ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
That's what I thought last month when I read it! Buy the ticket and then find out there are no bike places left ...
Booking bikes on trains via Virgin East Coast website no longer possible?
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Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
When you get to the nitty gritty bit it looks the same as the Hull Trains website but with different branding. Nice to know there's another site to use though.
I just used this to dummy a booking that goes across London - it won't let me book bicycle spaces as you have to have reserved seating - which you cannot do on the underground, which I would not want to use anyway as i have a bike. So I am a bit stuck in a circle.
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
The GWR site gives this for a journey from Devon to Edinburgh - note the bicycle space bookings for the Exeter-Paddington part and the East line KXC-EDI journey. Of course you can't book a space on the underground. I don't know what circle you think you're stuck in - the Circle Line?
Reservation Details
Exmouth to Exeter St Davids
Reservations for this part of your journey are not possible.
Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
Coach: C
Seat: 39 - Aisle
Coach: Z
Seat: 02A -
London Kings Cross to Edinburgh
Coach: E
Seat: 20 - Aisle, Forwards
Coach: P
Seat: 05A -
Outward journey
28 Sep 2017
Return journey
Depart:
Exmouth dep. 08:52
Change at:
Exeter St Davids arr. 09:25
dep. 09:58
London Paddington arr. 12:21
London Underground
Please check operating hours for this servicemore info
London Kings Cross dep. 13:30
Arrive:
Edinburgh, 18:13
Changes: 3 Duration: 9h 21m
Exeter St Davids - London Paddington
Seating:
Coach: C
Seats: 39
space for 1 bicycle
London Kings Cross - Edinburgh
Seating:
Coach: E
Seats: 20
space for 1 bicycle
Passengers
1 Adult
Advance£108.50
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I have been down to the local station and bought my tickets there. I'm fairly sure that the ticket seller was looking at a very similar webpage to the one that confused me because he was muttering similar oaths to the ones that I had, and he took a long time to sort it out. In the end he checked that he could book the bike on to the mainline Virgin Trains by starting to book just the Manchester-Milton Keynes legs of my round trip. Having convinced himself that it was possible, he then reverted to doing the complete return journey including the non-reservable local trains. He got the same warning that bike reservations were not available, but ignored them because he had just checked that they were!
When I got home and checked my tickets I discovered a bonus of an unnecessary and unusable bike reservation on a train through Salford Crescent between Manchester Victoria station and Manchester Piccadilly. Unnecessary because it is quicker to cycle between the stations than to catch the connecting train. Unusable because the train that I will be catching from Piccadilly leaves over 30 minutes before that connecting train would get me there! See - I told you it was confusing!
Anyway, that's me booked to go to Leighton Buzzard for my sister's birthday party. It's a fancy dress party - aargh, I hate them ... I told her that I will just go dressed as a cyclist!
PS If any of you are free in the Leighton Buzzard area on Sunday (24th September '17!), you are very welcome to join me and @shirokazan on a 100 km tour of the Vale of Aylesbury - details HERE.
When I got home and checked my tickets I discovered a bonus of an unnecessary and unusable bike reservation on a train through Salford Crescent between Manchester Victoria station and Manchester Piccadilly. Unnecessary because it is quicker to cycle between the stations than to catch the connecting train. Unusable because the train that I will be catching from Piccadilly leaves over 30 minutes before that connecting train would get me there! See - I told you it was confusing!
Anyway, that's me booked to go to Leighton Buzzard for my sister's birthday party. It's a fancy dress party - aargh, I hate them ... I told her that I will just go dressed as a cyclist!
PS If any of you are free in the Leighton Buzzard area on Sunday (24th September '17!), you are very welcome to join me and @shirokazan on a 100 km tour of the Vale of Aylesbury - details HERE.
For me I don't get anything like that, I get an endless loop telling me that without reserved seating I cannot have a bike reservation. However, the only leg of the trip without a seat reservation is the unwanted tube.
robjh
Legendary Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire - almost Essex
An unhappy chat with a Hull Trains customer service representative today (below).
I was trying to book a York-Cambridge train with a bike reservation, which is needed on the East Coast section to Stevenage only (the connecting service doesn't need or take reservations for bikes). At the 'order summary' stage there is no mention of the bike booking, but I want to be certain before I pay.
The rep doesn't know and tells me to phone up.
I was trying to book a York-Cambridge train with a bike reservation, which is needed on the East Coast section to Stevenage only (the connecting service doesn't need or take reservations for bikes). At the 'order summary' stage there is no mention of the bike booking, but I want to be certain before I pay.
The rep doesn't know and tells me to phone up.
robjh
Legendary Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire - almost Essex
Happier news - just managed to make the same booking via Great Western website, including the bike. Hard to be sure if there was a real glitch on Hull Trains site (which uses the same underlying booking engine as GWR) or whether it was just the customer services rep getting confused.
So in summary - online bike bookings are indeed getting ever harder, but they are still possible.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Your on-the-spot reporter can confirm that Virgin Trains DO enforce reservations. I just got off at Milton Keynes and watched staff refuse to allow a cyclist to board his bike without a reservation despite me having left a space for it. He has now gone off to make a reservation for the next train to London.
Flying Dodo
It'll soon be summer
Yup - they're all very officious.
On Sunday, when we cycled up to Penrith station, as soon as we got onto the platform, someone forced their way through the crowds of other passengers, to get to us and inspect every bit of ticket, seat and bike reservation.
She seemed a bit disappointed that we had everything and so were legitimately allowed to get on the train!
On Sunday, when we cycled up to Penrith station, as soon as we got onto the platform, someone forced their way through the crowds of other passengers, to get to us and inspect every bit of ticket, seat and bike reservation.
She seemed a bit disappointed that we had everything and so were legitimately allowed to get on the train!
GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
And yet they've stopped me getting on, at a terminus, with a reservation, because the train manager had allowed someone without a reservation to board with his bike.
Flying Dodo
It'll soon be summer
Once, we got on an East Midlands train, at a stop further down the line from where our tickets were valid from, but the actual timed train, as we managed to intercept the train.
As we had ticket reservations but the bike section was already full, the guard made one of the people with an unreserved bikes get off.
As we had ticket reservations but the bike section was already full, the guard made one of the people with an unreserved bikes get off.
