I booked my bike on the train to Mallaig last Saturday for a holiday in Skye. I tried to book the bike on the train returning from Kyle of Lochalsh. I got the 12:05 from Kyle to Inverness, then Inverness to Perth, then Perth to Edinburgh. I couldn't book the bike, for which leg I didn't know. I thought I'd risk it and went ahead with the booking.
Anyway, for the Mallaig train no-one checked my bike booking and there was one of those spaces which take 6 bikes hanging from their back wheels. I was the only cycle who went all the way to Mallaig. Some got off at Fort William.
I was a bit anxious about being stranded in Kyle/Inverness/Perth but turned up and no-one checked my booking. 2 carriages, and, I think, spaces for 4 bikes i.e. 2 sets of those protruding U-shaped bars which you strap your bike on (have they a name)? (PS I should have checked the exact provision).
There was a quick change in Inverness. Conductor said, "Are you booked?" I said no, she said "there's space down there - take off your bags" and there were 3 bikes on the U-shaped bars. There must have been other sets as well - it was a sizable train.
Then at Perth, another quick change and again the bars. 3 bikes on one bar. The other two cyclists had not been able to book their bikes either - they had got on at Pitlochry and the staff there had said that they should be able to get on. They too had been a bit anxious about finding space.
The sense I get is that the computers are saying one thing about space for bikes, while the train staff say another thing.
Anyway, what does this booking mean? I've had other experiences with it. I was in Orkney and called to book a train from Wick to Edinburgh. Nae space for the bike. So I went to Wick in trepidation, with fear of being stranded. I inquired at the station. Woman looked at computer and said, no space. So when the wee train came in, I put on the bike, no-one else put on theirs and after we'd been travelling for a while the guard asked me if I'd seen any cyclists. He said those who had booked hadn't turned up. Presumably they had some kind of open ticket rather than an advance single. At Inverness again no-one blinked an eye at my bike.
Even in Dunbar when I was tired and wanting the quick way home from Berwick upon Tweed the bloke in the station said, nae room on the train, and there was room. I've often jumped on a train spontaneously at, say, Newtonmore, and there's been no problem. I've never been refused.
This has probably been covered before in a thread but this booking system seems to not work. All it does is (a) put off potential cycling tourists in Scotland and (b) give slight stabs on anxiety to those who are winging it. Any suggestions on how it could be fixed? I can see you could get an impossible number of cycles on a train but I was on very popular tourist routes.
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