Left luggage near stations.

[theageofthetra]

Hi- one aspect of rail travel in the UK which I find annoying is the difficulty of breaking a journey and finding a place to leave your case or bag for a few hours. Other countries have terrorism issues and manage to supply lockers. I have recently discovered that the Tune hotel chain allow non residents to leave a bag with them for a few £ for 24hrs. They have hotels very convenient for Newcastle Central & Haymarket in Edinburgh.Those in the know use the lockers at the NRM if breaking a journey in York. The place I am struggling with is Durham- the tourist office don't have lockers and I would like to visit on my way to/from Edinburgh. As an employee of a TOC if I had my staff i.d/travel pass etc on me does anyone think the station staff at Durham would possibly allow me to leave a bag in the station office if I asked nicely? Any thoughts?

 

[Flamingo]

"Can I leave my bag here for a while?"
"Sorry Sir, for security reasons you must keep your bag with you at all times"
"Well, where is the left luggage?"
"Sorry, we don't have one"
"So there is nowhere I can leave my case?"
"No sir"
"That's ridiculous, what about the elderly and the disabled?"
"I'm sorry sir, we don't have anywhere you can leave them either"...

(Sorry, of no use to you, it's an exchange I overheard once that sprang to mind...)

 

[Mugby]

There was a left luggage facility at Birmingham New St. before the rebuilding started but it was privately operated and it was pretty expensive.

Not sure if a similar thing has been incorporated into the redevelopment.

 

[Busaholic]

There are left luggage facilities (staffed, no lockers) at most London railway termini but they are pricey: believe it or not, Heathrow Airport's are slightly cheaper. Victoria Coach Station also has a facility, which is a lot cheaper if you're leaving for over three hours. Plymouth Bus Station at Bretonside had lockers years after they'd disappeared at stations, but don't know if they're still there.

 

[Ash Bridge]

There are left luggage facilities (staffed, no lockers) at most London railway termini but they are pricey: believe it or not, Heathrow Airport's are slightly cheaper. Victoria Coach Station also has a facility, which is a lot cheaper if you're leaving for over three hours. Plymouth Bus Station at Bretonside had lockers years after they'd disappeared at stations, but don't know if they're still there.

I think it's the same company (Excess Baggage Co.) that provides left luggage facilities at Heathrow, Euston, St Pancras, Paddington etc. and also at Manchester Picc., Liverpool Lime St., Leeds, Glasgow & Edinburgh plus some others if I'm not mistaken.

 

[theageofthetra]

Also rather than use the rip off London Station ones there are some at the British Library if you have a smaller case. Must get round to compiling a list of the free museums and galleries near stations with lockers. Any thoughts on rail staff being able to leave items at a station like Durham?

 

[Abpj17]

Other countries have terrorism issues and manage to supply lockers.

They do; but I'd argue that not many had the equivalent of the long IRA campaign - lack of bins and left luggage is one of the more persistent legacies.

Gare du Nord have left luggage but obviously comes at a cost - from memory, it's essentially in an underground bunker with high level of security scanning.

 

[jopsuk]

There was left luggage at Cambridge, however it was run by the bike shop- which was open 8am to 6/7pm most days and only 10-4 on Sundays.

Currently though it has nothing due to the building works resulting in Station Cycles being flattened.

 

[mirodo]

Sheffield's Meadowhall interchange has luggage lockers. £1/£2 according to MSE, but you can't leave items overnight.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4513323

 

[mildertduck]

As far as I know (I live there!) Durham has no luggage storage facilities, either at the train or bus stop. Nor are there any lockers in most of the tourist attractions here I'd offer to help, but by the time you've found where I live, it'd probably be time for the train home!

 

[theageofthetra]

The situation in Durham is ridiculous for a place popular with tourists. I have e-mailed their tourist office before and told them that this situation must actively stop visitors arriving by train. If I can't use the station staff facilities I will simply not bother!

 

[Ash Bridge]

Hi- one aspect of rail travel in the UK which I find annoying is the difficulty of breaking a journey and finding a place to leave your case or bag for a few hours. Other countries have terrorism issues and manage to supply lockers. I have recently discovered that the Tune hotel chain allow non residents to leave a bag with them for a few £ for 24hrs. They have hotels very convenient for Newcastle Central & Haymarket in Edinburgh.Those in the know use the lockers at the NRM if breaking a journey in York. The place I am struggling with is Durham- the tourist office don't have lockers and I would like to visit on my way to/from Edinburgh. As an employee of a TOC if I had my staff i.d/travel pass etc on me does anyone think the station staff at Durham would possibly allow me to leave a bag in the station office if I asked nicely? Any thoughts?

