(Many) bikes by train to Fort William « CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

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(Many) bikes by train to Fort William

(22 posts)

Started 13 years ago by chdot
Latest reply from LaidBack

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chdot
Admin
There's a new summer weekend service coming which "is also designed to carry lots of Bicycles" - apparently up to 100!

"
Schedules for each Saturday is as follows
- Edinburgh Waverley Depart - 09.25
- Falkirk Grahamston Depart - 10.15
- Glasgow Springburn Depart - 10.50
- Dumbarton Central Depart - 11.30
- Helensburgh Upper Depart - 11.45
- Calling at selected West Highland Line Stations en route
- Fort William Arrive - 15.05
Schedule for each Sunday is as follows

On this day the departure times will allow a full journey on The Jacobite Steam Train. This is a separate journey and not inclusive.
- Fort William Depart - 16.50
- Helehsburgh Upper - 20.15
- Dumbarton Central - 20.30
- Glasgow Springburn - TBA
- Falkirk Grahamston - 21.30
- Edinburgh Waverley - 22.00
"

Not quite as cheap as a normal ScotRail trip, but no changing at Queen Street and no worrying about getting your bike on at Waverley in time to catch the connection.

Presumably Tandems, trailers, tents, etc. won't be a problem either.

"and Luggage in a special coach to enable our customers to plan their weekend away in whatever way they choose to spend it."

http://www.whestrail.co.uk/tour-b.asp
Posted 13 years ago #
LaidBack
Member

That sound very interesting. Will check it out.

Footnote - only read if you have time:

The Laid Back Highland Weekend Tour of 2005 involved getting 4 bikes into the highlands and back without using a car or (heaven forfend!) cycling them there. We chose Dundee as a start point and headed west at 50 miles a day with pub stops. Did a few hills!

We ended up getting on the Fort William London sleeper at Rannoch at around 8pm (Arellcat will remember our race to make it in time. Stuart Reid and Kiwi John were the other LB people on that trip).
This train has 6 bike spaces and a normal coach for passengers to get back to Edinburgh without changing in Glasgow. However it is very difficult to book and the staff were immpressed that we had managed to get tickets! It also used to be able to take normal longer tandems but Scotrail re-organised the door access to make this impossible. Good work;-)

Posted 13 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

Sounds fabulous. We'd wanted to do something like this this summer, but don't know if this is going to be the year for it.

Had a pamphlet with my spokes membership about a route to Arran that was mostly off-road cycle trails, that sounded good too.

Posted 13 years ago #
LaidBack
Member

Arran is fantastic. Go for it.

Direct train to FW will be full of train spotters... * Also are these heritage trains not polluting ;-) ?

Actually they used to have trains to Oban and Fort William start in Edinburgh but they were too popular. They ran though to Quenn St and then back out but were often full. One problem with Edinburgh is the huge demand by tourists to go north. Other countries would put on a train an hour to say Inverness. Instead we have the A9 with Rabbie's Trailbalzers and Haggis Tours.

* Bike spotters are of course ok ;-)

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

I've been told -

"Inverness service - will use Highland Class 158's 2 units weekdays 3 on Saturdays (8 bikes and 12 bikes) per train (and more will again fit easily) almost meets CTC target of 4% of seated capacity!"

UPDATE

"The 1047 ex Inverness and 1335 ex Edinburgh will be thus formed on Saturdays end May to end September. Two 158s on other days."

ALSO

http://www.scotrail.co.uk/cycling

"Tandems, tricycles, motorcycles, mopeds and motorised cycles cannot be carried on any of our services."

"On many ScotRail routes, you do not need to make a cycle reservation.
However please note that space is limited on many services, and your cycle will be carried only if there are cycle spaces available on that train.

On some longer distance routes, a compulsory cycle reservation is required – this applies to the following services:

• Glasgow and Edinburgh to Aberdeen
• Glasgow and Edinburgh to Inverness
• Glasgow to Oban, Fort William and Mallaig
• Aberdeen to Inverness
• Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh
• Inverness to Wick and Thurso
• Glasgow and Newcastle to Stranraer
• Caledonian Sleepers between London and Scotland

Cycle reservations for these services are free, and are available up to 12 weeks in advance either from principal staffed stations or from ScotRail Telesales on 08457 55 00 33.

Please note that space is limited, and your cycle will not be carried on the above services unless the required cycle reservation is held."

http://www.scotrail.co.uk/sites/files/Travel%20connections%20web.pdf

Posted 13 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

I'm always pleasantly surprised by the number of people with whom I share fondness for cycling, walking, real ale and trains! (some of you will know some of those I am thinking of...).

best steam train ever - Bulawayo to Vic Falls. Sleeper which runs through a game park at dawn. Unfortunately IMF supposedly made the steam trains with diesel...although now coal trains may be coming back (since the coal mines are also adjacent to train line0

Posted 13 years ago #
LaidBack
Member

Cycle reservations for these services are free, and are available up to 12 weeks in advance either from principal staffed stations or from ScotRail Telesales on 08457 55 00 33.

I've started using http://WWW.nationalexpresseastcoast.CO.UK as you can do the whole thing online. Then pick up tickets at fasticket machine or get posted to you.

Orginally developed by GNER but works on all rail routes. I even got a Perth to Edinburgh with bike space for £6

Hopefully Scotrail will get online booking soon for bikes.

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"Perth to Edinburgh with bike space"

You need to book to Perth??

