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news
Catherine Murphy ' Waiting at the Station'Don't take bikes to watch Tour in Yorkshire, say local train companies
Local rail operators in Yorkshire are telling people who plan to use their trains to watch the Tour de France in July to leave their bikes at home. The news coincided with plans being announced this week of how they will deal with the influx of visitors to the region to attend the race.
Last month, the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) announced details of the carriage of bicycles on long-distance services around the weekend of the Grand Depart on Saturday 5 July, saying that people without a reservation for their bike would be unlikely to be able to board the train they wanted.
Now, local operators including Northern Rail and Grand Central have confirmed that no reservations can be made for bikes on their services, reports the Yorkshire Evening Post.
The newspaper says that none of the companies involved plan to provide additional carriages for bicycles, and that only two bikes are allowed on Northern Rail’s services. As a result, fans of the race travelling by train are being urged not to bring a bike with them.
ATOC said that its members had decided not to ban bicycles outright from Friday 4 July to Sunday 6 July, but said that people wanting to take their bike with them should travel early and expect a delay in boarding a train without a reservation.
In a statement, it said: “It is normal practice under franchise arrangements agreed with the Department for Transport to suspend cycle carriage on trains at times of expected exceptional passenger congestion, particularly for large sporting events.
“It is in recognition of the importance of cycle-rail passengers and of the nature of the Tour de France that train operating companies have chosen to maintain carriage during the event.”
However, First TransPennine Express has told travellers that “the Tour de France is a spectator event, and cycle carriage is not advised due to the busy nature of the event, stations and services.”
East Midlands Trains, East Coast and especially Northern Rail, which will be carrying most of the expected increase in passenger numbers, are among companies that will be providing extra services and carriages during the weekend.
Northern Rail’s service delivery director, Alan Chaplin, said: “It’s an honour for us, as well as the rest of the industry, to be part of this year’s Tour de France.
“Our services will provide an important lifeline throughout the weekend, connecting many spectators to viewpoints along the route, and we have sought to provide as much additional capacity as we can.
“We’ve been planning with our industry partners since last year on how to make Yorkshire’s Grand Depart an experience to remember for spectators, our people and most importantly, showcase a railway the north can be proud of.”
Network Rail, meanwhile, has suspended engineering works in the area for the weekend in question.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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21 comments
Seems to me the way to solve this problem , IS TO STAY HOME!
Would have enjoyed seeing cold ,rainy & misty Yorkshire , but the Giro in N.I. was enough for me .
One clown in Hi Vis , shouted " Get off your bike , or i'll push you off "! Jumped up twat made no move to leave the pavement . Of course his colleagues knew what he was like , so they left him alone in the middle of the country , with the cold rain för company . The Police on the other hand were " Nelson ? " Didn't see you mate " as they turned their back to look at the view .
Wonder if the people who btought " Le Tour " to Yorkshire , even thought about , How the Fans would TRAVEL ? Gary & his team enjoyed being chauffeured around France , as YIP s but how will they do in their backyard ?
I've seen this attitude before, lady trying to take a pram and luggage on a train. She got abused by the guard. Bit of radical thinking required, rip up the track, lay tarmac and turn it into a road. At least you could ride it then.
First time I did the London to Cambridge mass ride in 1992 there was a special train from Cambridge to London. Bikes were loaded into goods (mail?) carriages.
"Get a guard's van (or something) a load of hooks on the roof," ... and all trains are suspended when a bike takes out a power line / falls onto the track / etc : )
I'd like to see better provision for combined bike+train use in general (it's my only 2 transport options for longer distances) but this doesn't seem unreasonable - even if we had a Denmark-style utopia of a proper bike carriages it'd be over-subscribed during an event like this.
They are just trying to get people to travel by train for obvious reasons, how do you think all those people get to the roadside in france? ; )
They won't - ignore this rubbish
At the olympic test event, the olympic road race and various tour of britains in surrey you could cycle / walk on all closed "roads" right to within a pretty short time of them coming through, no one battered an eyelid.
How are they going to enforce the 'no cycling beyond the road block' rule?
That grumpy Yorkshireman in that video the other day will be nothing compared to thousands of cyclists being told by some kid in a vi-viz tabard they cant cycle up Holme Moss.
So just a normal day of trying to get your bike on the train then, so no real disappointment!!
Translink who operate the trains in Northern Ireland were exactly the same for the Giro. Bikes would not be banned but only the usual 4 bikes would be permitted, 2 at the front and 2 at the rear. Before the introduction of the new faster/quieter trains there used to be a guard car that could accommodate at least 15 to 20 bikes. "Use public transport more, cycle to work blah blah blah!!!" Progress in action not.
And no driving to Silverstone!
Le Grande Faux Pas !
we could always... ride there?
What do other countries' train companies offer when there is a big cycle sport event?
Anyone know how far ahead we'll be able to ride on the route before the race/promotional caravan comes through?
When I've watched it in France you can ride the route until the first baguette-shaped cars start coming.
I asked Leeds council the same question, here is the fresh answer.
"Generally speaking pedestrians and individual cyclists will be able to access the route after the road closures have come into effect. They won’t be able to cycle on the route an hour before the publicity caravan is due as the roads are handed over to ASO then. There will be pedestrian crossing points which someone walking with their bike would be able to use. There will be local variations, particularly around start and finish areas where areas are more likely to be barriered."
Better than Essex then, whose County Council dedicated TdeF website says:
Are bikes allowed through road closures and are bikes allowed to cycle on the closed route in front of the race?
Riders on bikes are not allowed through road closures. No bike riding is permitted on the route for the period of the road closures.
Are the roads going to be closed for walkers, cyclists and horse riders?
The roads remain open for walkers but cyclists will have to dismount and walk. Cyclists and horse riders will not be able to use the closed roads until they re-open. They need to be off the route some time before event arrives for safety purposes.
They say 'until the road is handed over to the race' so I think that's the same thing. Round here it'd be shut to traffic at 7am but I'd expect you can ride till about nine. I'm sure clarity will be given nearer the time.
I've often thought that when rail companies do stuff like this (e.g. then ban on bikes coming back from Brighton on the day of the BHF L2B) they are missing a trick. Get a guard's van (or something) a load of hooks on the roof, £5 a time for cycle carriage and it's a wad of cash. But no, that would require thinking and planning so they choose to make things difficult.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPkT0paGEnQ
Ah the good ol' days.
Such things barely exist nowadays, although it might have been possible to run a small number of highly-publicised 'specials', gaining lots of publicity (and perhaps surcharged fares) into the bargain. Alternatively it wouldn't be difficult to unbolt a bay of seats either side of the gangway and fit temporary racks for a few days. They might get sponsorship, or have some other kind of related activity going on.
Or (another idea), hire a few trucks at mainline stations and charge cyclists to have their bikes transported to the station they travel to by train. Maybe some enterprising souls would try this independently?
...but we'll just make it as difficult as possible so that it has pretty much the same effect as an outright ban.