Train cycle reservation system could hit commuters hardest

In my experience with various TOCs, there tends to be leeway when trains get cancelled as long as there's space

How can we mobilise to challenge this?  Can CTC or someone start a petition?

Oh an trying to book your bike on a train over the phone is ridiculous. You get through to a call centre clearly not in the UK, the staff don't seem to understand what you are asking them and they have such strong accents they are difficult to understand over a crackly phone line. The phone line also costs a ridiculous amount to call from a mobile phone.

This is £$%^&*( ridiculous, there's not even any way to know if the train you want to catch is a high speed or not (one of the ones I regularly catch can be either a high speed or a normal), also I usually get open returns, so how the hell am I meant to make a reservation in advance when I don't know what train I'm getting back.

I've got said train several times in the past few weeks and there hasn't been a single other bicycle in that HST, so this just seems a bit overkill...

It is also worth saying that lots of stations don't have a booking office at which you can do your reservation.  Much of the Cotswold line between Oxford and Worcester, for instance.  

On the new trains the bike storage area will be accessed via the main (powered) passenger doors, just like on Virgin or Cross Country.

The current trains need an inordinate number of platform staff to ensure all doors are closed properly as passengers getting on and off can't be trusted to do that themselves.

I'm not so much perturbed by the demand for reservations, rather (as others have noted) the poverty of facilities to make the requesite bookings - especially if one has a last minute change of plans. As I understand the current proposals I could face a scenario like this: book a space on a train at 16.15, puncture - miss train by ten minutes, next train that heads to my destination is due to leave in just under two hours - but I can't book a space because I am required to give two hours advance notice, therefore have to wait for the train after that (another two hours) i.e. a train almost 4 hours after the one that I had hoped to catch.

Also current reservations require either going into the station or trying to book via the telephone both of which can be Kafka-esque exercises. 

And whilst I'm at it - how will this work with the new electric trains and the reduced number of platform staff?

Humpf.

How about furnishing the carriages with cycle stands (proper ones, not those crap ones that are going to fcuk up your carbon rims) so you can perch on your steed or stand astride it during your journey. If people don't have a bike there will be a half dozen seats which are bookable in advance. This system could be extended to airlines as well so that you wouldn't have to trust your favourite bike to the mercies of the baggage handlers, or be lumbered with a giant suitcase.

Brompton and other folding bike users will be allowed onboard, provided the bike remains in its unfolded configuration, as God intended.

Ahhh, if I were king....

I get that it's a pain, but as rgp says, GWR were unusual. Until this row blew up I'd have assumed that bike reservations on the HSTs/180s were mandatory anyway, simply because that's the case on Virgin Trains (both East and West), on Cross Country, on East Midland Trains Midland Mainline services, on Hull Trains, Caledonian Sleeper, Abellio Greater Anglia London-Norwich services and South West Trains London to Salisbury/Exeter/Bristol services. A cursory search brings up that Grand Central don't have bike reservations.

Of course there's a big bit that currently GWR use HSTs for short commuter services. It does seem rude to change policy right now, especially without online reservations, given that the long distance services will be getting the new Class 800/801/802 express trains whilst the commuter services will be getting a mix of new and old commuter electric trains (Class 387 and 365- it makes me curiously cheery to think that Oxford is getting some cast offs from the Cambridge line) which obviously won't have the reservation policy

I go on long rides where I will use the train there or back. And generally I don't know which train I am getting untill it arrives. So what will I have to do if I use there system? sit in a cold station for 2 hours?

Thank god I use virgin and others who don't have such cycle unfreindly  policys.

To be fair, this only affects the intercity services, and until now GWR has been the only intercity operator not requiring reservations on all trains (at least in theory -- it's enforced rigorously on the East Coast and West Coast routes, but hardly at all on East Midlands trains), so they're just coming into line with the others. 

Which isn't to say that it isn't a pain for those commuters who have got used to the relatively liberal regime up to now.

Even if you get around the booking process filibustering you can still end up being prevented by train managers/platform staff from taking your bike on board for no good reason. The reports of this are endless.

As a GWR cycle commuter, I was advised of this change by some friendly and helpful GW staff. I promptly reserved some spaces, but received the following reply from customer support:

"I have only made reservations for one week because the system that is available to me only allows me to make reservations one train at a time. I would advise that you ask at the relevant stations if you wish to book for bigger blocks of time in one go."

I don't wish to criticise GW staff in any way, because they do the best they can and often take a lot of flak for it, but the consequences of this change haven't been thought through. Have anyone actually considered how much additional hassle this is going to cause for everyone, staff and passengers alike? And it isn't as if they are addressing a real problem: there's almost always space for the bike if you just turn up.

I wonder what GWR's comment will be.

Must confess to being rather brassed off about this given that: a) I pay quite a lot of money to GWR for a season ticket, but will soon loose any of the flexibility that affords and will have to reserve a space for my bike separately, and b) I'm just in the process of moving house, in part to get closer to a station that has more regular services in the direction of work, but now find out that I will be constrained to the option of a single pre-booked service.

One crumb of comfort is that you can block book reservations, but you will still need to specify a particular train in advance.

a little advertised fact is that on GWR HST services, the power cars also have space for four cycles in the boot (both ends). 

I was trying to get from Plymouth to Liskeard on a service where all of the usual spaces were taken by a team doing LEJOG, and was told that I would have to wait for the next service. This was an hour and a half wait! I said to the train manager about the power car bike racks, and he said "we don't usually use them". My response was this situation is not usual, and I'm not waiting over an hour because you can't be arsed to open the power car door for me. Reluctantly, I was allowed to board but it shows the general attitude that some traincrew can have towards cyclists, or indeed anone that doesn't just hop on and grab a seat.

I say some because I work for GWR, and most emplyees are great.

GWR is doing full Australian. Stop cyclist from boarding the train and you have no space problem

The current HIgh Speed trains have 6 bike spaces.  In theory you can book, but in practice people turn up and it works just fine.   It is rare for all the spaces to be used.

GWR hate cyclists, because we have to walk to the end of the train to get our bikes.   We don't do what other passengers do.

Their franchise says they can't reduce the number of spaces on trains, so they are trying to make it difficult for us. 

And they know full well that people commuting home from London don't know which train they are going to get. 

So either they will enforce the new rules, and there will be lots of empty bike spaces, or they will ignore them.  Either way, this development is a nonsense.

Zut alors. I think the Eurostar approach might be needed.

Sadly won't change the (vastly over reported and photographed) fact that the actions of the selfish few, will now adversely impact the majority of responsible and considerate cycling train commuters.  Gutted.

Online resevervation will not be possible? Why ever not? You can currently, you have to use the Virgin East-coast website, but you can reserve on any line. The only reason, I can see, for Great western not having the functionality on their site is because they are discouraging people from using the service. After all you can reserve a seat online, why not space for your bike?

Come the Glorious Day comrades, we'll get our trains nationalised once more. Then we'll have a train service fit for everyone.