildford. I know one poster on here who to his credit does stop them though.

Traincrew's have had some grief from some members of ORR about it too, but you have to remember that SW London/Surrey residents tend to think that they're above the rules & regulations when it comes to the carriage of bicycles in the rush hour. :roll:

And some tend to get very rude when they can't put their bike in the bike area on a crowded 450s dud to commuters sitting there (at rush hour when the Passenger Information screens say that unfolded bikes are not permitted on this service)

 

[185]

I hereby claim a northern record. 2x185s, Blackpool Manchester.

Counted at least 71 on the back unit and about 8 on the front after the annual Man-Blackpool bike ride, making (I think) 79. Back set went locked out all the way to Piccadilly using the UDB device.

 

[sarahj]

The Southern services into Southampton in the morning carry so many bikes its impossible to even get through some and count.

I once saw a punter take his non folding bike through the barrier at Victoria claiming he was putting it in the bike racks down the end of the platforms, then place it on a train.

Then there are the folks with folding bikes who wont fold them!!!.

As for the London-Brighton bike ride, each year, despite the warnings, the info on websites, the fact that the organisers provide bike transport, there are still those that turn up. They stand and argue for an age, some get quite agitated. Meanwhile if they used slight common sense, they could get a train, but I'm not saying how.

Meanwhile, one year among the bans, some folks tried to board one of mine. Sorry, says I, no bikes allowed today.
But we have reservations.
And sure enough, someone had sold bike reservations on a London to Brighton. :roll: Somethings I'd never even seen before. Had to let them travel.

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

Not a record as such, but I remember seven of them on a 153 on a Hull - York some years ago. The guard came out to do his ticketing duties, took one look at the bikes in the middle and went "Not dealing with this lot" and promptly retreated back inside the rear cab until the bikers got off at Howden.

It was shortly after this that the practice of using 153s on the services stopped and it returned to 142/156 operation for nearly a decade - can't imagine why...

 

[SpacePhoenix]

For the London-Brighton bike ride why don't they hire if possible some class 325s or if any still exist the Royal Mail versions of

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Utility_Van

or

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_Gangwayed

 

[northwichcat]

Not a record as such, but I remember seven of them on a 153 on a Hull - York some years ago. The guard came out to do his ticketing duties, took one look at the bikes in the middle and went "Not dealing with this lot" and promptly retreated back inside the rear cab until the bikers got off at Howden.

It was shortly after this that the practice of using 153s on the services stopped and it returned to 142/156 operation for nearly a decade - can't imagine why...

A Northern guard working a Mid-Cheshire service operated by a single 142 and 9 boys with bikes all wanted to get on the train, he shouted at them to come down to the back said something to them and none of them got on in the end. Presumably he said I'm only supposed to allow 2 bikes on the train and there's no way 9 can be allowed on and if they were all together they decided not to travel, given the service is only hourly.

 

[TheEdge]

Then there are the folks with folding bikes who wont fold them!!!.

For whom is reserved a special place in hell!

 

[jopsuk]

Why not use Mail train for London-Brighton?

because there's not enough capacity. If just half the riders on London-Brighton wanted to use the train, you need to move about 12500 people and bikes. Ideally they all want a seat. As far as I can work out, most Southern Class 377 have 243 seats in a 4-car unit. So a 12 car train has 729 seats.

So, before we even consider how those bikes are being carried, you're adding 18 extra services just to carry riders. That's on top of the normal sunday service on what is a very busy railway line.

If you can get ~60 bikes in a class 325 carriage or GUV, you'd need to provide a capacity (bear in mind carriages can be used more than once, but realistically about three hours apart) of 209. If the GUVs were actually still useable, you'd need to top and tail them, so say 10 vans per train- or another 21 services.

Well done. Timetable almost an extra 40 services, clustered in the afternoon. Find the stock, locomotives, staff for all that. Come up with a check in/collection service with at least a modicum of security to try to stop bikes being stolen.

That's why London-Brighton bans bikes, has a limited coach + lorry service (going to various destinations too, to spread the issues- with the trains, what happens at Victoria?- and otherwise tells people they're on their own.

 

[Deepgreen]

That ride's too big now- I calculated that just to carry about half the riders, without their bikes, you'd need to lay on over 20 extra 12 car 377 services! Thus the area-wide total ban on the day

I know - I'm not saying that it's feasible today; just answering the original question. A couple of shots of the "Bicycle Belle" at Brighton in about 1987.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

The Southern services into Southampton in the morning carry so many bikes its impossible to even get through some and count.

I once saw a punter take his non folding bike through the barrier at Victoria claiming he was putting it in the bike racks down the end of the platforms, then place it on a train.

Then there are the folks with folding bikes who wont fold them!!!.

As for the London-Brighton bike ride, each year, despite the warnings, the info on websites, the fact that the organisers provide bike transport, there are still those that turn up. They stand and argue for an age, some get quite agitated. Meanwhile if they used slight common sense, they could get a train, but I'm not saying how.

Meanwhile, one year among the bans, some folks tried to board one of mine. Sorry, says I, no bikes allowed today.
But we have reservations.
And sure enough, someone had sold bike reservations on a London to Brighton. :roll: Somethings I'd never even seen before. Had to let them travel.

We used to have that issue when SW ran to Brighton, did one on L2B bike ride day and security stopped any boarding en-route, on return there were 4 waiting to board the train which was an Brighton - Exeter and much to the annoyance of a significant number who wanted to board they were allowed to board as they were going to Salisbury & beyond & had the reservations to allow them to board, the others were blocked & OMG didn't the balloon go up!

 

[jopsuk]

I often take my bike on trains, but I've absolutely no sympathy for those that flout rules on it or get upset by restrictions. Passengers come first, fit bikes in sensibly after...

Dutch approach is a nationwide peak-time ban and a €6 day pass to take a (non folding) bike on during the rest of the day.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

Perhaps someone from a UK TOC should pay a visit to Nederlandse spoorwegen and see how it's done and enforced.