Posted 13 years ago #
LaidBack
Member

Yes .. if the train has come down from Inverness.

Even if you have you'll still have to shovel assorted suitcases out the way.

Posted 13 years ago #
Arellcat
Moderator

The Laid Back Highland Weekend Tour of 2005 involved getting 4 bikes into the highlands and back...

Didn't we find ourselves at Kinloch Rannoch with 90 minutes to get to Rannoch Moor station, 18 miles away and 900 feet of climbing? :-D

You need to book to Perth?

It runs through Kirkcaldy, Ladybank, Perth, Pitlochry, Kingussie and up to Inverness. I had to book my bike each way when I was at Perth a few weeks ago for a Bike Week conference. I needn't have booked, as it turned out, but them's the rules.

In Canada, the Bike Train operates services out of Toronto to Niagara Falls, North Bay, Windsor and potentially St Lawrence Seaway as well. What a brilliant arrangement! The luggage car on the Niagara Greenbelt Express for example swallows about 50 bikes, including trikes and the occasional eight foot-long recumbent bike, as long as they have early notification. And the train has legroom that Virgin and East Coast can only dream about. If you're over that way, say hello to Justin, Louisa and Peter.

Posted 13 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

"In Canada, the Bike Train operates services out of Toronto to Niagara Falls, North Bay, Windsor and potentially St Lawrence Seaway as well."

Yeah, but does anyone actually want to go to those places? maybe some of the great lakes, and I suppose it is flat....

(forgive this easterner's prejudices!)

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"Yeah, but does anyone actually want to go to those places?"

I thought everyone wanted to go to NF.

Posted 13 years ago #
LaidBack
Member

'Didn't we find ourselves at Kinloch Rannoch with 90 minutes to get to Rannoch Moor station, 18 miles away and 900 feet of climbing?'

Yes... it didn't help that we hadn't set off till lunchtime from Kirkmichael. Then a quick cycle to Pitlochry over Moulin moor at 1300 ft. Also was around 25 degrees and we got frazzled. Plus we took the quiet side of Loch Tummel which had some sudden ups and downs...

Should do again.

Posted 13 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

"I thought everyone wanted to go to NF."

well, luckily for us, we mostly get the discerning travellers!

(hmmm...occurs to me that charles and camilla visited earlier in the year...:)

[one of the worst decisions our - always corrupt - government took in the 80s was to make a deal with Ottawa to get rid of the railway, and get money for highways instead. i was part of a group that took the government to court over their decision to put a new road in based on this. BUT, back to topic -- one good thing to come out of it, was that the 'old track' is now used very widely for walking, skiing and mountain-biking. only no one has responsibility for the bridges or maintenance, and something really needs to be done about this.]

Posted 13 years ago #
cb
Member

"Didn't we find ourselves at Kinloch Rannoch with 90 minutes to get to Rannoch Moor station, 18 miles away and 900 feet of climbing?"

Sorry, don't want to take away from your achievement, but I don't believe the 900 foot figure. Rannoch Station is only 40m or so higher than Kinloch Rannoch and the road isn't *that* bumpy, is it?

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"I don't believe the 900 foot figure"

Here?

http://edinburgh.cyclestreets.net/journey/143273

Posted 13 years ago #
LaidBack
Member

Felt like 900 foot! I only had a 7 speed SRAM hub gear and some heavy luggage on a heavy framed Dutch recumbent.

See cyclists and their statistics...!

We did start the day before at sea level but that last climb was 200ft I think? They suggested 1hr 57 mins.

Posted 13 years ago #
Arellcat
Moderator

C'mon, cb, it was one weekend five years ago! I think it was 900 feet of climbing in total over that distance (up, then down, then up again, etc.), not the difference in absolute height above sea level.

Posted 13 years ago #
cb
Member

Arellcat, I think I should humbly apologise at this point - chdot's link suggested that 900' looked pretty close and I just did a route on MemoryMap which suggests the same.
So well done on a fast ride (and you probably had a headwind too going in that direstion).

(*Still* can't really believe the uppy/downyness of that road tho'. Mutter, mutter, mutter......)

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

Looking at http://edinburgh.cyclestreets.net/journey/143273 again I see the road/path doesn't actually reach the station in OSM.

Anyone remember enough to fill in the details?

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=56.685434&lon=-4.576452&zoom=18&layers=B000TTF

There even seems to be a tearoom nearby -

http://tinyurl.com/38zf8za

Posted 13 years ago #
cb
Member

"There even seems to be a tearoom nearby"

The tea room is in one of the station buildings on the platform, not where Google Maps suggests.

I've heard bad stories about the hotel being unwelcome to walkers. I'm not sure what their opinion on cyclists is.

Years ago when walking between Rannoch Station and Kingshouse we came across a hand painted sign that someone had erected in the middle of the moor, by the path. It warned walkers not to visit the hotel at Rannoch Station on account of the barman being a miserable b*****d.

Posted 13 years ago #
LaidBack
Member

It is an amazing journey on the bike. The last bit beside Loch Rannoch is fairly fast - but then you have the climb up to the railway. (booked spaces on a train essential unless you want overnight stay).

The up and down bit is the south road by Faskally and Loch Tummel before you get to Kinloch Rannoch. It's one that has short sharp climbs and descents. Is single track so while you can use the downhill to gain speed for the uphill, expect oncoming traffic. if you look at on map the hills hardly show as they aren't long enough. On paper it looks easier than Queen's View route. I've done it a couple of times now.

Posted 13 years ago #

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