Southern bike ban - staff guidance

apparently: http://www.h1n5.org/southern1.pdf

They are banning Ordinarys it says. One wonders if they meant to
include Safeties as well?

Still Tandems and Trikes are explicitly excluded from the definition of
banned cycles

best wishes
james

wrote:
apparently: http://www.h1n5.org/southern1.pdf

They are banning Ordinarys it says. One wonders if they meant to
include Safeties as well?

Still Tandems and Trikes are explicitly excluded from the definition of
banned cycles

great, I'l just find someone who uses the same train as me (1) and
take a tandem

(1) and also works and lives in the same place

I'm perplexed still by a bike the size of a briefcase. BTW the guard on
the train this morning knew nothing about the ban.

wrote:

apparently: http://www.h1n5.org/southern1.pdf

They are banning Ordinarys it says. One wonders if they meant to
include Safeties as well?

Ho, ho. They didn't research that very well, did they? You could try
claiming that yours is a safety bicycle, not an ordinary, but I don't
think it'll get you very far. Not onto the train at any rate.

--
Dave...

I saw this immediately.I have never in my wildest dreams imagined that
a bike could become the size of a briefcase.
The company perhaps think this is a joke.It means no bicycles except
very tiny ones ridden by certified pixies.

I must say , as one who used to be a regular traingoer with no car,
that railway journeys are getting ever more difficult and expensive.If
you don't book a day or more ahead your trip can be a nightmare.The
trains are full and have very little luggage space.
I cannot understand why bike and train is not seen to be the perfect
partnership and strongly encouraged.In the 70's and 80's one just
showed up, threw the bike in guards van and sat down.I never had any
problem with the bike on any train until the 90's( except for the odd
delay or commuter cancellation).
I had to make a sudden trip from London to Derby recently and they
charged £49 :4x the petrol cost.So the car is cheaper ,more flexible
and comfortable and quicker door to door on most journeys.If the cost
for an impromtu trip came down and there was more space and seats and
no problem getting the bike on then trains would again have the
advantage.
TerryJ

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 16:20:11 -0800, jonestl wrote:

I had to make a sudden trip from London to Derby recently and they charged
£49 :4x the petrol cost.So the car is cheaper ,more flexible and
comfortable and quicker door to door on most journeys.If the cost for an
impromtu trip came down and there was more space and seats and no problem
getting the bike on then trains would again have the advantage.
I agree entirely. I often travel to customer sites on business.

Recently I had to travel to Sheffield. Price for a 07:30 departure from
St Pancras £103. Add to that at least £30 in return taxi fares at the
other end (don't say 'get the bus' this is an unknown city to me, and the
place was on an industrial estate).
My company are not against train travel - far from it, they have never
quibbled about a single journey I have taken, and I take the train often.
But I simply couldn't justify this one, so drove instead.

Train companies put huge premiums on any London departures before 09:30,
thereby discouraging business travel and leaving plenty of empty seats on
outbound trains.

Compare with the Swiss system, where a company can purchase an annual
train ticket, which can then be given to any member of staff, ie. it is
not a personal ticket. Not cheap, but if you can get any train any time it
encourages train travel.

In article .com,
) wrote:

I saw this immediately.I have never in my wildest dreams imagined that
a bike could become the size of a briefcase.
The company perhaps think this is a joke.It means no bicycles except
very tiny ones ridden by certified pixies.

I have one in my kitchen.

Of course, it's a Playmobil one and of limited practical value, but...

--
Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
Trees, once grown in large numbers, make perfect forests.

dkahn400 wrote:
wrote:

apparently: http://www.h1n5.org/southern1.pdf

They are banning Ordinarys it says. One wonders if they meant to
include Safeties as well?

Ho, ho. They didn't research that very well, did they? You could try
claiming that yours is a safety bicycle, not an ordinary, but I don't
think it'll get you very far. Not onto the train at any rate.

this morning due to someone deciding to have an early Christmas my
train was cancelled which entailed having to change onto a train from
parts South; it had obviously called at Gatwick Airport to pick up n
passengers and their luggage keen to avoid paying ripoff Gatwick
Express fares. The luggage of course took up much more room than the
bikes. They actively promote Southern as an alternative to the GE even
though it Shirley reduces the amount of space on their trains which
could easily be carried by the empty GE trains. What is on their minds?

John Hearns wrote:
Recently I had to travel to Sheffield. Price for a 07:30 departure from
St Pancras £103. Add to that at least £30 in return taxi fares at the
other end (don't say 'get the bus' this is an unknown city to me, and the
place was on an industrial estate).
My company are not against train travel - far from it, they have never
quibbled about a single journey I have taken, and I take the train often.
But I simply couldn't justify this one, so drove instead.

Assuming you could have been working on the train, how much do you
value your time at?
Additionally, how much at standard rates (45p/mile) would it cost the
company plus loss of your time as you were driving.

...d

John Hearns wrote:
On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 16:20:11 -0800, jonestl wrote:

I had to make a sudden trip from London to Derby recently and they
charged £49 :4x the petrol cost.So the car is cheaper ,more
flexible and comfortable and quicker door to door on most
journeys.If the cost for an impromtu trip came down and there was
more space and seats and no problem getting the bike on then trains
would again have the advantage.
I agree entirely. I often travel to customer sites on business.

Recently I had to travel to Sheffield. Price for a 07:30 departure
from St Pancras £103. Add to that at least £30 in return taxi fares
at the other end (don't say 'get the bus' this is an unknown city to
me, and the place was on an industrial estate).

http://www.transportdirect.info will cover most of your door to door
transport needs, taking into account likely road congestion on its driving
details and bus and train connections for public transport.

What it can't do is cope with taking a bike on the train for a journey, or
park and ride (neither for bikes nor cars), so strictly speaking, this is
off topic.

It'll estimate fuel costs, car maintenance costs and enumerate available
ticket prices for most legs, but can't tell you if there are quota
controlled tickets still available on the trains you wish to take.

So that's one way to increase confidence in what public transport is
available, and when it may be a better option than driving.

The full transport planner URL is :

http://www.transportdirect.info/Tran...x?cacheparam=0

Rather nifty, I think. Sadly the mobile phone version is almost useless.
--
Ambrose

Ambrose Nankivell wrote:

The full transport planner URL is :

http://www.transportdirect.info/Tran...x?cacheparam=0



Rather nifty, I think. Sadly the mobile phone version is almost
useless.

Interesting. Tried it on a journey I do regularly and it got all the PT
right for the journey (although I use the Brompton in place of the buses
and underground) but for the return journey which is just as easy it
told me the car was the only option. Curious.

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham