Bikes on trains in the UK

I searched the thread and saw good comments, can confirm Avanti west coast still great and by some margin.

Transport for Wales, 2 coach train on a busy Friday, less so, standing with the bikes.

Anyone managed to book a cycle reservation on the Scotrail website recently?

Every train I look at from Glasgow to Inverness, the cycle reservation is greyed out. I'm trying fairly last minute trains so maybe those are full but even a midweek December train is greyed out. Surely they can't all be full.

Update: phoned them up and turns out that day is a rail strike so even thou you can still book the trains they've disabled cycle reservations. That's a Saturday. Supposedly all the trains on the Monday and tuesday have fully booked cycle reservations?!

Maybe use the Avanti app, it has cycle reservation option, I use it for other companies not just their network. Might make refund tricky, but they all do their best to screw you on that anyway.

26min call today to book a bike on a GWR train.

If you book through the GWR website, it takes maybe 15 seconds to add to your booking

My punishment for using Trainline, lesson learned

Trainline is never any cheaper and they add a booking fee.
Go direct always. Or use redspottedhanky

They do give you QR tickets in the app where some services don't though. I've occasionally paid that pound booking fee to avoid the rush of having to pick up tickets at the station.

Yeah, I use it for QR codes and it automatically splits tickets to save money if available. I don't get the train often so it's not much, if it was a regular thing I guess I'd know the splits and want to save a regular fee. (Which is about 25p on the trains I get).

Sometimes trainline is cheaper than other websites, because they do split ticketing by default now. Although I think they are not as good at it as some of the dedicated split ticketing websites.

@Ruserius - you can book bikes on the gwr website (for any service) even if you've book the ticket somewhere else. Just log in, go to the 'Bookings' page and click 'Make a seat/ bike reservation'

They've never split any of my tickets but maybe I only use direct services where it wouldn't be doable.
I do use proper split ticketing places if going somewhere further afield though

The one thing I have found the trainline app handy for is telling you which platform trains are on before the boards or other apps announce. Useful to get there early to get your bike in.

Thanks, I see that now

http://realtimetrains.co.uk is a good website that gives you platform details too, among loads of other things.

Similar
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ldb.aspx

And open train times is for the deep nerds who like to "watch" their trains arrive...

What do these do that national rail app or website doesn't? The 'live trains' function seems pretty real time and shows platforms.

For the tube, traintrackr.co.uk; tether it to a phone & attach a USB powerbank.

I'm very tempted to get one of those.

Some examples - sometimes the system "knows" what platform a train will depart from, but it's not announced publicly until the train staff are fully ready to receive passengers. For instance at Euston typically a train is sitting in a platform being cleaned/prepped for a while before it's due to leave, it's 100% leaving from that platform, but they wait to announce the platform 10/15mins before, when they do there's a massive rush from the main concourse to the platform entrance.
If an app wants to be cleverer, you can also guess/predict platforms by looking at various train codes & figure out if an earlier train arrives in at a particular platform, that train is going to form this later train, so you can guess where it's going to be before some of the station staff know.
They can also display expected platforms - i.e. the plan for which platform a train is going to be on as part of the schedule - this can be risky as trains regularly come in on randomly different platforms. Depends on the shape of the station, tho, obvs if a station only has two platforms (e.g. North/South) a train can only ever be on one platform.

From a rider I know:

https://forms.gle/C3ViaiedSv8km1bK7

As part of my final year studying Product Design at university, I am required to collect data via a questionnaire. My project is based around travelling on a train with a bicycle. The more responses I can get the better so if you could spare a moment to fill the questionnaire in, I would greatly appreciate it.

It would be ideal if you ride bikes (commuter or athlete) and travel by train every now and then.

Ta.

Is there an easy way to find out if bike reservations (and seats) can be done at a desk at a particular station? Overground stations with a desk? Or just mainline places like KX?

I'm pretty sure any National Rail ticket office should be able to sort you out. TfL (Overground) I wouldn't have thought it, different system.

Depending where youre going, GWR have an amazing whatsapp service for reservations, you just text them what you want and when. 07890608043

Got it all done online / phone ✌🏻

So stupid that you still have to go and print physical reservations though

Sustrans are doing a survey about taking bikes on trains—"survey closes at 9 am on 9 January."

We want to understand more about your experiences and expectations whether you currently combine cycles and trains or not. What you tell us will be used to help produce new guidance on good practice for those planning for making it easier to marry these two forms of transport.
We are SYSTRA – a major transport consultancy. We have been commissioned by the Cycle-Rail Working Group* to produce this new guidance document which will be available in the first half of 2023.
The survey will take around 10 minutes to complete.
The survey findings will be analysed by SYSTRA, and we will submit a report to Sustrans, who provide the management and secretarial support to the Working Group.

https://systraltd.welcomesyourfeedback.net/s/Cycle-RailT3