Message from discussion Crap respsonse from Connex about bikes on trains.

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From: "PeteSig" <pete...@bigpond.com>
Newsgroups: aus.bicycle
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Subject: Re: Crap respsonse from Connex about bikes on trains.
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Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2008 06:12:12 GMT
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"Zebee Johnstone"  wrote:
> In aus.bicycle on Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:51:23 GMT
> PeteSig <pete...@bigpond.com> wrote:
>>
>> "DJ"  wrote:
>>>
>>> carriage and someone gets on the train with a wet bike with some mud
>>> splashed up the side of it or just dirty water from the roads, rubbed up
>>> against your suit or workclothes,
>>
>> And say you had a need to take your bike on a train, and had chosen a
>> carriage that was not packed full?? And the bike was clean?
>
> Except that the reason they are banned is because they are full.

But often they are NOT. Eg. before 4.30pm and after 6.00pm. But the ban 
still applies.
>
> Will you have an inspector who will check bikes for cleanliness before
> they are allowed on?  Will you agree that if there are more than X
> people on the train at any one time all cyclists are thrown off at the
> next station?

No. Leave it up to reasonable people to make a sensible decision. Like they 
will with pram-users/people with lots of luggage.

>> One thing all our crap train carriages lack is overhead straps and rails, 
>> so
>> that stops and starts are not such a threat. Why blame the cyclist? We 
>> had
>> plenty of straps and open spaces in the old carriages of the 70s and 80s.
>
> OPen spaces are usually about lack of people.  What's the population
> of the city and the numbers using trains now compared to them?

No, open spaces, where there were no seats. Standing room, with straps to 
hold onto. FAR more people can be accomodated with standing room, and in 
off-peak there's still more than enough seats, and space to carry bikes out 
of the doorways. Talk to travellers overseas - most of the mass rail systems 
in NY, Tokyo, London have carriages with standing spaces, some are almost 
all standing room with only seats along the sides of the carriages.

And yes, bikes may well be banned there, but these cities have much greater 
population densities and PT use. Personally I think the idea of paying a 
concession fare for a bike in peak periods was a good one. But this was 
dropped by the Met, for some reason. Maybe too hard to police ??


-- 
Cheers
Peter

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