One idea is use a dedicated luggage service? East Coast customers get a 15% discount with CarryMyLuggage. You could send your case to your intended final destination the day before you travel, then just take hand luggage/light bag with you? With EC discount they charge £30 for a suitcase, can vouch for the reliability of this service as we have used it for family holidays to Cornwall for the past ten years, of course when sending multiple items it becomes more cost effective.

 

[IanD]

On a visit to Ludlow (I think!), I popped in to the Tesco store near the station to use their facilities. I noticed they had a 'trolley park' for people using the cafe - a sort of cupboard where you put your trolley in, close the door, it locks with a key and then you can go off and have a cuppa in the cafe. So I loaded my case in to a trolley, locked it in the cupboard then went for a stroll round the town and retrieved my case on the way back. Had to find a pound for the trolley but got that back when I returned the trolley.

 

[theageofthetra]

Good idea about the trolley lockers at some supermarkets. Any chance we could have this as a sticky so it can be added to for popular station? The information on-line is woeful for this subject so a self built database could be handy.

 

[TBY-Paul]

It reminds me of the time we spent at Southampton Central. We arrived around 9.30 having just got off a cruise ship. Our train was due at 12.15 (cheap Advances). If there had been somewhere to put the cases for a few hours we could have had a wander round the town but as it was we just sat in the waiting room. There were other family's in a similar position to us.
Days when the cruise ship come in must be really busy, how a station like SOU doesn't have a left luggage area is beyond me.

 

[route:oxford]

The situation in Durham is ridiculous for a place popular with tourists. I have e-mailed their tourist office before and told them that this situation must actively stop visitors arriving by train. If I can't use the station staff facilities I will simply not bother!

It's clearly popular with tourists without the added feature of left-luggage facilities. In reality, demand for such a service is unlikely to meet the operational cost.

I very much doubt that lack of provision of left-luggage facilities actively prevents visitors from arriving by train (or bus or coach).

 

[bavvo]

It's clearly popular with tourists without the added feature of left-luggage facilities. In reality, demand for such a service is unlikely to meet the operational cost.

I very much doubt that lack of provision of left-luggage facilities actively prevents visitors from arriving by train (or bus or coach).

By itself probably not, but these things are all part of the overall experience. Warm, clean waiting rooms and toilets, hot drinks, luggage facilities, it all becomes part of the overall picture that people remember when booking next time.

By the way, there is a decent sized set of automated left luggage lockers at Fort William station, which was great for me to leave my bags at between checking out of the hotel and catching the sleeper home.

 

[theageofthetra]

How much are the Fort William ones?

 

[infobleep]

By itself probably not, but these things are all part of the overall experience. Warm, clean waiting rooms and toilets, hot drinks, luggage facilities, it all becomes part of the overall picture that people remember when booking next time.

By the way, there is a decent sized set of automated left luggage lockers at Fort William station, which was great for me to leave my bags at between checking out of the hotel and catching the sleeper home.

Perhaps the IRA and current terrorists haven't heard of Fort William!

If Amazon can introduce lockers at stations for the collection of items ordered online, surely it's no less dangerous to offer left luggage locker facilities? I mean anyone could infiltrate a delivery company and place a device in an Amazon locker.

Guildford railway station has plastic see through bags for the bins. For security purposes no doubt. However outside the back of Guildford railway station, no doubt on council adopted pavement, is a concrete bin. If that exploded it could easily damage part of the station and people going into it. However it seems that OK because it's not on railway property.

Therefore I think more xould be done to provide left luggage lockers at stations without the need for expensive scanning facilities and staff.

Personally when I'm travelling and I wish to break my journey, or more likely use split ticketing, I just bring all my luggage with me.

There's a second hand book shop in Penrith, called Beckside Books. Last year I stopped off there on my way from Glasgow and the previously year when heading to Glasgow. On both occasions I just brought my suitcase and other luggage in with me. I've done similar in York when visiting bookshops on route.

If I'm staying over somewhere I will leave my luggage in my hostel/hotel until I need to leave.

I wouldn't mind paying a few pounds to store my luggage but I don't want to pay huge storage costs. Perhaps stations have cheap lockers or there are near by locations that are cheap. However as lockers are so expensive in London stations and so many other stations don't have them for security reasons, I end up expecting everywhere to be expensive so don't bother to find out the truth.