Unadvertised GWR IET Bike Spaces

[Benjwri]

I’m currently standing in Coach J of a 9 Car IET (802113), and a bit confused about the bike space situation. On any seat plan I can find a 9 car should have 2 bike spaces, numbered 99 and 00 in Coach J, and instead 2 bike spaces are advertised on the exterior of the carriage.

However upon boarding there are actually 4 (seemingly reservable bike spaces), 99 and 00 in the marked space on seat maps, but also 97 and 98 opposite in what is marked as a luggage space.

My question is what actually is the bike space situation? Do only certain trains have these spaces (Seems a bit pointless given technically IETs require a bike reservation), or do all trains have these spaces but unmarked? How many bike spaces are actually on the IETs and where?

 

[SWML9102]

5 car sets have 4 in total, 2 in coach B and 2 in coach D (at the ends adjacent to coach C).

9 car sets have 10 in total, 2 in coach B (end adjacent to coach C), 2 in coach D (end adjacent to coach G), 4 in coach J (end adjacent to coach H) and 2 in first class coach K (end adjacent to coach J). Coach J with the 4 spaces is always marked on the outside as having 2 (I assume they just made only one type of label) and by my observations the 9 car sets do not consistently mark all of the bike spaces as some have no labels on some coaches which do actually have spaces.

As you have noticed they are also marked as luggage spaces, which is unfortunate as it causes difficulties for those boarding with bikes (whether reserved or not).