Bikes on trains in the UK

Has anyone taken a bike on a rail replacement service before?

I'm travelling down to London this sunday to pick up a bike I won on ebay and there's no trains running between Chelmsford and Liverpool st. I need to get the bike from Plaistow to colchester and was planning to chuck it on the train but Crossrail works have thrown a spanner in. The Abelio Anglia website says no bikes allowed on a replacement bus service but I'm wondering if I might get away with it if I ask nicely.

The only other thing I could think of is getting a national express coach but they told me the bike must be dismantled and in a bike bag, which I don't have. Due to several conspiring circumstances, Sunday is the only day it's possible for me to pick it up.

rail replacement services wont allow a bike

take one of those big nylon laundry bag things, take wheels off, insert whole bike into bag, breeze onto bus without any fucks given.

If you've got the time you can always ride back along NCN 1, I did this a few times when I was younger. Only 3.5 hours or so according to google (which sounds about right). Basically the route goes from Chelmsford east to Harlow, then south along the Lee Valley towards Stratford. There are more direct routes obviously but the roads around there can be busy.

In fact if you ride all the way from Colchester you'll literally ride past the house where I grew up, my parents still live there.

Yeah worst case scenario is i'll ride from Plaistow to chelmsford where the trains start running again. I'm not sure where I could get hold of one of those big bags and I'm working today and tomorrow so time's a bit tight, maybe I could try an old bedsheet.

Any launderette or bargain junk housewares stores

I'm doing Ipswich --> London in a few hours. Last time I did it, on the way back, I was fine going from Newbury Park to Ingatestone on the coach. Just had to take the front wheel off and put it in last. I think my disgruntled look at having to ride from Liverpool St to Newbury Park may have sealed the deal somewhat.

I think currently it's train up to Ingatestone -> bus to Newbury Park -> Underground/you're own your own from there to Liverpool St.

Well I needn't have worried. Walked up to the coach and he stuck it in the luggage hold no questions asked. Just in time too, its about to piss it down.

Same experience here, albeit a year ago. Unless rooms super tight, there's no reason they wouldn't.

rail replacement services wont allow a bike

Not sure if it's the same south of the border but up here they are meant to. In my experience if it's a local/suburban train the replacement will be a commuter type double decker bus and you'll have a hard time, further afeild they use coaches and likelyhood of getting it on is a lot better.

On coach back now and yup, no issues. Was pissing it down from SW16 to Newbury Park though!

I taken my bike on a rail replacement bus from Horsham to Chichester before, it was one of the local double decker buses. Just propped it up next to the driver. I think he took pity on me as it was about 22:00 and pissing it down.

Just a small moan... South West Trains completely contradicting their own bike policy. Website clearly states to book bike reservation at least 24 hours in advance through customer services (separate from the original online ticket purchase, which already strikes me as being an unnecessary hassle). Call customer services who tell me that actually it's not possible to make an advanced booking, and that I need to do it on the day. "Turn up early and you should be OK"! Put the phone down, get website bike policy in front of me so that I can quote it to them, call back, have unnecessarily long conversation with someone who then puts me on hold for five minutes before another chap appears on the other end of the line, who then takes me through a simple set of questions about which train I'm booked on, makes the reservations for me, gives me a booking reference and wishes me a nice day. 5 minutes becomes half an hour. FFS.

TL;DR: left hand doesn't know what right hand is doing, and I think I'll be turning up early anyway!

I never book on a SWT, didn't think you need to.

I'm probably being over-cautious. Hopefully there won't be a stampede of cyclists heading for the West Country on a Tuesday morning in May.

Mandatory cycle reservation now on Great Western Railway (Formerly First Great Western) high speed trains. That is likely to impact anyone planning on doing touring trips and things like Rolling to the Stones.

http://road.cc/content/news/189317-great-western-railway-introduces-mandatory-cycle-reservations-high-speed-routes

Real cunt move. FGW really are a shower.

Might well be a necessary move. GWR have been mandated by DfT to replace old stock with the same kind of carriage used by Cross Country with only two/three bike spaces. As demand for space increases and actual space will likely decrease, reservations become a practical necessity.

That's a shame, one of FGW/GWR's few positives was their bike carriages.

FYI I got my bike on another rail replacement bus, two weeks ago on a Saturday. They actually came up to me and asked if I was going to be using the rail replacement and if so would I like to put my bike on the bus. Nice one Southern.

Wish I'd looked here. FGW in massive cuntish was shocker.

On the FGW subject, trying to get out of London to Bristol way on Friday, all the bike reservations are taken... looks like I'll be strapping my bike to my backpack then..

I have used fgw 3 times in the last few weeks, haven't had a reservation and have got on fine. Have been asked on the platform and just said yes and put my bike into an empty carriage with no issues.

lol good luck. That's always chaos.

I mean their bike policy about the mandatory reservations only kicked in on Monday, could try and get away with it I suppose. Will have to see.

@umop3pisdn Yeah even at 3 it's manic, can't even get a seat usually.