Bicycles allowed on Southern peak services

3:00pm Wednesday 17th October 2012 in News

Bicycles will now be allowed on some of Southern’s peak time services.

The operator is relaxing its policy from Monday to let people carry bikes on limited areas of the east and west coastway.

They will now be allowed on the Arun valley line, between East Grinstead and Oxted, between Epsom Downs and Sutton and on the Reigate to Tonbridge line.

Folding bicycles are allowed on all Southern trains at any time.

The change comes because of feedback from cycle-carrying passengers and passenger representatives.

Southern’s head of customer experience, Emma Toms, said: “It’s neither practical nor particularly safe to carry non-folding cycles when a train is full.

"However, from October 22 we’ll be able to accommodate people who want to take their regular-sized bikes between stops in certain areas where the trains are not full.”

Comments(14)

Big Fido says...
3:24pm Wed 17 Oct 12

The "No cycles" rule never seems to be enforced, anyway!

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ruberducker says...
5:10pm Wed 17 Oct 12

bikes used to go in the gaurds bit of the train along with prams and things that would get in the way of the passengers.

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Ilyich says...
6:00pm Wed 17 Oct 12

"Southern’s head of customer experience, Emma Toms, said: “It’s neither practical nor particularly safe to carry non-folding cycles when a train is full."

It is obviously not practical or safe to carry *anything* when a train is full... because its full.

Head of Customer Experience comment ruins what should have been a good news story by demonstrating how little Southern really cares for its passenger experience and especially the legitimate requirements of people wanting to bring bicycles onto trains as part of their journey.

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Poccypoc says...
6:56pm Wed 17 Oct 12

They had better not allow bikes on the Brighton and Coastway lines during peak periods. I don't pay £3,855 a year to share my carriage with sweaty bikers and oily, dirty bikes! They are worse than fat people.

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p a t r i c k says...
7:31pm Wed 17 Oct 12

The train and bicycle is an excellent transport combination for many people. Those that live in Brighton & Hove who work in London for example can get the train to a London mainline station and then cycle to their workplace.

I think that trains should not ban cyclists at any time, instead cyclists should be encouraged.

For decades the automatic response to roads full of cars has been to increase road capacity. And yet the response to trains full of passengers is to ban some of the passengers.

There is something very wrong in this.

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Dr.Draconian says...
7:34pm Wed 17 Oct 12

Why dont they fit roof racks & put the bikes on there?

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PETE OF QUEENS PARK says...
7:47pm Wed 17 Oct 12

Dr.Draconian wrote:
Why dont they fit roof racks & put the bikes on there?
Because they will get wrecked when they hit the roof of the tunnel,and can you imagine every time the train stops the time it will take while they get there bikes off

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PETE OF QUEENS PARK says...
7:48pm Wed 17 Oct 12

Dr.Draconian wrote:
Why dont they fit roof racks & put the bikes on there?
Because they will get wrecked when they hit the roof of the tunnel,and can you imagine every time the train stops the time it will take while they get there bikes off

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Dr.Draconian says...
8:40pm Wed 17 Oct 12

PETE OF QUEENS PARK wrote:
Dr.Draconian wrote:
Why dont they fit roof racks & put the bikes on there?
Because they will get wrecked when they hit the roof of the tunnel,and can you imagine every time the train stops the time it will take while they get there bikes off
Perfect!

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HJarrs says...
9:07pm Wed 17 Oct 12

There was once a degree of integration between trains and bikes. Until 6-7 years ago in the summer months there might be 30+ bikes on rush hour trains in the guards vans. I used to travel all over the country by train and bike for business and pleasure. Connex ran a bogus consultation denying that many people travelled by bike despite evidence to the contrary (they had already ordered the roling stock so they were not going to change a thing).

Now a draconian ban exists on trains from Brighton that effectively stops people taking a bike on a train Monday-Friday despite all but a few trains having plenty of space (many trains being almost empty). I still am amazed at the attitude to the London-Brighton bike ride where Southern annually shoot themselves in the foot by turning away perhaps 10000 potential customers, good publicity and help cause gridlock on Brighton and Hove streets. All for want of hiring in some rollingstock for the day.

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Rangjan says...
10:22pm Wed 17 Oct 12

How pathetic that there are people here criticising cyclists when the problem has been that Southern and other train companies haven't made adequate space for cyclists with bicycles as well as other passangers.

In the past cyclists used a luggage carriage, but in their failure to deal with capacity and demand, Southern removed this facility several years ago.

They need to visit other European cities, like Berlin, to see how bicycles and trains work well together.

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Maxwell's Ghost says...
11:16pm Wed 17 Oct 12

Jamming people onto trains and allowing them to sit in gangways isn't safe either.
Public transport is for the rich or drunk, and at peak times preferably both.

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Whitehawkian says...
10:25am Thu 18 Oct 12

Poccypoc wrote:
They had better not allow bikes on the Brighton and Coastway lines during peak periods. I don't pay £3,855 a year to share my carriage with sweaty bikers and oily, dirty bikes! They are worse than fat people.
I could not agree with you more.

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Whitehawkian says...
11:04am Thu 18 Oct 12

I do not object to Bicycles, per se, it is the Cyclists that accompany them that I find offensive.

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