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Taking a bike Oxford - Stafford on XC

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newcommuter22

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I've got a bike reservation on the 0639 Oxford-Stafford on Tue 23rd August. I'll be travelling with other luggage (bike pannier and large rucksack) so I'm a bit concerned about how practical this will be. Does anyone have any experience of using XC with bikes, especially through the Birmingham 'core' at rush hour? My main concern is whether there is actually going to be a space when I board in Oxford...
 
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voyagerdude220

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I've no experience of how busy that particular train will be, however, it is booked to be a double set (2x Voyagers coupled together) so there will be two bike spaces available if it is indeed a double set as planned.

I'd be surprised if there was a great demand for bike spaces early morning but I'm only guessing.
 

newcommuter22

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I've no experience of how busy that particular train will be, however, it is booked to be a double set (2x Voyagers coupled together) so there will be two bike spaces available if it is indeed a double set as planned.

I'd be surprised if there was a great demand for bike spaces early morning but I'm only guessing.

Good point about the double set, but surely it'll have a good number of commuters on. It forms the 0748 arrival at Birmingham New Street, perhaps there's a regular passenger on here?
 

AndrewE

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Given that you have a bike reservation I wouldn't worry. You will be on board well before Brum city centre (4 or 5 stops before) and don't need to get off until after it. I don't know how bike spaces are allocated when there are 2 Voyager sets, but the only thing I would do is sit as close to the bike/van space as possible and watch that door carefully at stations.
A
 

AndrewE

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I've no experience of how busy that particular train will be, however, it is booked to be a double set (2x Voyagers coupled together) so there will be two bike spaces available if it is indeed a double set as planned.

I'd be surprised if there was a great demand for bike spaces early morning but I'm only guessing.
I'm surprised that there is only 1 bike space per Voyager, but the OP has one reserved. How many commuters there are, and whether they expect to take their bikes is irrelevant if they haven't booked.
 

newcommuter22

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Given that you have a bike reservation I wouldn't worry. You will be on board well before Brum city centre (4 or 5 stops before) and don't need to get off until after it. I don't know how bike spaces are allocated when there are 2 Voyager sets, but the only thing I would do is sit as close to the bike/van space as possible and watch that door carefully at stations.
A
I'm surprised that there is only 1 bike space per Voyager, but the OP has one reserved. How many commuters there are, and whether they expect to take their bikes is irrelevant if they haven't booked.

Thanks! Good point about watching it, I was already planning on standing with my bike to avoid anything happening to it!

I guess my main concern is whether people actually pay any attention to the bike reservations or not. Hopefully they do!
 

Techniquest

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Most of the time people pay attention to cycle reservations, not always I will grant you that, and some people take up the whole of a space allocated for two cycles with an oversized e-bike which didn't fit the space. This was on an IET some time ago, let's not go into how unhelpful that was, thankfully though there was another option on my quiet train and I boarded at the start of the journey.

Voyagers and cycles, those who have commented so far are incorrect. There is more than one space on Voyagers for cycles. Officially, there's two sections in each Voyager, one is meant to fit two cycles and the other, according to the information sticker, is supposed to be kept as a spare. This is all fine and good if your cycle is quite small or whatever, but I found in practice that it was nigh-on impossible to fit my hybrid cycle in the space designed (supposedly) for two cycles. I took the 'spare' space when I did Birmingham to Derby back in January. Even then, it only just fitted into that space!

One thing I will say is that the hooks were a lot more lenient than those found on IETs. Which is certainly good news! So while I would suggest you might have difficulty in getting your cycle in/out of the Voyager, the lifting the front/rear wheel up enough to get it onto the hook is not quite as challenging as on a GWR IET.

Regarding the reservation, you should receive a cycle reservation ticket when you pick up your travel tickets. Well, two reservations. One should be attached to the cycle (I usually stick mine alongside the bottle on one of the bottle cages) and one to be kept with you. Almost no-one seems to display their reservation on their cycle, and occasionally I will confess to not doing so myself. On said reservation, it should have a carriage letter on it, which is where your reservation should be. I haven't got one here to confirm this right now, but it is how it normally is on my travels.

Would I recommend standing next to your cycle on your journey? No, that's not really going to be enjoyable. On a short leap, maybe so, but Oxford-Stafford is a fair trek and you'll want to sit down on that journey. I'd recommend finding an unreserved seat near your cycle, absolutely, if only for peace of mind that you'll get from being able to keep an eye on it at station stops.

Panniers etc, I would remove before boarding, as they will make loading your cycle much harder and possibly infringe on someone else's space.

At the time you're travelling, I don't personally think it would be an issue, so I'd be confident of travelling safely with your cycle. Whatever the purpose of your journey is, I hope it's a good one. Finally for now, happy cycling!
 

newcommuter22

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Most of the time people pay attention to cycle reservations, not always I will grant you that, and some people take up the whole of a space allocated for two cycles with an oversized e-bike which didn't fit the space. This was on an IET some time ago, let's not go into how unhelpful that was, thankfully though there was another option on my quiet train and I boarded at the start of the journey.

