CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

At Last! After nearly 30 years & dealing with 4 successive MD's

(4 posts)

  1. Tulyar
    Member

    With the start of the Winter 2022-23 timetable Scottish Citylink has finally got the simple detail of reserving a space for a bicycle on their Citylink/Megabus services, to ensure they have space for it on the coach

    Its taken a lot of nibbling away and a change in CoC (from Clause 11(e) to the new Clause 56) plus the great support from Hitrans RTP (Sestran, Tactrans & others tak tent) with Hitrans providing bags for cycle tourists arriving from the ferry in Ullapool since the 1990's (961 - operated by D&E coaches)

    Other handy routes include 976 (975) Glasgow-Oban (operated by Craigs of Campbelltown) with the 08.30 a valuable alternative when the 6 spaces on the Oban train (08.24?) are fully booked

    The 915 (914) Glasgow-Fort Bill-Uig (jointly Sheil Buses/Craigs) has many possibilities including some linear routes (through Knoydart & Lochaber)

    Mix in the 2 Ember routes now operating (Dundee-Edinburgh/Glasgow) and several coach-operated Stagecoach Express routes (X74 - good to drop you at Park Gate for Ae Forest), and things are moving apace

    Ember also has a 'receptacle' (ski box frame) for evaluation to carry up to 6 more bikes on the back, so that groups might be able to book together on one coach with advance booking

    Once some range and related issues are sorted out expect more 100% electric express coaches on other routes, with the mould breaking (but actually a really smart idea) of never wandering far from the M9/M90 to set down or pick up passengers, and only making some stops if there are passengers booked to get on/off - a detail that is displayed for the driver (with a 10 minute cut-off before estimated arrival time for booking at that stop) This delivers very fast journey times and makes a bike to coach connection a neat solution for many journeys

    Spread the word & perhaps suggest some handy itineraries? Perhaps a reprise of the 2-day ride Lee Craigie did with girls from Dingwall Academy using the 961 - off at Contin, then off-road around the back of the hills before down into Ullapool for 961 (someone might have URL handy for the video)

    Remember too that Craigs already carry bikes on 448 (linking the 3 mid Argyll ferry piers) plus have restored cycle carriage for 62 and 95 (ex SMT) & 235 (ex Perrymans)(& Mull soon?) with Eve's (Dunbar) carrying bikes on rural routes out from Dunbar. Historically the old Hendersons Hamilton-Strathaven services at night were also handy but recent changes (to > McGills > Stuarts of Carluke >?) need catching up with

    Posted 1 year ago #

  2. neddie
    Member

    We recently did Edinburgh to the Highland Wildlife Park (near Kingussie) as a family by CityLink. No bikes with us though. The bus was really good and faster than the train + taxi or local bus, as you get dropped/picked up right outside the park entrance. There are loads of bus stops along the way, 3 in Kingussie alone!, which the bus mostly doesn't have to stop at, but means you can get pretty much anywhere along the route.

    The bus also takes you along parts of the old A9 (A924, B8079 and B9152) which is *really* scenic compared to the boring dual-carriageway and brought back memories of 3.5hr driving journeys to Aviemore when I wert lad. I even remembered where some of the bad bends were and the choice overtaking spots...

    Posted 1 year ago #

  3. LaidBack
    Member

    @Tulyar @neddie It's great news that Citylink is waking up after 20 years of prodding.
    Maybe an all Scotland ticket will appear one day to allow us to flit betwixt train and bus?
    Too late for us of course as we have Saltire card. Despite that we've had several journeys north recently where we went train up and had to take bus back (losing return value of full price expired train tickets due to strike but can hardly complain).
    Ember did our holiday transport last year and will use again but tandem bike will have to be in hold - not rack on back. Updated ScotRail HST units in Highlands now with useful bike space so tempted to try them too.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  4. Tulyar
    Member

    Still some lobbying to do with Scotrail on tandems & non standard cycles

    HST's now have a 3.0m 'space' with 6 tip-up seats replacing 3 pairs of fixed seats, BUT Scotrail refuses to accept that a tandem, or any cycle that can fit through the 80cm wide sliding doors after the 90° manouevre from platform on to the train central axis can be carried

    Last attempt to press this had Scotrail staff hiring a tandem & trying to load it on to a train. As any tandem owner knows, there is a degree of practice and learned easy ways to flick the 2.5m 20-30Kg beast around in tight spaces, and we were not convinced they really knew what they were doing, not least because the Glasgow blind tandem riders group are already using the newer electric trains (380, 385, 334) on many services, and Greater Anglia takes tandems on Class 170 diesels (Borders, Fife, Highland Main Line)

    My work on Class 380 consultation & carry over to Class 385 means that the 'standard' bike space is 5 tip-up seats, or roughly 2.4m, and the draught screen at the door vestibule is cut back to give around 1.2 metres instead of the regular 50-60 cm aisle width

    So do keep plugging away with requests & comments (anyone have Jenny Gilruth as their MSP?)

    Coaches with integral (monococque) bodies often have clear full width underfloor holds. They are 2.55m wide outside, which means that there's around 2.4m clear width inside, so we've proved that a tandem can fit

    Posted 1 year ago #

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