TRAVEL

To Land's End, and from John o'Groats

BIG WARNING: Arranging this is far far harder than any of the riding.

EVERYTHING YOU HEAR ABOUT TRAINS IS RIGHT

Britain's trains are a cr*p. Their service for cyclists is even worse.

HOME to PENZANCE
Bikes were booked (Ha Ha) from home in Hampshire to Exeter on South West Trains, then on First Great Western to Penzance.

What a joke. I used Trainline.
I didn't receive the bike reservation tickets to Exeter. I chased.
They turned up just in time.
When the train arrived it was full to capacity having been reduced from 9 to 6 carriages.
People were jammed like sardines.
We forced our way on but the 2-bike space was occupied by an unreserved bike and a load of musical instruments.
There was a lot of swearing but I managed to divert the ire onto SWT.
Luckily the other passengers agreed that SWT were the pits.
Despite having reservations we stood holding out bikes up balanced on cases - for nearly two hours.
The guard hid.

The tickets Exeter to Penzance (First Great Western) didn't arrive either. More phone calls.
I was promised arrival in two days. They didn't. I chased again. Useless.
I went down to the nearest staffed station (7 miles away) and booked personally and left clutching two bike reservations.
A week later the others turned up.

WICK to HOME
ScotRail were worse. I booked by phone for Wick - Inverness, and Inverness Sleeper - London. No bike reservations arrived.
They said two had been booked on the system from Wick but they couldn't confirm they were mine "but probably were".
They would write confirming reservations had been made, but couldn't re-issue tickets.

No letter arrived, so more phone calls. They had no record this time but said they would call Wick to ensure everything would be OK.
2 tickets arrived two days later. Later that week I received a note scribbled on a Compliments Slip saying I had reservations.
On arrival at Wick for our return trip, the bikes were put into a van to go by road to Inverness.
The driver asked where my SIX bikes were. Huh???
This is a shambles.
He agreed.

The train from Wick arrived at Inverness an hour and a half late!
Our bikes were waiting on the platform.

No bike tickets for the ScorRail Inverness - London journey had arrived either. I chased.
Two days later four tickets turned up!
We noted there were only three available bike spaces on the train!
The rest had been blocked by fish on the way to London restaurants.
Had I really had FOUR bikes, there would have been a serious problem.

At least they had Traquair House Ale on the train.

THE MORAL
NEVER NEVER NEVER believe anything the railways tell you.

EVER.