*From:*
*Date:* Sat, 16 Apr 2011 18:36:12 -0500

In article ,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

On Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:01:51 -0500,
wrote:
I'm evacuated from a train with my bicycle. Wires down near
Welwyn GC station. The only complication was getting the bike
down the ladder, for which I received assistance from staff or
fellow passengers.

Must admit to being pleasantly surprised someone didn't mutter
"H&S" and make you leave it.

I don't think I gave them the chance.

The experience also demonstrated how ludicrous is the blanket ban
on bikes being carried on rail replacement services. As most of
them are provided by coaches rather than buses there is actually
plenty of space underneath to accommodate bikes on much the same
scale as on trains. My daughter has been unable to bring her bike
home from uni this weekend because there is a blockade between
Waterbeach and Ely again this weekend. All the rail replacement
buses this year have been actually coaches as far as I have seen.

In the Welwyn wires down incident I was lucky that one of the rail
replacement buses they summoned up was a coach which was happy to
take my bike to get us to Potter's Bar. Most of the rail
replacements were in fact buses. In the circs the railway accepted
they had to carry my bike. Dunno what happened to the other guy
with a bike, though.

--
Colin Rosenstiel


Do the rail replacement coaches actually use that space for any storage?
My rather limited experience of using NR replacement coaches is that the
driver normally sits in the drivers seat and watches people struggle on
with luggage, unless they are the exception. (I try and avoid travelling
when there's a replacement service unless I really have to).

Roger

In article ,
() wrote:

In article ,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

On Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:01:51 -0500,
wrote:
I'm evacuated from a train with my bicycle. Wires down near
Welwyn GC station. The only complication was getting the bike
down the ladder, for which I received assistance from staff or
fellow passengers.

Must admit to being pleasantly surprised someone didn't mutter
"H&S" and make you leave it.

I don't think I gave them the chance.

The experience also demonstrated how ludicrous is the blanket ban
on bikes being carried on rail replacement services. As most of
them are provided by coaches rather than buses there is actually
plenty of space underneath to accommodate bikes on much the same
scale as on trains. My daughter has been unable to bring her bike
home from uni this weekend because there is a blockade between
Waterbeach and Ely again this weekend. All the rail replacement
buses this year have been actually coaches as far as I have seen.

In the Welwyn wires down incident I was lucky that one of the
rail replacement buses they summoned up was a coach which was
happy to take my bike to get us to Potter's Bar. Most of the rail
replacements were in fact buses. In the circs the railway
accepted they had to carry my bike. Dunno what happened to the
other guy with a bike, though.

Do the rail replacement coaches actually use that space for any
storage? My rather limited experience of using NR replacement
coaches is that the driver normally sits in the drivers seat and
watches people struggle on with luggage, unless they are the
exception. (I try and avoid travelling when there's a replacement
service unless I really have to).

They were certainly using the space at Ely today. There was a blockade
between there and Cambridge with lots of coaches, separately provided by
FCC, NXEA and Cross Country.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On 17/04/2011 23:02, wrote:

Do the rail replacement coaches actually use that space for any
storage? My rather limited experience of using NR replacement
coaches is that the driver normally sits in the drivers seat and
watches people struggle on with luggage, unless they are the
exception. (I try and avoid travelling when there's a replacement
service unless I really have to).

They were certainly using the space at Ely today. There was a blockade
between there and Cambridge with lots of coaches, separately provided by
FCC, NXEA and Cross Country.

They were using it at Shrewsbury when the Cambrian was closed back in
Feb as well.
That would've been an interesting one for anyone with a bike, as the
blockade was only put in place at the last minute (leading to many irate
passengers who'd planned their journey more than a week in advance and
had missed the connecting coach).

In message , at 17:02:28
on Sun, 17 Apr 2011, remarked:

They were certainly using the space at Ely today. There was a blockade
between there and Cambridge with lots of coaches, separately provided by
FCC, NXEA and Cross Country.

So presumably you could choose which virtual-train to use for the trip?
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

In message , at
17:02:28 on Sun, 17 Apr 2011, remarked:

They were certainly using the space at Ely today. There was a blockade
between there and Cambridge with lots of coaches, separately provided
by FCC, NXEA and Cross Country.

So presumably you could choose which virtual-train to use for the trip?

Since I was only there so my daughter could avoid using one, I don't know.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 04:15:20
on Mon, 18 Apr 2011, remarked:

They were certainly using the space at Ely today. There was a blockade
between there and Cambridge with lots of coaches, separately provided
by FCC, NXEA and Cross Country.

So presumably you could choose which virtual-train to use for the trip?

Since I was only there so my daughter could avoid using one, I don't know.

As long as you didn't have a ToC-specific train ticket[1] you'd be OK to
use any, I reckon.

[1] And I think they try to avoid issuing specific-train Advance
Purchase tickets in scenarios like this.
--
Roland Perry

On Apr 18, 10:50*am, Roland Perry wrote:

As long as you didn't have a ToC-specific train ticket[1] you'd be OK to
use any, I reckon.

During the long period of weekend bustitution between MK and Hemel a
few years ago, VT agreed to accept LM tickets on their rather higher
capacity bus service, leaving LM to serve only intermediate stations.

Neil

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

[1] And I think they try to avoid issuing specific-train Advance
Purchase tickets in scenarios like this.

Uh-oh. My daughter had a CC Advance for Cambridge-Leicester.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 07:41:48
on Mon, 18 Apr 2011, remarked:

[1] And I think they try to avoid issuing specific-train Advance
Purchase tickets in scenarios like this.

Uh-oh. My daughter had a CC Advance for Cambridge-Leicester.

In which case giving her a lift to Ely would probably invalidate the
ticket (starting long!) assuming anyone either noticed or cared.

Was it timed to leave Cambridge with the bus, or on the train which was
being bustituted? [The latter seems like an accident waiting to happen].

--
Roland Perry

On Sun, 17 Apr 2011 16:20:11 -0500, wrote:
Do the rail replacement coaches actually use that space for any
storage?

I've seen the opposite of what you say - drivers insisting luggage
goes underneath.

Mind you, they can be an odd breed. I once got on one with a cup of
coffee. The driver then proceeded to have a passive-aggressive type
conversation with the dispatcher about effing cheeky passengers who
effing take effing coffee on effing coaches when they should know
better. As there was no sign to this effect, I was curious why he
didn't just ask me politely to get off and finish it before boarding
again, given that what food/drink is allowed varies somewhat between
coach operators.

As it turned out, as he didn't, the coffee was finished on board.

Neil

--
Neil Williams, Milton Keynes, UK