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@deleted
This is a bit of a part-rant part-curious to see if others have had this experience and-thinking of lobbying Virgin post.
Basically I have travelled with my bike on trains all over the UK, and always book in advance where possible and arrive at the station in good time. Never had any untoward issues.
Booked my gf and I tickets to go up north online, then had to phone up to book bikes on as there is no option to do this via website. Fair enough. Man gives me reservation code and tells me to stick it on bikes. Job done.
Arrive at Euston, go to platform when it comes up (10 mins before train due to leave) and from the off the ticket inspector on the platform (who was also the train manager) was obstructive, difficult and just plain rude. We were about 4 back in the line and he shouted over to ask if we had a reservation for the bikes. I shout yes. Get to front and show tickets, and code. He instantly says we need a separate ticket for the bikes and he won't let us board. When I point out i've done everything Virgin asked me to do on the phone and that i'm sure to miss my train if i go back to the desk, he initially says it's nothing to do with him before making the gracious offer of taking the bikes but chucking us off if anyone with a 'genuine' reservation comes on. Not much of an offer when our bikes should already be reserved, I point this out and he says he's just not letting us on and then turns his back on us. I forget to mention the shit-stirring and rather large platform attendant who came over and did his best to try and inflame the situation further. Stressed and upset girlfriend runs to try and get tickets printed and I have to wait with bikes whilst getting glared at by train manager from afar. Girlfriend arrives back about 30 sec before train doors close-pointedly show manager tickets and head for the bike carriage at the front of train. He closes doors and smirks at us out of the window as the train pulls away.
It turned out there were no bikes booked on the train apart from ours and that the train manager would have known this. Pretty raging at having missed my train and had onward transport messed up too, I complained to the Virgin manager at Euston and he was apologetic but apart from promising to take our complaint further we were essentially fobbed off back into the line to try and get our booking transferred onto a later train. When getting on to this train I saw another 2 cyclists being subjected to the same routine by an equally unpleasant ticket inspector. They both missed their train too.
I'll be taking this as far as I can with Virgin, as as far as I'm concerned i played by their rules and remained polite even when provoked by their cuntish personel, but lets be honest, they're not really going to do anything unless there is sustained and widespread lobbying from the cyclists using their service and being treated this way. Apart from what seems to be an archaic and inefficient booking system, I'm particularly disgusted at the freedom individual staff appear to have to antagonise and discriminate against cyclists as some kind of power principle. I'm sure there are instances of people turning up late without cycle bookings and causing hassle, but if you fork out the amounts they charge for tickets I don't think they should begrudge using what limited capacity they do actually have and being a bit pro-active encouraging green transport instead of criminalising bike use and placing obstacles in the way of people travelling with them.
So, what's everyone else's experience with Virgin?