CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

2 reservations for tandems?

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  1. kaputnik
    Moderator

    It's very annoying that East coast will no longer post tickets in normal post.

    You only get a first class (£1) option if (I think) you are booking more than a week in advance. You can't get it if you are changing a ticket, you are forced into taking a £5 hit for special delivery for that, or going to the station to make the transaction. You can't even pick up the rescheduled ticket from the machine.

    I wonder what happens if you arrive at Waverley 15 minutes before due to depart and the fastticket machines are down. I've heard of people getting rough treatment from EC guards due to lost tickets or machines not printing tickets, even when they have proof of purchase of ticket, email of reservations printed out etc.

    EC have a "print your own" facility for some tickets, but then you need to carry your birth certificate, NI card, blod type, mother's maiden name, name of first pet etc. to prove it is your reservation.

    I would like a proper digital ticket I could have on my phone.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    "I would like a proper digital ticket I could have on my phone"

    Coming to iOS in September (various US ticket issuers signed up).

    Presumably UK will join in - and other mobile platforms will do similar(?)

    http://www.apple.com/uk/ios/ios6/#passbook

    Posted 12 years ago #

  3. crowriver
    Member

    Scotrail post tickets out first class for free.

    Usually if I'm travelling longer distances by train I'm either:
    - on a business trip so my employer is paying and they book the ticket for me.
    - with family/kids so I can use the railcard.

    *Weighs up pros and cons of discounts, registration administrivia, delivery/pickup hassles, etc.* I'll probably just stick to Scotrail as I'm registered, it's painless, etc.

    I would like a proper digital ticket I could have on my phone.

    That is wide open to abuse, mobile phones are inherently non-secure.

    I recall a few years ago some mysterious transactions on my credit card, mainly in the north east of England where I rarely travel and certainly not on the dates of the transactions. Anyway I reported to the card fraud dept., they cancelled my card and didn't charge me for those payments. Clearly someone had got hold of my details, and I surmised that it may have been because I topped up my pay as you go mobile on the train the month before using that card. I wasn't brandishing the card so no shoulder surfing. Someone must have intercepted the data as it was sent and used the details.

    So now I top up from home and I switch bluetooth off when travelling...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  4. Darkerside
    Member

    Server outage at work, so I've spent the last 45 minutes condensing mine and the combined knowledge above into a post. Potentially useful, although pretty dull until I get home and add some photos...

    http://www.darkerside.org/bikestuff/trainsandbike/

    Posted 12 years ago #

  5. SRD
    Moderator

    @Darkerside - Discovered that my new shiny bell (bought for POP) doubles up as a handy-dandy reservation holder - I just slipped the card between the two halves of the bell. easy to read too.

    Helios definitely fits sheffieldy/horizontal racks. Haven't tried it in vertical racks, but am 99% sure it would fit. LB will know for sure.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  6. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I would like a proper digital ticket I could have on my phone.

    That is wide open to abuse, mobile phones are inherently non-secure.

    Can be made more secure through the use of a dedicated app you can download to display the ticket. No less secure than a paper ticket that anyone with half an inkling could knock together themselvs.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  7. fimm
    Member

    There's a thread on the CTC forum about train use which I find quite helpful. http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=27475

    Posted 12 years ago #

  8. Darkerside
    Member

    @SRD - included both points, thanks
    @fimm - I'll wander through tonight and prune for info
    @kaputnik et al - the ScotRail android app has 'mTicket' functionality, although only for certain routes. This is apparently a barcode type thing.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  9. LaidBack
    Member

    Can see that a 'normal' tandem would go over. But not sure how having 2 reservations would make any difference.

    Exactly. When asked if they had any stats of how many bikes (including tandems) they carried the answer was 'no'. Basically they just know that people take bikes but the more rules they make the more bike racks for cars are sold.
    Under the defunct GNER they actually tried to ban recumbents in an attempt to weed out 'awkward' bikes.
    Late trains cause fines - cyclists are seen as a threat to revenue as they faff about with their luggage and bikes ( helped by the wrong info as I too have found)
    I did an article of a summer holiday using bikes in Highlands in CC magazine a while back. One guard told me he didn't see why we were taking a train when the NCN1 route ran alongside line. This was with 13 year olds who were happy to cycle up to 30 miles but not all day.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  10. crowriver
    Member

    cyclists are seen as a threat to revenue

    And we take up 'too much space' unless the bike folds...

    @kaputnik, must have been a Class 221 'Super Voyager' I was on from the midlands as the cycle stowage was still at the back of the train and reasonably roomy, not the wardrobe sized cubicles found on the 220s...*

    * - I'm not a train spotter but I know how to consult wikipedia!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  11. kaputnik
    Moderator

    221 and 220 share the same bodyshell. The 221 tilts, the 220 doesn't. The only noticable difference is the bogie design, although in Virgin days one had a silve badge on front and the other a red badge, to help platform staff tell difference as they approached.

    Virgin originally ordered 4 and 5 car trains for the XC and WC franchises, wanting to run a more frequent service of small trains to replace their ancient 9-car loco hauled stock. However this backfired as the improved journey times of the modern stock caused increased demand and they filled up very quickly - 5 car units were too small on most routes and the 4s were even worse, so they took a number of the intermediate cars from some 4-car trains and inserted them in other 4-car trains to make new 5-car trains and leave over a couple of minature 2-car trains! This has changed the internal configurations to non-standard. Virgin 221s are all now 5 car, Arriva who took over the XC franchise have 4 and 5 car units and did work re-configuring the insides when they inherited them, (or Virgin WC made changes after that Arriva didn't).

    Anyway, the tilting function on the 221 is a bit of an expensive non-event as Arriva XC have locked this feature out of use but both the 220 and 221 are lumbered with the awkwardly small internal dimensions of a tilting train.

    All 220s are 4-car units. There is a train called a Class 222 which is the 220 but with a "full size" bodyshell.

    So anyway, the "Voyagers" are a good example of how NOT to order rolling stock. They also have a reputation for poor reliability in the tiliting mechanism (hence XC locking them out), the rheostatic brakes on the roof catch fire when twigs / leaves / dead birds get caught in the vents and in coastal areas sea spray can cause them to fail if it gets in.

    Posted 12 years ago #

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