Voyagers and cycles, those who have commented so far are incorrect. There is more than one space on Voyagers for cycles. Officially, there's two sections in each Voyager, one is meant to fit two cycles and the other, according to the information sticker, is supposed to be kept as a spare. This is all fine and good if your cycle is quite small or whatever, but I found in practice that it was nigh-on impossible to fit my hybrid cycle in the space designed (supposedly) for two cycles. I took the 'spare' space when I did Birmingham to Derby back in January. Even then, it only just fitted into that space!

One thing I will say is that the hooks were a lot more lenient than those found on IETs. Which is certainly good news! So while I would suggest you might have difficulty in getting your cycle in/out of the Voyager, the lifting the front/rear wheel up enough to get it onto the hook is not quite as challenging as on a GWR IET.

Regarding the reservation, you should receive a cycle reservation ticket when you pick up your travel tickets. Well, two reservations. One should be attached to the cycle (I usually stick mine alongside the bottle on one of the bottle cages) and one to be kept with you. Almost no-one seems to display their reservation on their cycle, and occasionally I will confess to not doing so myself. On said reservation, it should have a carriage letter on it, which is where your reservation should be. I haven't got one here to confirm this right now, but it is how it normally is on my travels.

Would I recommend standing next to your cycle on your journey? No, that's not really going to be enjoyable. On a short leap, maybe so, but Oxford-Stafford is a fair trek and you'll want to sit down on that journey. I'd recommend finding an unreserved seat near your cycle, absolutely, if only for peace of mind that you'll get from being able to keep an eye on it at station stops.

Panniers etc, I would remove before boarding, as they will make loading your cycle much harder and possibly infringe on someone else's space.

At the time you're travelling, I don't personally think it would be an issue, so I'd be confident of travelling safely with your cycle. Whatever the purpose of your journey is, I hope it's a good one. Finally for now, happy cycling!

Thanks for the detailed reply! I got the reservation online from XC customer service (Facebook messenger) so I'll print two copies off before I go. I'll make sure I remove the pannier before I get on the train and hopefully it'll fit in OK, although it is a hybrid with a large frame size and wheels (I'm tall!).
 

Techniquest

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Thanks for the detailed reply! I got the reservation online from XC customer service (Facebook messenger) so I'll print two copies off before I go. I'll make sure I remove the pannier before I get on the train and hopefully it'll fit in OK, although it is a hybrid with a large frame size and wheels (I'm tall!).

You're welcome :) If you have a digital reservation, I would simply screenshot the message and the confirmation. Save paper where possible!

If you are able to, I might be able to advise how well your cycle will fit if I can see a photo of it :) It sounds like it will fit just fine, a bit tight but all being well it'll get in.
 

newcommuter22

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You're welcome :) If you have a digital reservation, I would simply screenshot the message and the confirmation. Save paper where possible!

If you are able to, I might be able to advise how well your cycle will fit if I can see a photo of it :) It sounds like it will fit just fine, a bit tight but all being well it'll get in.

I've sent you a picture by PM!
 

newcommuter22

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Thanks to those who offered advice - it was a bit difficult to fit my bike on the Voyager and get it off again but overall went smoothly!
 

Techniquest

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Thanks to those who offered advice - it was a bit difficult to fit my bike on the Voyager and get it off again but overall went smoothly!

Excellent! I went on a Voyager yesterday, planned thankfully but backup options made just in case, so I took my Carrera with me. Absolutely no issue getting that on to my surprise, probably helped by the handlebars being drops not straights!

Attached photo is of said cycle on 220034 yesterday :)

Curious, did you remove your panniers first or leave them on?
 

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newcommuter22

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Excellent! I went on a Voyager yesterday, planned thankfully but backup options made just in case, so I took my Carrera with me. Absolutely no issue getting that on to my surprise, probably helped by the handlebars being drops not straights!

Attached photo is of said cycle on 220034 yesterday :)

Curious, did you remove your panniers first or leave them on?

I removed the pannier but my problem was the width of my handlebars - they're straight bars and I know from past experience in other narrow spots they're wider than average! Glad your journey went well, looks like you're right that the drop handlebars helped.
 

Techniquest

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I removed the pannier but my problem was the width of my handlebars - they're straight bars and I know from past experience in other narrow spots they're wider than average! Glad your journey went well, looks like you're right that the drop handlebars helped.

Definitely all good experience though! Thankfully not all cycle spaces on trains are that restrictive, the worst I've seen so far are on Northern's 158s (don't even ask how it was ever considered two cycles would fit in there!), IETs and Voyagers so far. It's not too bad on a Pendolino, no hooks involved, and on a MK5 and 397 with Transpennine you'll be absolutely fine too. Most trains are easy to get a cycle on/off, and I can't comment on Meridians yet as I have not got around to returning to that side of the Midlands in ages.

I don't think I said so before, but thanks for feeding back how it went :)
 
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