“Vertical bike storage is discriminatory and should be outright banned” Rail engineer Gareth Dennis explains why taking your bike on the train is such a faff... and why a radical step change is needed to make trains more accessible for everyone cycling
A railway design engineer, writer, podcaster, and lecturer at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education, Gareth is also a cyclist, so knows all too well the difficulties people with bikes can face on the UK’s trains ., Gareth discusses the issues impacting how cyclists use trains in Great Britain, including limited and inadequate space for storage, as well as a lack of accessibility and clarity for train users with bikes, wheelchairs, and buggies.
“For everyone else, and we shouldn’t be designing for that narrow case anyway, how does it work for most people who can’t lift their bikes up? What about people who rely on their bikes as a mobility aid? What about less confident cyclists who want a bigger, sturdier bike? What about people with non-standard cycles, trikes, those with attachment to wheelchairs, longer bikes, tandems?
“The fact that anyone designed that, stepped back and thought ‘that looks good’… I can understand the pressures behind how it ended up happening, but it shouldn’t have. And I’m afraid we’ll probably see vertical storage popping up in brand new trains for a little while yet. Beyond legal cases, Gareth also believes that a radical step change in capacity is needed to ensure adequate provision for people cycling and wheeling on the rail network.
“That then allows you to start thinking differently about the services that are still running on the East Coast Main Line, because they’re the ones going through the local stops you want to get off and on at anyway.
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