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50 bikes per train?

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AndyNLondon

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I noticed this mentioned on Twitter, for the morning after the Dunwich Dynamo (an overnight cycle ride from London to the Suffolk coast) Greater Anglia are saying:
Intercity services starting from Ipswich travelling to Colchester/Chelmsford/Stratford/London will carry a maximum of 50 bikes per train only and must be reserved in advance - a free bike ticket will be generated and this must be presented before boarding.
(http://www.abelliogreateranglia.co.uk/dunwich-dynamo-restrictions)

I'm intrigued as to how they're planning to fit 50 bikes onto each train, since that's far more than there's normally space for. Do they have a stash of luggage vans that they're going to put in to their Mk3 sets or something? (Seems unlikely these days!)
 
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tsr

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Presumably they must be taking a coach out of passenger use in order to provide bike storage, loading/unloading it in sequence according to the bookings, and then cleaning it afterwards.

Unless it's a typo!
 

Tetchytyke

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You can normally get 6-8 in a DVT in normal service, so it's probably not a typo.

I can only assume they're going to put special racks in the DVT, or clear everything else out of it.
 

jopsuk

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As far as I've heard last year they took a coach out of passenger service (but didn't have the reservation system). it's just for one Sunday morning so it's hardly a major disruption to other passengers.

(Reckon a couple of old mark 2s turned into vans would be handy as spot-hire for this sort of thing, though probably far too expensive to arrange).

Couple of years ago on the way down to London to Cambridge I estimated about 30 bikes in a carriage, repeated for the whole of an 8 car 317!
 
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Darandio

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They could learn a thing or two from India.....

tumblr_m7qau04ldZ1qabu3po1_1280.jpg
 

AndyNLondon

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Presumably they must be taking a coach out of passenger use in order to provide bike storage, loading/unloading it in sequence according to the bookings, and then cleaning it afterwards.

As far as I've heard last year they took a coach out of passenger service (but didn't have the reservation system). it's just for one Sunday morning so it's hardly a major disruption to other passengers.

Ahh - I hadn't thought of something as simple (& low-tech) as that :)
Nice to see that our railways can (occasionally) manage to be flexible in response to one-off demand.
 

jopsuk

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It's much more progressive than the attitude NX were taking towards the event, which was to try to completely ban bikes from the route for the day. It's not as big an event as London-Brighton, there's no need for that sort of approach if it is possible to accommodate people.

For London to Brighton, if just half the 25000 riders wished to take a train back with their bike, and it was worked on 50 bikes per carriage (no passengers), there would need to be 250 dedicated bike carriages. Working on 12 carriages per train, that would be 21 trains carrying nothing but bikes- and another 17 carrying the people (they all want a seat!) Those 38 12 car services would have to be on top of the existing service.

That's why Southern/Thameslink (and predecessors ) just go with a simple ban.
 

EssexGonzo

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It's much more progressive than the attitude NX were taking towards the event, which was to try to completely ban bikes from the route for the day. It's not as big an event as London-Brighton, there's no need for that sort of approach if it is possible to accommodate people.

For London to Brighton, if just half the 25000 riders wished to take a train back with their bike, and it was worked on 50 bikes per carriage (no passengers), there would need to be 250 dedicated bike carriages. Working on 12 carriages per train, that would be 21 trains carrying nothing but bikes- and another 17 carrying the people (they all want a seat!) Those 38 12 car services would have to be on top of the existing service.

That's why Southern/Thameslink (and predecessors ) just go with a simple ban.

Having done the London-Southend a few times (last time was about 3 years ago) whoever it was operating the trains at the time were completely laid back about cyclists going into Stratford for the start and then taking the train back from Southend. I don't recall any overcrowding, arguments, issues etc. There were about 8 bikes plus slightly more passengers in the carriage of a 315 ISTR.
 

ChiefPlanner

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London - Brighton return traffic was 12 car EPB workings to Vic or London Bridge in my day - 50% of the carriages had the seat bases turned upside down and a very willing gang of railwaymen loaded the bikes at BTN - trains were in theory "fast" - well 75mph - hourly - worked well.

Later on 455 sets were used. Same principle.
 

cyclebytrain

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It's actually quite surprising how many bikes can get onto a train before it seems like there are a lot. I've been on a 395 with 17 bikes on board (basically two bikes per vestibule + 3 per side in the wheelchair/bike spaces). Weirdly, it was a day I was travelling without my bike, so I could go through and count them! It only really looked like there were a lot of bikes in the wheelchair spaces area. Whether or not that many bikes should have been able to get on is a very different question!

Still, do the same thing on a 12 car and you've got 50 bikes on one train without doing anything special to the saloon area.
 

Sleepy

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On a previous year I counted 40+ bikes in my DVT - given the high price tag of these machines they will stack them in very neatly !
 

SpacePhoenix

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Could they hire/borrow a couple class 325s? The riders could follow in a passenger train
 

pdeaves

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(Reckon a couple of old mark 2s turned into vans would be handy as spot-hire for this sort of thing, though probably far too expensive to arrange).

I've often thought that Pacers would be ideal for this sort of thing (bikes only on board, riders travelling in a separate train).
 
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